Are Custom Products Worth It in Your Craft Business?

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Today’s post is to get you thinking about the products you offer in your Silhouette or Cricut small business – and the time it takes you to process each order. I’m asking you to think about whether or not custom made or personalized products are worth your time in your business. For the purpose of this post, custom products are defined as orders where the customer chooses what goes on the product and you create one, unique product. (Example: 1 personalized tumbler cup or 1 personalized tee shirt.)

To start, let’s take a look at the process of creating a custom or personalized product.

Process for Custom Products

1. Make a sample of the product (which you may or may not be able to sell) or create a mockup of the product.
2. List the product online.
3. Get an order from a customer.
4. Make a mockup of the product.
5. Wait for customer approval.
6. Get customer approval or make changes as desired by the customer, possibly wait for customer approval again.
7. Create the product and mail it to the customer.

And don’t forget about the customers that don’t specify their customization and you have to chase them down to get their order; or even the customer who incorrectly enters their desired customization and blames you for the error. In the event that the customer returns the item, it is unlikely that you’ll be able to resell it to another customer.

Now, let’s take a look at the process for selling a ready to ship product.

Process for Selling a Ready to Ship Product

1. Create the product.
2. Photograph and list the product for sale.
3. Get an order from a customer.
4. Package and ship the order.

Are Custom or Personalized Orders Worth It?

I can’t argue that the customization and personalization niche is huge (think large brands like Things Remembered or Personalization Mall). However, for one woman (or one man!) operations, this niche may not be as profitable unless you can sell at a high price point and large profit margin or you can sell hundreds of products. If you are a one person business, it can be more profitable to work assembly line style and create many ready made products at a time. If you browse Etsy, you may notice that many of the largest online shops do not only sell custom made or personalized products.

Unfortunately, I can’t decide if custom orders are right for your business – but I hope I got you thinking. Does your business sell only custom orders, only ready made products, or a mix of both? Let me know in the comments, and read on for an alternative approach to selling on Etsy.

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Christine Schinagl, Cutting for Business

Since 2015, Christine Schinagl has been helping crafters start and run craft businesses through her blog, Cutting for Business. As a Silhouette and Cricut crafter herself, she has a unique take on what works and what doesn’t work in the craft business world. She also teaches a course on creating digital SVG designs, available at How to Design SVGs.

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