A Side Hustle For Creatives - How To Sell Handmade Crafts

In recent years, side hustles have exploded in popularity.

Almost 40% of Brits now have a side hustle of their own, making an average of £914 a month for their efforts - not bad going for a second job!

Source: Statista’s side hustle statistics 2025

For creative people, turning your hobby into a side hustle probably seems like a no brainer. If you’re already pouring your time and energy into your craft, why wouldn’t you try to make some money from it?

But actually profiting from your creative hobby isn’t always as easy as it sounds. What handmade crafts sell best? Where should you sell them? And how do you compete with millions of other crafters across the globe, all hoping to achieve exactly the same thing?

If you’re a crafter toying with the idea of setting up your very own side hustle, this is the article for you. We’ll talk you through all you need to know about how to start an arts and crafts business, so that you can make an informed decision as to whether to take the plunge.

How To Get Started Selling Handmade Crafts

Depending on the type of craft you intend to sell, there can be significant variation in how you’ll need to go about setting up your business - for example, if you plan to make pottery, you’ll need access to a kiln, or if you plan to upcycle furniture, you’ll need plenty of space to store it all.

However, the most significant points below will apply to the vast majority of new crafting businesses intending to sell at least some of their goods online.

1. Research. Before you do anything at all, you should perform extensive research. You need to investigate the items you’ll be selling, your competition, the marketplaces you want to sell through, the cost of materials and how to price your items.

2. Design your products. Some small sellers will simply list a few items that they’ve already made and hope for the best. But creating a range of specific designs, intended to complement each other and with a target market in mind, is much likelier to result in success than an ad hoc, haphazard approach.

3. Decide on where to sell your products. If you’re planning to sell wholly or partly online, you should decide which marketplaces you want to use in advance, as your marketing strategy may vary depending on your chosen marketplace.

4. Create a marketing plan. If you want people to buy your goods, those people need to know you exist! First of all, decide on your brand (what will your shop be called? What type of style and vibe are you aiming for?) and your preferred means of promoting your crafts (Social media? Email? Collaborating with influencers?). Then, work out a concrete marketing plan, including images and descriptions of your items, that you can put into action as soon as your shop is online.

5. Purchase supplies. As with almost any other businesses, there will be some startup costs - and for a craft business, that means crafting supplies. You can’t sell your products unless you create them first - so you’ll have to pay for your supplies upfront before you make any money at all.

6. Start crafting your products. You don’t need to have a full warehouse of items made before you launch your business, but you’ll need at least a few things ready to go. Start with the products you’ve got the most confidence in, so you can snap some promotional shots and pique the public’s interest.

7. Work out how you’ll ship your items. Will you ship only to the UK or internationally? How will you minimise the risk of damage? Which couriers will you use, and how much will you charge your customers? You should know the answers to all these questions before you make your first sale.

8. Take your new business online! With everything ready to go, the only remaining task is to take your new shop online, and put your marketing plan into action. And don’t forget to tell all your friends and family about your new venture! A couple of sales to people you know will be a great starting boost to your new business.

Best Types Of Handmade Crafts To Sell

As a rule, the type of handmade craft to sell is the type you can make well!

There are constant, ever-changing trends in the craft world, and it can be tempting to try to capitalise on those - but unless you’re genuinely just as capable of making crochet soft toys as jewellery, as talented a potter as you are a candle-maker, you’re better off sticking to what you’re good at.

And if you aren’t already capable of making quality handmade crafts, and you’re hoping to learn how to craft your products as you go, you’d probably be better off picking an alternative business idea.

By the time you’ve become proficient enough in your chosen craft to sell your creations, trends are likely to have moved on, so there’s little point in trying to keep up with the market if you’re not already a skilled crafter.

Of course, that’s not to say you shouldn’t look at trends within your chosen craft - but when it comes to deciding on the overall category of craft to sell, your best option is to play to your strengths.

Where To Sell Handmade Crafts

Having established the kind of craft you want to sell, your next step is to work out how and where to sell it. You have two main options: selling in person and selling online. Each has clear advantages and disadvantages, which we’ll run through here.

In Person

Many crafters take advantage of in person events, such as markets, local fairs, and pop up stands, to sell their wares. They may also be able to secure a spot in local arts or homewares shops, depending on the type of craft they make and sell.

The clear advantage of this approach is that your customers are able to physically see and touch your items, and this tangible connection makes it much more likely that they’ll fall in love.

If you’re selling in person at a stall, people also appreciate being able to meet the creator, and to know that a sale would be supporting a real person, often from their local area.

The downside is that you may have to pay for a stand at larger markets or fairs, and there’s no guarantee you’ll actually sell anything - so there’s a possibility it could cost more money than it makes you.

Plus, if you’re having to staff your stall yourself, it takes up valuable time that could otherwise be spent on crafting.

Online

Many crafters sell online, on marketplaces such as Etsy, Folksy, Amazon Handmade or even eBay.

This has the advantage of widening your audience dramatically, potentially to the entire world, depending on the scope of the marketplace in question.

With good marketing and a solid social media presence, an online handmade empire could be yours.

But it’s important to remember that although your audience is wider, so is your competition. It’s much harder to stand out when you’re competing with an entire world’s worth of fellow creatives, and it’s not uncommon for aspiring side hustlers to give up before they sell a single item.

You also have to consider factors such as shipping. If you’re selling fragile items, there’s a significant risk of damage in transit - and many couriers won’t offer insurance against damage for items like pottery. Non-breakables, such as knitwear, may therefore make better crafts for selling online.

What To Charge For Handmade Crafts

Now there’s a crucial question.

Pricing is one of the thorniest issues you’ll have to contend with. Price too high, and your customers won’t be willing to pay for your items. Too low, and you won’t make a profit, or you’ll give the impression your products are cheap and poor quality.

The best way to find the sweet spot is to take a look at the prices of similar items.

You’ll need to do fairly extensive research, ideally both online and in person at craft fairs, to establish a rough average. You should also take into account the relative success of those sellers (Etsy, for example, will show you how many sales a particular shop has made).

If you’re planning to sell online, you should also account for the fact that, as a new seller, customers may be a little wary of you.

Until you’ve built up a good number of sales and reviews, you’ll probably need to set your prices at the lower end of the scale, because people are less likely to risk paying high prices with an unknown entity.

Tips And Tricks For Selling Handmade Crafts

• Check out the competition. See what your rivals are selling, for how much, and how those items are advertised, to keep ahead of the game.

• Keep an eye on trends. For better or worse, social media will be an important part of your business strategy. If you spot a general trend in social media, consider if it can be applied to your crafts - if so, you could be one of the first businesses to benefit from jumping on that trend.

• Make good use of social media. As well as using social media for research, you’ll need to use it to promote your business. If you can build up a following for your brand, you’ll find it much easier to promote and sell new items.

• Play to your strengths. You can’t be brilliant at everything. If your skill lies in yarn, don’t try to turn yourself into a potter as well. Focus on what you’re best at rather than attempting to be all things to all people.

• Sell yourself as well as your products. With so much being mass produced in China, you need to demonstrate that you’re a genuine crafter making real, handmade items. Lean into your own personality - whether that’s quirky, funny, elegant, or a little bit shy - to make it clear to your customers that you and your products are authentic.

• Consider offering crafting kits. They’ll take some additional work to produce, but putting together a complete kit for beginners can be a great complement to your own handmade items. Crafting is hugely popular as a hobby, so helping others get started is likely to be a real boost to your fledgling business.

• Offer custom pieces. Assuming you’re confident that you can design and make high quality items, creating custom products (at appropriately higher prices) will generate extra income, and has the upside of guaranteeing a sale for an item you’re creating.

Pros And Cons Of Selling Handmade Crafts

Other Ways To Make Money From Home

If you like the sound of earning extra money from a new side hustle, but you’ve noticed how long that con list is and think that selling handmade crafts sounds like an awful lot of hard work, there are tons of alternatives available to you!

You could sell digital art online, to avoid the cost of materials and shipping, consider tutoring if you’re an experienced artist or crafter, or even have a go at dropshipping if you like the idea of creating a retail business.

Or you could always give Matched Betting a go - it’s a great way to make money online from the comfort of your own home, and you don’t need any sports betting experience at all!