Knitting For Profit
If you love knitting and have ever wished you could make money from it, then make sure you keep reading because I
Posts Tagged ‘Make Money Knitting’
Knitting Business Success Story – Sue from TasmanianFibre.com.au
Friday, January 15th, 2010
How does a single mum go from the backyard blues to running an International Fibre House that is now Tasmania's largest spinning supplier?
It all began with a rather unusual wedding present from her new husband Barry – 2 Alpacas! But what was she to do with them?
Two years on, the "Mount Roland Alpaca Stud" in the Highlands of Tasmania produces the finest of Alpaca fleeces and supplies to an international market. Sue is now the proud owner of 18 Alpacas, 14 Angora Rabbits (including a pair of German Angoras which are rare in Australia) and 8 Tasmanian Cormo coloured sheep for fine fleece production. She even buys fine fleeces from other Tasmanian growers to help with the demand of a worldwide market for her hand spun yarns!
Sue has now given up her fulltime day job to concentrate on this business, which was launched in October 2009 and very quickly attracted local and international interest with orders flowing in daily. The Tasmanian House of Fibre (www.tasmaniafibre.com.au) supplies high quality, specialised yarns, the lastest of which are the beautiful, fine, luxurious, hand spun lace weight yarns – Mount Roland Silk ’n’ paca, Silk ’n’ Suri and Silk ’n’ Bunny.
Mount Roland Silk ’n’ paca is a fine lace weight hand spun yarn that is plied with natural silk. The Alpaca used is mainly from Sue’s own Alpaca Stud with some fleeces from other finely bred Tasmanian Alpacas. The yarn features natural colours but may also be enhanced with hand painted silk colourways.
Alpaca is light and very warm due to hollow fibres, the yarn is suited to lace weight scarves and wraps knitted on large needles or baby garments, this yarn is lovely to wear.
Mount Roland Silk ’n’ Suri is a very special and unique yarn. The Suri is also an Alpaca but instead of a fluffy coat the Suri has long silky lustrous locks. The yarn Silk ’n’ Suri is again plied with silk featuring natural colours and hand painted silk colourways.
Suri is a completely different fibre to work with, it has a long staple of 8 – 15 cm. When the Suri yarn is spun and plied with silk it is very good for garments that require drape, Suri is a heavy fibre compared to Alpaca and Angora rabbit. Suggested uses (I’m sure the fibre Artists out there will find many more) are, scarves, wraps, anything lacy, would be nice as an open lace over dress for a very spectacular wedding gown. Silk ‘n’ Suri should adapt well to cotton patterns.
Mount Roland Silk ’n’ Bunny – a real labour of love!
The rabbits are grown happily on the property, they have special five star accommodation that has been built just for them (by her loving Husband!), they are fed twice daily plus hay and water on demand. All cages are cleaned every 3 days and disinfected, floors are swept every day and washed.
The bunnies have special outdoor runs that they use to munch their way around the yard, so most days except when raining or high winds they are all taken out to their day runs and returned in the evening, grooming, chatting and clipping add to the hours of care.
Silk ’n’ Bunny is a beautiful, delicate, soft, luxury blend of hand spun lace weight English or German Angora and silk. It comes in natural colours of white, chocolate, smoke, gold/cream and some hand painted colourways of limited quantities. Angora rabbit fleece is extremely soft and warm and cuddly being a very low micron of 10 and under, again a hollow fibre, not a lot is needed for warmth.
Silk ’n’ Bunny makes a very soft, warm lacy scarf or wrap, is lovely used as a feature or trim on garments, e.g. cuffs, edging on hoods, baby booties to keep those little toes warm or mittens. The yarn as it is knitted produces a beautiful halo of soft fluffiness.
So with all the animal care, spinning, dyeing, website management and orders, managing a small band of spinners – her mum included, developing new lines and sourcing new supplies Sue has found she is now busier running her home based business than working 5 days a week – but she enjoys every minute of it and she loves chatting to her customers!
If you would like to know more or ask Sue a question, or just have a chat, you can contact her through her website at www.tasmanianfibre.com.au
$140,000 A Year From Knitting??
Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009
Yes! You CAN make money knitting, and I am very excited to show you this article from the New York Times…
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/17/fashion/17etsy.html?_r=1
It's an etsy success story of a woman who threw in her job to knit full-time and is now earning more that $140,000 a year working from home.
Now admittedly, this is no walk in the park – it's hard work doing that much knitting! But it shows what's possible, and it's really inspiring. Imagine if you were making only half or even a quarter of that amount from working at home and knitting…
So I hope this inspires you, and gives you a good boost in motivation to stay on your knitting for profit journey!
Last Chance To Hear The Knitting For Profit Teleseminar!
Friday, September 25th, 2009
I’ve just finished the new Knitting For Profit Teleseminar about making money from knitting and crochet online – we had a great time on the call today, thanks to you all for taking part!
We covered lots of info about getting started online and the many ways you can make money from your blog or website or etsy store – and we even came up with a couple of new online knitting business ideas!
It’s not too late to register to listen to the call, just click here and you’ll get special access to the recording when it becomes available later today.
Thanks again to everyone on the call, and I’ll look forward to our next one!
Knitting Online Success Story – JJ from begintoknit.com
Monday, September 21st, 2009
This is a great interview to listen to if you are keen to get your knitting or crochet online, and we’ll be following up with the teleseminar on Thursday/Friday to answer all your questions (check out the post below to register). As I mentioned in my last post, I really enjoyed this interview and I’m looking forward to sharing it with you!
Just click on the play button below and you’ll be able to hear the recording which runs for about 50 minutes, or you can read the transcript in the two posts below.
“How To Get Your Knitting And Crochet Online!” Teleseminar
Monday, September 21st, 2009
The next Free "Knitting For Profit" Teleseminar will be on Thursday 24th or Friday 25th September depending on where you live. This time we’ll be covering questions about getting your knitting or crochet business online including:
• How to set up your website or blog
• The different ways you can make money or take payments for your products or services
• How to advertise your website
• How to get free traffic!
• How social media like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube can get you more traffic
Remember! You must REGISTER to get access to the call and to the recording later! So CLICK HERE to register for the call and enter the questions you would like to have answered. I’ll look forward to having you on the call!
A Real Knitting Income Story!
Friday, September 11th, 2009
Following on from my previous posts about how to start making money online from your knitting or crochet, yesterday I had the very good fortune to speak to JJ Vazquez, from www.begintoknit.com.
JJ’s story is really motivational, and her excitement and passion are very infectious! With the economic times being pretty tough in the US, her husband found himself out of a job and JJ realised that she and her family couldn’t always rely on employment to bring in the money. So she made the decision to take control of her own destiny and get into business – a knitting business!
After the sales of their knitting replaced her husbands income for the time he was not working, they decided to broaden their vision and market, and get online. It’s great to hear her experiences, and she gave some fantastic advice for anyone who wants to start making some extra income using the internet.
I’m really looking forward to sharing her story – you’ll be able to hear the full recording right here on the blog so make sure you check back next week!
We’ll also be having another "Knitting For Profit Teleseminar" on Friday about how to promote and sell your knitting or crochet online, and other creative ways you can make an income from your passion.
So whether you are just starting out, or you would like some great new ways to get sales and traffic to your site, join us on Friday for some inspiration, ideas and more!
How To Turn Your Knitting Website Into A Shopping Site
Wednesday, August 26th, 2009
Many people ask me how they can start selling their knitting from their own blog or from knitting websites, so in this post I'll show you how easy it is to add a Paypal function to your knitting or crochet site to instantly start accepting payments for your goods or services – yay!
Many knitters and crocheters don't realise how easy it is to start making some money from their creations online. If you already have a website or blog, and you would like to start selling your products or services, then using Paypal's payment buttons is the fastest, easiest and possibly cheapest way to get started.
And you may not realise Paypal buttons can also give you the ability to collect donations for charity fund-raising (like sponsored knit-alongs) or even let people give gift certificates for your sites products!
First of all you need a Paypal account, which is easy and free to set up. Then when you log in, you'll see this screen, choose the “Merchant Services” tab (circled).
To create your payment buttons, choose “Website Payments Standard” (circled on the left).
Now you have a few choices:
The “Buy Now” buttons will take people straight to the payment page and will not allow them to add anything else to their order. This button is for “once-only” product sales, and probably won't be as suitable for you as the free shopping cart option below.
The “Add To Cart” button allows people to buy many different products and as many of each product as they want. This encourages them to buy more than one thing at a time, which is always a good thing!
You can also set up a “Donate” button which allows you to collect donations over the web – this makes it much easier for people to support your fundraiser, and allows you to reach a world-wide audience with your cause.
Or you can include a “Buy Gift Voucher” button, which I think every knitting or crochet website should have – why not encourage people to give your products or designs as thoughtful gifts to friends and family who also love knitting and crochet?
For this exercise, we'll look at setting up the Add To Cart button, which will probably be the first one you use. So click on “Create One Now” as shown circled above.
Step 1 on the next page allows you to customise your button to your needs. You need to create a separate “Add To Cart” button for each item you want to sell with the different price, payment currency and size/colour options for each. In the example below I have created my button for a US$35 beanie that comes in red, blue or black. You can add more than one of these drop-down menus if you also have size choices.
If you want to, you can use your own customised button images by putting in their URL in the “customise appearance” option.
Next add in the postage cost for that item (assuming it was bought as a single item) and choose the Merchant ID for transactions – the secure option uses your registered paypal email address as the ID, or you can choose another email address if you wish.
In Step 2 you can set up inventory tracking and profit and loss tracking which can be very handy. You will be alerted by email if the numbers of a certain product are low, and you can stop people ordering an item if it is out of stock.
In Step 3 you can customise your check-out pages. You can allow customers to add in special instructions, and choose whether or not you want their postal address (for example, if you are selling knitting patterns as pdf's you may not need their postal address to provide the products).
Then you can choose where the customer will go once they have finished paying (circled here). If you are selling knitting patterns, you can upload the pattern or pdf to a specific page on your website and send them there once they have paid (so only people who have made a payment can view that page). If you are selling products you might like to set up a special “thank you” page which thanks them for their order and gives them information like approximate delivery times.
Finally click on “Create Button” at the bottom of the page and you will get some <html> code and a preview of the button (see below).
Now all you need to do is click on “Select Code” and “copy” (using Control C on your keyboard) then go to your web page and paste the code in where you want your button to appear.
I have included an example of what the code looks like on your web page below – I have pasted the script from Paypal (circled) into a table, and then the preview of what it looks like on the website is below that.
Now you know how to start taking payments for your products, gift certificates and donations – if this brings up any more questions, please post them below and I'm happy to help!
How To Make Money From A Knitting or Crochet Blog
Thursday, July 9th, 2009
I have been getting some questions about how to make money online from knitting and crochet, especially from blogs which many of you already have.
If you are going to the effort of regularly writing on your knitting blog (knitting website), and you have built up a following of people who like to get your information and ideas, then it's worth setting up a system so that you are rewarded financially too!
There are many ways to make money from a knitting or crochet blog besides selling your own knitting or crochet products, two that you may not have considered are:
1. Adsense Advertising – you allow Google to place those small text ads on your site, and you get paid every time someone clicks on them. This strategy may not make you millions, but its great to have a little flow of money coming in each month that covers your hosting and gives you a bit of cashflow.
2. Affiliate Marketing – if you have a blog that has a reasonable amount of traffic and subscribers, then you can actually make a nice income online by finding information, products and services that would benefit your readers and putting them in touch with the people who provide them. I learned how to set up a blog like this from Yaro Starak, who is a really down-to-earth guy from Australia. I actually met him a couple of weeks ago and was inspired by his relaxed and friendly style, and how he has created a six figure income just from blogging!
After chatting with him, I realised that his information and ideas would be really valuable for anyone writing a knitting or crochet blog. So with his permission I have included one of his articles that gives you his top 10 tips for starting a money-making blog. He also has an amazing report that gives you his complete blog building system for free – if you are at all interested in making money from blogging, I would highly recommend getting a copy.
Click here to get your copy of "The Blog Profits Blueprint" for free.
And now here are Yaro's top 10 tips for starting a blog (you might be past this stage, but there are some great ideas for increasing your readership and also giving your readers really great value)…
It helps if you work on this list from top to bottom as each technique builds on the previous step to help you create momentum. Eventually once you establish enough momentum you gain what is called "traction", which is a large enough audience base (about 500 readers a day is good) that you no longer have to work too hard on finding new readers. Instead your current loyal readers do the work for you through word of mouth.
Top 10 Tips
10. Write at least five major "pillar" articles. A pillar article is a tutorial style article aimed to teach your audience something. Generally they are longer than 500 words and have lots of very practical tips or advice. This article you are currently reading could be considered a pillar article since it is very practical and a good "how-to" lesson. This style of article has long term appeal, stays current (it isn't news or time dependent) and offers real value and insight. The more pillars you have on your blog the better.
9. Write one new blog post per day minimum. Not every post has to be a pillar, but you should work on getting those five pillars done at the same time as you keep your blog fresh with a daily news or short article style post. The important thing here is to demonstrate to first time visitors that your blog is updated all the time so they feel that if they come back tomorrow they will likely find something new. This causes them to bookmark your site or subscribe to your blog feed.
You don't have to produce one post per day all the time but it is important you do when your blog is brand new. Once you get traction you still need to keep the fresh content coming but your loyal audience will be more forgiving if you slow down to a few per week instead. The first few months are critical so the more content you can produce at this time the better.
8. Use a proper domain name. If you are serious about blogging be serious about what you call your blog. In order for people to easily spread the word about your blog you need a easily rememberable domain name. People often talk about blogs they like when they are speaking to friends in the real world (that's the offline world, you remember that place right?) so you need to make it easy for them to spread the word and pass on your URL. Try and get a .com if you can and focus on small easy to remember domains rather than worry about having the correct keywords (of course if you can get great keywords and easy to remember then you've done a good job!).
7. Start commenting on other blogs. Once you have your pillar articles and your daily fresh smaller articles your blog is ready to be exposed to the world. One of the best ways to find the right type of reader for your blog is to comment on other people's blogs. You should aim to comment on blogs focused on a similar niche topic to yours since the readers there will be more likely to be interested in your blog.
Most blog commenting systems allow you to have your name/title linked to your blog when you leave a comment. This is how people find your blog. If you are a prolific commentor and always have something valuable to say then people will be interested to read more of your work and hence click through to visit your blog.
6. Trackback and link to other blogs in your blog posts. A trackback is sort of like a blog conversation. When you write a new article to your blog and it links or references another blogger's article you can do a trackback to their entry. What this does is leave a truncated summary of your blog post on their blog entry – it's sort of like your blog telling someone else's blog that you wrote an article mentioning them. Trackbacks often appear like comments.
This is a good technique because like leaving comments a trackback leaves a link from another blog back to yours for readers to follow, but it also does something very important – it gets the attention of another blogger. The other blogger will likely come and read your post eager to see what you wrote about them. They may then become a loyal reader of yours or at least monitor you and if you are lucky some time down the road they may do a post linking to your blog bringing in more new readers.
5. Encourage comments on your own blog. One of the most powerful ways to convince someone to become a loyal reader is to show there are other loyal readers already following your work. If they see people commenting on your blog then they infer that your content must be good since you have readers so they should stick around and see what all the fuss is about. To encourage comments you can simply pose a question in a blog post. Be sure to always respond to comments as well so you can keep the conversation going.
4. Submit your latest pillar article to a blog carnival. A blog carnival is a post in a blog that summarizes a collection of articles from many different blogs on a specific topic. The idea is to collect some of the best content on a topic in a given week. Often many other blogs link back to a carnival host and as such the people that have articles featured in the carnival often enjoy a spike in new readers.
To find the right blog carnival for your blog, do a search at blogcarnival.com.
3. Submit your blog to blogtopsites.com. To be honest this tip is not going to bring in a flood of new readers but it's so easy to do and only takes five minutes so it's worth the effort. Go to Blog Top Sites, find the appropriate category for your blog and submit it. You have to copy and paste a couple of lines of code on to your blog so you can rank and then sit back and watch the traffic come in. You will probably only get 1-10 incoming readers per day with this technique but over time it can build up as you climb the rankings. It all helps!
2. Submit your articles to EzineArticles.com. This is another tip that doesn't bring in hundreds of new visitors immediately (although it can if you keep doing it) but it's worthwhile because you simply leverage what you already have – your pillar articles. Once a week or so take one of your pillar articles and submit it to Ezine Articles. Your article then becomes available to other people who can republish your article on their website or in their newsletter.
How you benefit is through what is called your "Resource Box". You create your own resource box which is like a signature file where you include one to two sentences and link back to your website (or blog in this case). Anyone who publishes your article has to include your resource box so you get incoming links. If someone with a large newsletter publishes your article you can get a lot of new readers at once.
1. Write more pillar articles. Everything you do above will help you to find blog readers however all of the techniques I've listed only work when you have strong pillars in place. Without them if you do everything above you may bring in readers but they won't stay or bother to come back. Aim for one solid pillar article per week and by the end of the year you will have a database of over 50 fantastic feature articles that will work hard for you to bring in more and more readers.
I hope you enjoyed my list of traffic tips. Everything listed above are techniques I've put into place myself for my blogs and have worked for me, however it's certainly not a comprehensive list. There are many more things you can do. Finding readers is all about testing to see what works best for you and your audience and I have no doubt if you put your mind to it you will find a balance that works for you.
This article was by Yaro Starak, who is now a professional blogger and my blog mentor. He is also the leader of the Blog Mastermind mentoring program designed to teach bloggers how to earn a full time income blogging part time.
To get more information about Blog Mastermind click this link:
Machine Knitting Success Story From Linda
Thursday, June 18th, 2009
Linda's story is another great example of finding a niche and creating a successful knitting business that has grown and developed over her lifetime. In this interview, she gives some valuable tips and advice about knitting jobs and how to make your knitting and crochet business a success.
How long have you been knitting and crocheting?
I have been knitting and crocheting for over 40 years now. I started designing about 20 years ago but didn’t get serious until about 5 years ago and created a loom knitting pattern book. “Looney for Looms”
Can you give a brief description of your knitting business?
I have recently retired from my knitting business as far as producing products, but they included everything from slippers to afghans. Mostly though I made personalized knitwear for both individuals and schools and such. The meat and potatoes of the business were personalized knitted ski caps. These were made to order so it wasn’t something you could make up ahead of time and keep in stock. Now I am more into helping others learn the ropes so to speak. (Linda's website is www.knitting-n-crochet.com)
When did you decide to start your knitting business and what gave you the idea?
I have always enjoyed making and creating knitted items and sales is just a natural outlet. In my early 20s I first saw an ad for a knitting machine and couldn’t get it out of my head – I just had to have one! Before that everything was done by hand and very limited to how much I could produce. The knitting machine opened up a whole new world for me.
I also learned a lot from a neighbor, who had had a successful knitting business. She knitted all sorts of things including hats, sweaters and dog sweaters that she sold all over the world. They were beautiful items and were made in no time flat. There was no Internet back then so she sold through ads in magazines and a sales rep.
I had always dreamed of my own home based business but thought it was only for the rich. Then here was my neighbour running a successful knitting business, and she was an a stay-home-Mom, just like me.
She sold me her old Brother 260, she encouraged me and shared her knitting patterns. She was the one who showed me how to make a personalized ski cap. When she moved away I taught myself with books and a mad desire to open my own knitting business.
Since 1986 I have learned machine knitting, loom knitting and hand knitting along with the crocheting I already knew. You can make money and work at home with these crafts. It takes persistence, determination, a little imagination and a bit of guidance, but you can do it!
Did you have any business experience when you started?
My mother was always selling something by party plan when I was growing up, but other than that I had to learn everything on my own. Books became your best friend back than but now you have the internet and so many more opportunities available.
Were there any challenges when you started out?
There were many challenges from finding supplies, to finding customers to finding time and lets not forget finding start up money. Yes you will have many bumps in the road, but if you are willing to do the research and put in the time, you can make it.
Is there anything you have learned that you wish you had known from the start?
Yes, I wish I had not tried every get rich scheme that came down the pike. I should have chosen my niche and learned all there was about it and stuck with it.
What are your hours like? Do you work from home?
When I first started I spent many more hours working than if I had a traditional job, but this is just what you do to get started. Than I gradually would work during the day when the kids were in school. With the internet it is even better because you can work a couple of hours here or there when ever you want. You can create knitwear and ship 24 hours a day now.
Do you still enjoy knitting now that it is your business as well as your hobby, and whats the best part of knitting for a living?
Yes I still enjoy it and always will. I love working with the yarns, patterns and colors. It is fun just to see it all come together into a beautiful article. The best part of knitting for a living is I can choose my own hours, it doesn’t matter if I am working at 12:00 noon or 12:00 midnight. My family was always first for me and this made it so much easier to have both family and income.
What's the hardest part?
I know this sounds contradictory but it is that you have times and seasons when the orders flood you and you HAVE to work long into the night. Especially with my product the holidays were extremely busy and the phone rang non-stop with more orders. When I choose to work at midnight I didn’t mind, but I hated to disappoint people and say “Sorry I just can’t get that done in the time you want it”
Do you have any tips for someone who is just starting out?
First you have to have a product people like and want – if you don’t have that than you need to find one. Than you have to get it out in the public’s eye, you need the product and you need the customers to buy it. And you need to take your knitting business seriously – give it 150% if you want to succeed. With all the sales avenues available now, you have a better chance of success today than I did 20 some years ago – you have the Internet and that is a tremendous advantage alone. If you want your own business and are willing to work at it, you can do it.
Read more about Linda and her knitting business on her website at www.knitting-n-crochet.com, where you'll also find her books, patterns and some great information about starting a machine knitting business.
Machine Knitting Success Story – Diana from Wizardknits
Wednesday, May 13th, 2009
Diana learned to knit from her great grandmother, and although she didn’t realise it at the time, the skills she developed put her on the path to becoming a true “knitterpreneur”.
Like so many knitting businesses, it started as a hobby and grew over time into a full-time occupation. Now Diana enjoys spending her days doing what she loves to do. Read on to find how she has created a fantastic niche knitting business that grows and grows, with an advertising budget of zero!
Diana’s knitterpreneur journey started back in 1975 when her daughter was born. After learning from her great grandmother how to knit complete garments for her dolls, she started doing the same for her daughter. Neighbors noticed her creations and started asking her to knit for their children too.
Diana offered a very personalised service, with her customers able to choose colours and adjust styles and sizing, and very soon she could hardly keep up with demand. Even after moving interstate and starting her knitting business over, her customer base quickly grew as word spread about her unique and high quality creations including children’s clothes and layettes. Even today she knits for the same customers, but now it’s for their grandchildren!
The Switch To Machine Knitting
It was at this point in her business that she realised she just couldn’t keep up with hand knitting alone, so Diana invested in a knitting machine and hasn’t looked back. After figuring out how to use the machine herself, she also began teaching others. This included demonstrations in yarn-stores, craft shows, school events and adult education classes.
Throughout her knitting career, Diana has used every one of the five “Knitting For Profit” strategies. She has done contract knitting for designers to test patterns and correct mistakes, she taught others how to knit, she has re-created vintage knitwear for a Parisian couturier, she has designed knitting patterns of her own, and also created unique made-to-order garments for theatre, vintage and historical costuming. She never tires of knitting, because something new and interesting is always available!
How Diana’s Son Changed Her Whole Business…
Diana’s knitting business now includes a great niche market and whole new marketing strategy, all because her son wanted to go to a convention dressed as Harry Potter in a Hogwarts uniform. She knitted up a woollen scarf and school sweater for him, and suddenly there were requests from friends and other fans for the same. Her son posted the items on the internet, and they got more orders than they could fill – the scarves selling out in just 3 hours!
Diana’s knitting service had always been so personalised she hadn’t thought that she would be able to sell online, but after the success of the scarves and sweaters she created wizardknits.com and found that her high quality garments and personalised service were a winning formula online as well as off.
She has not spent a cent on advertising – all her traffic and orders come from word of mouth and referrals. People from around the world now know her name and will seek her out to get their knitted wizarding garments.
The secret she says, is authenticity. When you buy from wizardknits, you get a quality product of 100% wool that has the most authentic design and colours available. And the second most important factors are customisation and service. She tailors each sweater to suit her customers and always maintains communication with them. She will answer each and every email because “If you want to get a sale, you need to act like you are interested and respond to questions. Working on the internet is not the same as being live in front of someone, but you still need to communicate with people!”
The Problem Of Pricing?
Every knitterpreneur has to contend with the issue of pricing – valuing your time and skills can be hard – and Diana was no different. “I have spent sleepless nights trying to figure out what is a fair price for me, but also working out how much someone would be willing to spend, and I know I would pay almost any price to get something that fit me and looked great. In the end, you need to look at it that way, get the best materials and make it as something you would buy yourself”.
She has found that her most expensive products actually sell just as well (if not better) than her lower priced ones, which shows that people are willing to pay more when they are getting a high quality niche product that they won’t find anywhere else.
Stock Control And Minimising Costs
Diana has some great advice for keeping costs down. Once you find your niche and know what knitted products you are going to provide you’ll be able to order your yarns in bulk and from yarn wholesalers rather than retail. Diana has found that by knitting to order (and having virtually no stock) she can order only the yarn she needs, so she doesn’t have costly leftovers lying around and she doesn’t need lots of space to store stock.
Diana’s Advice For Starting Out?
“The first thing you need to do is decide whether you are ready to spend the time to make your knitting into a business. You can be knitting furiously all day but it doesn’t make a knitting business, there are a lot of things that go with it. If you spend the hours to start the right way, and if you set it up correctly then it pretty much runs itself.”
And Her Advice For Starting Machine Knitting…
“There’s a big learning curve with a knitting machine, in my opinion you need to spend the money and get a good quality machine. So you need to decide if your knitting business is ready for it – do you have enough orders and business to warrant it? A knitting machine is an investment, I take it off in my tax return, and my business did not warrant one in the beginning, but it came to a point where I just couldn’t keep up with demand and it really helped.”
“There are many different kinds of knitting machine so you need one that suits your business and the kind of knitwear you produce. Stay away from plastic machines, and get one with accessories because once you have achieved the learning curve and are comfortable with it, you want your knitting machine to be able to grow with you as you are able to do more complex designs.”
“Remember its a learning experience, you shouldn’t assume that you can buy a knitting machine and instantly have a sweater, even the knitting on a machine takes a long time to learn. It will speed things up in the end, and if you are knitting the same things over and over again then its perfect”
Her Favourite Part Of Knitting For Profit?
“I just enjoy the knitting, and knowing that the person on the other end just can’t wait to get what I’m making for them. You would think I would get tired of knitting these, but they are all different – different sizes and colours. I knit hundreds of sweaters and scarves a year, so you can’t do that without really loving it!
And it’s the unsolicited testimonials and that they are always pleasantly surprised when they open their package from me, that’s what I enjoy hearing”
Visit Diana’s website at www.wizardknits.com and if you would like to know more or ask any questions you can contact her by clicking here.
-
-
FREE MINI-BOOK!
Subscribe below and we'll keep you up to date with new posts and great ideas, plus you'll get a sneak preview of my new book, in a special FREE “Mini-Book”
You'll discover the #1 reason why successful knitters make money and real examples and strategies that you can use immediately!
Our privacy policy keeps your email 100% safe!
-
About Liz
Welcome! My name is Liz and I am a work at home mother of two. I am also the author of the new book “Knitting for Profit”. I have created this blog to give you more great information, ideas and resources for making money from your knitting passion! [more]
Our Sponsors
-
Bookmark and Share
Bookmark This:
Plugin by Hendrik Bahr. Our Sponsors
Subscribe via RSS
Subscribe via RSS