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Usually learning to crochet leads right into wanting to start our own crochet business. There is nothing wrong with this! We learn an amazing new skill, we produce these amazing new products, surely someone will pay us to do what we have now become obsessed with doing right?!
For me it was several years, a couple of decades actually, before I decided to even try to make a business out of it. Even still it was a couple more years before I really became serious about it. 2023 was when I started and this year, 2024, is when I am going “all in.”
I spent 2023 starting my blog and building somewhat of a digital presence. I will admit I did not work nearly as hard as I could have, but I built a blog and an email list, nonetheless. Then again, I did spend a good bit of time actually working on my crocheting skills as well. The latter part of the year I worked on building a physical crochet business with actual finished pieces. I was a little late to the game, and I still have a long way to go, but I did ok.
So, as you can see, there can be many moving parts to a crochet business. Let’s break some of them down.
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Crochet Business Idea #1 sell finished Crochet pieces
I think this is the most obvious option, but in order to actually make money, it does require a good bit of thought. The 2 main questions you have to ask yourself are “who will you sell to?” and “what will you sell them?”
Let me paint this picture for you. Let’s say I decided I was going to have a crochet business and I was going to make and sell crochet scarves in a local boutique store. That would answer my who and what questions, but I live in extreme south Alabama so I am not sure how lucrative that would be. Now that doesn’t mean I can’t make and sell crochet scarves in south Alabama. What it means is crochet scarves probably shouldn’t be the main focus of my crochet business in south Alabama.
This is a legitimate obstacle for me, so I am about to test some spring/summer items out and see how I do. I have been crocheting baby and toddler tops over the past couple of months and I am going to see how they sell once the weather changes. It stays hot here all the way until November and sometimes December, so warm weather items may do better than cold weather items. If I don’t do well, then I will go back to the drawing board and try again.
One thing I can say is that “Mabel” chickens by Oak and Marlow do sell, and I do make them just to keep money moving, but it isn’t what I enjoy. I don’t want to do amigurumi, either. So far, I am enjoying crocheting the kids tops, so I am hoping they do well. Below is a top I made. The pattern is from MiniMaeCrochet on Etsy.
Now, I want you to keep in mind that “finished pieces” does not have to be anything big. In #3 I will talk about digital crochet products, but one of those digital products pairs well with small, finished pieces, so I want to mention that here.
The Pocket Hug
The pocket hug is a “token” that you attach to a cute poem. A lot of crocheters use crochet hearts, but the “token” can be any shape and it can be made from just about anything. I have seen them made from crochet, wood, even resin.
Let’s talk about shapes. Most of my pocket hug cards started out with heart shaped graphics on them. Mainly because at the time my demographic was crocheters and that is the typical shape used by crocheters.
A woman name Michelle had purchased some of my pocket hug cards, but Michelle was not a crocheter. Michelle has a resin business in Canada. Michelle had been using various shapes with my pocket hug cards, so she wanted to see if I could design something that was more fitting to her specific business. I jumped at the chance.
One of Michelle’s best sellers on the pocket hug cards were dinosaur shapes. Together, we designed some dinosaur themed pocket hug cards that she could use with her resin dinosaurs. Once we had that ironed out, she came up with several other ideas for us to work on. Below are some photos of Michelle’s resin pocket hugs. And if you would like to see her Facebook page, click here.
Worry Worms
Below is a signup form for my Worry Worm Poem. This is just one worry worm poem, but I give it as a freebie if you sign up for my newsletter. The worry worm is another good selling, small, finished product you can try.
Idea #2 create and sell Crochet patterns
Most people who crochet collect 2 things: yarn and patterns. And most people pay for both of those things. Some people are just talented enough to put themselves on the other side of that equation and actually write those patterns and then get paid for them. If you haven’t learned to read actual crochet patterns yet, let me help you! I have an eBook that helps you learn with 4 beginner friendly projects!
At first thought most of us thing it is impossible to write a crochet pattern, and while some of them are insanely complex, they don’t all have to be complex. What do most beginners start out learning to crochet? Blankets. Blankets are square (generally). Fairly straight forward. You could fairly easily design a beautiful blanket using some pretty stitch combinations and yarn/color combinations and voila! You have yourself a pattern to sell.
Now sure, it is a little more involved than that. You would have to purchase said yarn and create the blanket a couple times, writing down the process and instructions a couple times. Then have it tested, and THEN release a pattern, but the point is, this would not have to be some insanely complex pattern that only a seasoned expert level crocheter could achieve. ANYONE could do it if they put in the time and investment to make it happen. Then you have a pattern you can sell over and over. Then, you repeat the process with a new pattern.
That was actually the easy part. Selling is the hard part, in my opinion. You can’t just throw the pattern out into the world and expect people to find it buy it. YOU have to also advertise it, market it, and sell the pattern YOURSELF. Do you recall at the beginning of this post I said I spent the better part of 2023 building a digital presence? That is me “selling” my content to the world.
Idea #3 create and sell other digital Crochet products
Anyone can create and sell digital products. There is a free website out there called Canva that you can use to create your own digital products. Canva can be used to create probably thousands of different products and a lot of the products have free templates that you can use to get you started.
If you are interested in learning more about Canva, Pam Allen is a Canva expert and teaches others how to use it! Click here to get FREE information from her!
The trick to selling digital products is to find the product that people want. I am not sure there is a lot of skill involved here, I think some of it is luck. There are tools you can use such as “keywords everywhere” which will help you determine search volume for certain words, for a very small fee. I think I have spent maybe $20 in the last couple of years for this tool. Here is an article to tell you all about it.
Now, just because you come up with a digital product that has a high search volume, that still doesn’t guarantee that your product will get in front of those who are looking to buy it. This is where you have to learn about SEO, or search engine optimization, and cross your fingers a bit.
I have always been a huge fan of trial and error. If something doesn’t work, try something else. Just like I mentioned at the start of this post that I would be doing with my physical items. And then, there is always the luck factor as well. To paint this picture for you, I have a couple of photos below. The first photo is all the money I made selling digital products in December of 2023. I believe that was the month I opened my Etsy store. You can see it below, net profit for 2023 was $7.40.
Clearly the items I had were not right for the buyers who were looking at my store.
Then, mid-January I added a new product. A pocket hug card that I had designed more than a year ago when I designed my worry worm cards. I decided to give this item a try. What I had originally designed was just one card. I went back to Canva and made it a set of 3 and listed it for sale.
I am writing this post near the end of February 2024, and you can see from the photo below that my profit for so far this month is $170.61. This goes to show that I found a digital product my audience was searching for. And, as far as everything above with SEO and keyword research, I will say the majority of my success has been luck. Yes, I do know a little about SEO and keyword research, I have a blog, but at the same time, I am still a newbie!
When starting out with Etsy you can use Alura.io to help you make sure your listings are set up correctly. Alura has some limited features you can start using for free or you can upgrade to a full account to get full access.
Product Reviews
Another important factor to selling anything is product reviews. I have been lucky enough so far there, also. I now have 27 reviews on Etsy and my average rating is 4.9 stars.
I had one customer give me a 3-star rating stating she wished the item had more sayings. The listing literally says how many sayings are in the file, so I didn’t really understand her rating, but it is what it is.
You can’t see in the photo below there is a 4-star review stating, “ok for the money, but didn’t do the job.” I did not understand what job the printable file didn’t do. I asked for clarification so that I could rectify the matter but received no further input.
traffic
The last thing I want to mention is traffic. Traffic is important whether you sell locally or online. If you want your products to be seen, you have to drive traffic to your products. Again, online that can come in the form of SEO, making sure your products come up in Google searches, or Etsy searches. I use my blog to drive traffic as well. Each blog post will direct you to some paid item of mine.
Locally that may mean driving traffic to your book at the local vendor event. You might do that by advertising on Facebook ahead of time that you will be there, showcasing some photos of the items you will have available. Day of, you might be “live” on Facebook showing where your booth is and having video of your booth setup so people can spot you. Perhaps you give away a free item with purchase, this is another method of driving traffic. Run a sale, offer discounts or coupon codes.
Customer Retention
Another thing to keep in mind it that any customer you get, you need a way to RETAIN that customer. Create an email list, invite them to like your Facebook page. Have another way to reach out to that customer when they aren’t in front of you at the booth. Send them special offers if they make another purchase.
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