The Many Hats of a Small Handmade Business Owner
Running a small handmade business isn’t just about creating beautiful products—it involves a wide range of tasks that stretch far beyond the craft table. For artisans who sell handmade items like jewelry, clothing, or decor, it’s common to take on roles in marketing, customer service, inventory management, and more. While the allure of making and selling handmade goods often comes from a passion for the craft, the reality of running a small business can mean spending more time on operations and administration than on creation. These responsibilities can significantly slow down the creative process, adding new layers of complexity that many artisans don’t anticipate when they start out.
In this article, we’ll break down the types of work involved in running a small handmade business and explore how these roles impact the creative process.
Product Creation and Design
At the heart of any handmade business is the creation and design process. This includes sourcing materials, developing new designs, and crafting each piece by hand. For a small handmade jewelry business, for example, the process could involve selecting gemstones, sketching designs, hand-cutting metal, and assembling each component. The time needed to create each piece can be considerable, especially for complex designs that require precision and attention to detail.
However, the creative process is often interrupted by other aspects of business management. Although product creation might be why many artisans start their business, it’s only a fraction of the work they’ll need to manage on a daily basis.
Marketing and Promotion
Marketing is an essential but time-consuming part of running a small business. A handmade business owner must promote their products to reach potential customers, which can involve creating social media content, running paid ads, writing blog posts, sending email newsletters, and collaborating with influencers or other businesses.
Crafting content for platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok, as well as responding to comments and messages, can take hours out of a single day. For those without a background in marketing, creating an effective strategy can be overwhelming, and trial-and-error testing often leads to wasted time. Consistent marketing is key to growing a customer base, but for solo artisans, it often means cutting into time that could otherwise be spent designing or making products.
Customer Service and Communication
Customer service is another significant responsibility. Answering questions, handling custom requests, addressing complaints, and following up on orders requires daily attention. In a small business setting, this often means responding directly to each customer, which can be both rewarding and challenging.
Good customer service builds loyalty and enhances the shopping experience, but it’s also demanding. Replying to emails or DMs and managing custom orders are not activities that can be postponed—they require immediate responses to maintain customer satisfaction, which can disrupt the flow of creative work.
Order Fulfillment and Shipping
Fulfilling orders includes packaging products, printing shipping labels, and organizing trips to the post office or arranging pickups with shipping carriers. For businesses selling handmade jewelry, this may involve careful packaging to ensure products reach customers safely. This part of the business also entails ordering packing materials, managing inventory, and keeping track of orders to make sure everything is shipped on time.
Order fulfillment requires meticulous attention to detail, and any mistake can lead to costly returns, dissatisfied customers, or even lost items. For a small business owner, dedicating time to these activities is necessary, but it can detract from time spent creating new products or experimenting with designs.
Inventory Management and Bookkeeping
Inventory management and bookkeeping are critical yet frequently overlooked aspects of a small handmade business. Inventory management involves tracking materials, finished products, and supplies to avoid overstocking or running out. Without efficient tracking, an artisan can find themselves without the materials they need just when they’re ready to create, leading to delays and additional costs.
Bookkeeping, on the other hand, includes recording all transactions, monitoring expenses, paying taxes, and keeping up with financial records. Many small business owners aren’t trained in accounting, so it can take time to learn and maintain proper records. Some may outsource bookkeeping, but this adds another layer of expense that can strain a small business budget.
Website and Online Store Management
For many small handmade businesses, an online store is the primary sales channel. Managing an online shop involves listing products, writing descriptions, taking and editing photos, updating stock, processing payments, and troubleshooting any issues that customers might experience during checkout. Each of these steps is time-consuming, and online platforms often require regular updates or adjustments to optimize listings, adjust prices, or respond to customer reviews.
Website management also extends to SEO (search engine optimization), which helps customers find products through online searches. Learning SEO basics, like selecting the right keywords and optimizing product pages, takes time but is essential for visibility in a competitive marketplace.
Planning and Strategizing
Long-term planning is essential for growth, but small business owners often struggle to find time for strategic thinking. Planning involves setting goals, developing a business strategy, forecasting demand, and identifying new market opportunities. For a handmade jewelry business, this could mean planning product launches, holiday promotions, or collaborations with other artisans. Strategic planning can help a business thrive, but finding time to step back from day-to-day tasks is challenging for solo entrepreneurs.
The Impact on Creativity
All of these responsibilities can make it difficult for a small business owner to focus on the creative work that inspired them to start their business in the first place. Creative tasks often require extended periods of focus, which can be interrupted by emails, order packing, social media notifications, and customer inquiries. When an artisan spends more time on administrative and operational tasks than on creating, it can lead to burnout and loss of motivation.
To help balance these tasks, some small business owners choose to outsource or automate parts of their workload. For instance, there are automation tools for scheduling social media posts, software for inventory management, and options for outsourcing accounting. However, each solution comes with its own learning curve, and not all handmade business owners have the resources to delegate.
Final Thoughts
Running a small handmade business involves much more than just creating products. From marketing to customer service, website management to bookkeeping, artisans must handle a wide range of tasks that can take significant time away from the craft they love. While balancing these responsibilities can be challenging, understanding the demands of each role is a vital step in creating a sustainable business model. For small handmade business owners, each piece of jewelry or art is a testament not only to their creativity but also to the dedication and hard work that goes into running their business.
Sources:
- Walker, R. (2019). Handmade Business: How to Run a Successful Craft Business from Your Home Studio. Indie Publisher.
- Thorpe, S. (2020). Small Business Essentials: Managing Your Own Online Store. North Light Books.
- McDonough, K. (2018). The Artisan’s Guide to Online Marketing. Artisan Publishing