When starting to engage in any kind of handicraft, many people dream of becoming a master of their craft and a successful businessman with long lines of customers.
However, the road to the top is winding and bumpy – it is not uncommon for a handicraftsman to face problems that prevent growth, distract from creativity and disrupt work-life balance. So let’s check out what a handicraftsman’s work most often entails, and what difficulties an entrepreneur offering handmade products will have to overcome.
This is actually already one of the flagship features of a handicraftsman’s work – you never know how big the income will be in a given month. Unfortunately, just creating good quality and original products is not enough to reach customers. You need to know how to advertise, and with this comes another problem.
A great many handicraftsmen sell their products online, and this is no small convenience, as you no longer need to rent a physical premises to set up store in. On the other hand, however, competition in the online handicraft market is sizable and it takes a considerable amount of time and work to break through the competition. Handicrafters are most often clueless about marketing and sales techniques, so they wander in the dark, making one mistake after another. They don’t know how to identify their target audience, what channels to choose to communicate with their audience, how to promote their products. Also, rarely at the start can a handicraftsman afford to hire a specialist to help him.
In handicrafts, the mere creation of a product is not the only creative aspect of the whole business. A hefty dose of ingenuity, creativity, but also knowledge and skills comes in handy for creating quality content. The first problem is the graphic elements, i.e. photos presenting the product. The second – textual elements, i.e. how and what to write to reach an interested audience. The third – combining everything into a coherent message that will help build brand awareness of the handyman and attract customers for longer.
Any handicraftsman can get burned out if he or she has to endlessly make the same custom product. Often there is not enough time for creativity out of pure inspiration, the pleasure of creating disappears, and as a result, fatigue takes over. It’s worth setting impassable limits here, so that you don’t lose motivation and joy in your work. When orders are too many, it’s time to learn to say “no” so as not to take on too much. Secondly, you need to take care of work-life balance and remember your needs.
Handymen in their business are not only creators, but also photographers, marketers, copywriters, order packers. They take care of the supply of materials for creating products and contact customers. In addition, they also have their private lives – friends, families and passions. Very many handymen quickly feel the lack of help and the ability to delegate some tasks to others.
Very often it is the lack of organization that becomes an insurmountable barrier for many handicraftsmen. Here it is very important to plan the day properly, taking into account time not only for work, but also for rest. Experienced handmade entrepreneurs advise making a to-do list in advance and strictly following it. Sometimes, however, even this may not be enough, because the handicraftsman has a problem with self-discipline and procrastination. In such a situation, one has to constantly work on oneself, and this is an additional energy sink.
main photo: unsplash.com/Chloe Bolton
