Making and selling your leathergoods

A lot of leathersmiths make the mistake of trying to build a leather business by making leathergoods that they like to make and then trying to sell said leathergoods to anyone and everyone that will listen.

But the problem with this is that your focus is on what YOU like to make and NOT what your customer needs or wants.

Your focus is on you when it needs to be on your customer.

Have you ever started to get a panicked feeling from looking at your to-do list, realizing that you haven’t accomplished anything yet this month? So then you start going through it frantically, looking for the EASIEST tasks that you can complete just so you can make yourself feel productive and like you’ve accomplished something this month?

Instead of doing this, what we need is a plan to get your small leathergoods business tasks prioritized so that you’re working on the most important and impactful tasks (the ones that are going to actually move the needle) done first.

Have you ever heard that saying, “throw it at the wall until something sticks?” Meaning lets try ALL OF THE THINGS until we finally find a thing that seems to work. Yea, that’s basically how I started my online handmade business ten years ago. I didn’t have a clue what I was doing, let alone how to make a business strategy so I just figured this is how you do it, right? You do ALL OF THE THINGS until something works. Well that’s ONE WAY you can choose to run a business, sure (I hope you like frustration!) but there’s a better way…

I came across an article a few weeks ago in one of the many handmade business and marketing focused Facebook groups that I belong to. The article was titled, The Modern Trap of Turning Hobbies Into Hustles.

Two things immediately got my attention.

The first thing that caught my attention was the title of this article. The Modern Trap of… Trap??

Starting a small business to help support me financially as well as provide the freedom from the 9-5 has been anything but a trap for me!

Are you falling into this modern trap?

Does who you follow on Instagram really matter?

Should you be following your friends, family and those awesome people who post photos of their lunch and their pets?

OR

could you be using a more strategic follow strategy?

The answer is yes, it does matter and there is absolutely a strategy behind who you follow on Instagram and it’s quite simple.

If I came to you in the future and asked you to look back on your business in the very beginning, and tell me what you see, what would you say?

Would you tell me about the STRUGGLE AND FRUSTRATION that you experienced day after day from not know who your customer is and not having any sales?

Or

Would you tell me how you knew WHO your customer was and WHAT they wanted and so you knew exactly HOW TO PROMOTE your leathergoods to those people?

And would you tell me all about how this allowed you to MAKE CONSISTENT SALES month after month?

Have you ever felt confused about why other leathercrafters seem to be able to sell their leathergoods no problem, but no one seems to be interested in yours?

The truth is, the reason that people aren’t buying from you is not because your prices are too high or because no one likes your brand.

No, it’s much simpler then that.

Once I started focusing in on my ideal customer and what they were looking for I started to see traction in my own business.

I had more engagement on my social media which made things way more fun and I also got more traffic to my website and made more sales.

Click through for 4 ways to find out who your ideal customer really is.

Have you ever looked at your competition and thought to yourself, “I make the same kind of leathergoods as they do and yet I can’t seem to make one sale!”

That’s because you’re missing one of the 3 keystones of running a successful handmade business. Once I started focusing on these 3 key elements of my business I saw more sales and I saw my business grow month after month.

When you reflect on the past year you can see not only what worked but also what you liked doing. Building a business is hard work but it doesn’t have to be painful to be successful, right? Otherwise you might as well go and work for someone else. Reflecting on our business allows you to pivot and change course so that you’re always creating a business that you love as well as being successful.

If you’ve ever had someone want to buy the leatherback that you’re wearing right off your back, you know how that can catch you off guard.

This exact thing happened to me on an Amtrak train and this is how I made the sale actually go through.

There is nothing wrong with picking up leatherwork as a hobby and being perfectly happy leaving it at that.

But for those of your that love your leatherworking hobby and often find yourself in a daydream thinking, "how cool would it be if I could turn this into a business?",

I've got a story for you.

And that is the story of how I went from hobbyist leatherworker to successful leathergoods business owner and how I did it.

Wondering how you can use Instagram as a business tool and to find your perfect ideal leather customer. You know, the ideal customer that wants to buy your leathergoods?

If you’re struggling to build a quality following on Instagram, then keep reading my 5 step strategy for finding and targeting your ideal customer using Instagram.

Selling and making money from their leatherwork can make some people really uncomfortable for many reasons. Maybe they think their work isn't of any value or just not good enough. Or they just feel bad asking for money in exchange for their leathergoods. If you’ve ever felt this way, read on for 4 reasons why you shouldn’t feel bad about charging for your leatherwork.

Pricing your leathergoods too low can have a big negative impact on the success of your business. You might feel like people won’t buy your products for a higher price or that you'll just keep them low for now and then raise them later. Or you might just not know how to create a sustainable business - one that can survive and produce a profit. These are all common reasons that I see people pricing their leathergoods for low prices but these are not the right strategies and its whats actually hurting your business.

Whether you’re  currently selling your work or you have plans to start selling your work, the fear and frustration behind product pricing is real.

A lot of leatherworkers don’t know where to start when pricing their products so they guess or they ask people in a Facebook group what they would pay for a certain product.

These are BIG mistakes for a few reasons.

It can be really overwhelming for the beginner leather worker to know where they should purchase leather from for a number of reasons. Budget is usually the biggest concern.

I reached out to a few of my favorite leather suppliers and asked them all the same question...

What do you think is the most important thing that a beginner leatherworker should keep in mind when purchasing leather?

Check out their responses in no specific order in the post.

This is one of the most frequently asked questions and luckily the answer is pretty easy.

You need to know what type of leatherwork that you're interested in and then we can talk about tools and materials that you'll need.

So if you're not sure what tools you need, what the different types are of leatherwork are or how best to choose your leather as a beginner, then keep reading.