If I had to pick a theme for this week, it would be the importance of multiple revenue streams. The Daily Worth talked about why having multiple income streams is a smart idea in an unstable economy. Then Tara mentioned that Darren Rowse shared a breakdown of his varied revenue streams over at ProBlogger. And I’ve been putting together a workbook that helps you create a plan for growing your business. And it focuses on, you guessed it, having multiple revenue streams.
If you’re currently focusing your business in only one area, now is the perfect time to consider branching out into other revenue streams. If you only sell on Etsy, why not add retail craft fairs? If you rely heavily on the craft fair circuit, why not try wholesale? Or what about adding custom work or design consulting?
Adding additional revenue streams keeps you from totally panicking if one area slows down. It can also help combat the cyclical nature of retail – perhaps you do the summer craft show circuit, and as that slows down, your fall wholesale orders pick up. And just as you’re sending out the last of your holiday wholesale orders, you can shift focus onto holiday e-commerce.
Yes, having multiple revenue streams means more to manage. But it also serves as the foundation of a healthy business.
What revenue streams do you currently employ in your business? And are you thinking of adding any in the near future?
megan
We’ve been working through our website and etsy, while attending a good amount of craft shows primarily around the holidays. Our slow time is beginning of the year through the summer, so we’ve been reformatting our attention on growing wholesale accounts and looking towards trade shows to fill the voids.
This post also has me thinking of how we can still be available and in front of customers, while unable to attend shows during the summer months. Possibly offering classes and workshops would be a nice way to still engage with our customer base and keep up a public appearance.
Dabanga
I totally agree, I have already started to cross pollinate, but it
takes a lot of time to become established in the what is the “now”
social media one needs to get out there : )
A timely article
Alicia
This has been weighing heavily on my mind lately. As of now I have an Etsy shop, consign at 2 stores, and sell at craft fairs. I am planning to try to get some wholesale accounts. Its not easy when you’re a one person show, but its so rewarding.
krista (urbanite jewelry)
i’ve recently created a structure to provide multiple revenue streams for my company. while i started out on etsy, i quickly branched out to craft fairs, adding an additional revenue stream. i’m also currently in the process of approaching stores to add another stream, and hope to participate in some larger-scale retail shows and wholesale shows next spring.
i’m also working on developing home shows as an additional stream. and i’m also developing a dedicated bridal ready-to-love AND custom line, both diversifying my products and opening up an additional stream of income! 🙂
krista gorrell
I am moving into wholesale this summer after a few years on the retail craft show circuit, but in addition to all I do around my company, I also do clothing alterations and repairs. It helps bring in some money when things are in an off-season and gets me away from my studio work for a while.
I also have started a second etsy store where I sell fiber, wool,alpaca and scrap baggies of felt from my own work. I figure it’s a good way to clean out my studio, bring in a little money and supplies others with something they can use!
Mallory - Miss Malaprop
Multiple income streams are SO important, no matter what your business or walk of life. I do as many local events as possible, in addition to my online shop and various income streams through my blog. I’ve also been doing some Tupperware style home shopping parties, and I’m looking into teaching classes locally. There are a million possible ways to diversify your income and offerings, it’s just a matter of trying them and figuring out which work best for you unique business model.
Steph
At the moment I have an Etsy shop and sell at craft shows. I do a lot of custom orders, and I’m starting to do jewelry parties. Next up, I’d like to try to add wholesale to the list.
I’ve only been doing this since Oct. 2009, but already I’ve noticed that I make more money at holiday craft shows than the couple I’ve done this spring. I will give some more craft shows a try over the summer, but I think I’ll focus more on the fall ones, since they seem to provide the greatest return on investment.
Jewelry Assembly Chicks
Designers can pitch an article in a magazine of their trade. For example, for jewelry designers, you have Beadworks, BeadStyle, Crafts Report, Bead & Button, Art Jewelry (if there’s more to add to this category, please let me know!)
Look up their requirements. Write an outline of what you do, talk about how you started in the biz, submit one project with step by step tutorial with pictures. Each of these magazines have an outline form for you to follow. Some will require the actual piece and give you instructions on how to send it. Send this along with your press kit, photos, anything pertaining to your specialty.
Project editors always are looking for new ideas and have pitch meetings monthly. They are looking for new and exciting things to write about. It’s a way to get into a national magazine that pertains to your expertise and talent and a way for a broader audience to find you. Be sure you are hooked up to all the social networks. Every opportunity for people to contact you is paramount.
Tsuki
I agree! Especially in this economy, it’s important. I don’t make enough from crafts to make a living yet. So I susbidize my 9-5 with my crafts by selling on etsy and at craft shows. I also sell my photography services. All of these things help make it a little easier to pay the bills each month, although none of them give me a real profit. I’m hoping by starting this now, it can become a profitable business in a few years. And one day, hopefully, I can quit my day job :p
Allyson
This has been my focus of 2010! I was teaching knitting lessons and running my knitting blog, but this year I’ve put together knit kits I sell on etsy and I’m going to launch knitting pattern ebooks this summer and fall. Spreading myself around more in the ENTIRE world of knitting, not just teaching in Chicago where I live, has helped so much.
Faith W.
We’re in the very, very beginning phase of our business, but we’re on Etsy as well as having our own website. Within the website we offer different kinds of items to different potential customers, not just one specific type of person. Varying price points per stream is also helpful, as in offering the lower priced items on Etsy with a URL of the website to drive people there as well.
As we grow and learn more about search engine optimization, we’re going to continue to blog and use social media sites, along with hopefully attracting keyword links to our site. We’re taking our time laying the groundwork now so that it’ll be easier to grow later on. E-commerce is challenging because it takes more time to build an internet presence because people don’t just automatically find your site by entering search terms. You have to use other stream sources to get people to your site until you can build via word of mouth.
Future plans include Ebay, ads in relevant publications, work featured in the press, and craft shows. We’re not even in the position to think about wholesale yet, but that might also be in the picture depending on how things go.
Lori Paximadis
It is absolutely critical to spread your eggs out among a couple (or a bunch) of different baskets. I learned that lesson the hard way the first time I was a full-time freelance editor: my biggest client made the sudden decision to take everything in house and drop all their freelancers, so I was left with very little work and couldn’t dredge up enough new work before being forced to take a full-time staff job again. Fortunately, I’m back to full-time freelancing again.
Now I *really* diversify: I both freelance full time (with a larger stable of clients) and have my jewelry business. It’s rare for both to be super-busy or super-dead at the same time; they usually balance each other out well.
In my jewelry business, I do shows, consignment, wholesale, and Etsy. I do a lot of custom orders. I also teach classes. I opened an Etsy supply shop a while back for destashing extra supplies, and since I’m in the process of weeding out my supplies and I have wholesale accounts with my suppliers, I’m considering working a bit harder at that supply shop as another way of diversifying.
Jo Tinley
I completely agree! As well as selling my work through my own website and through notonthehighstreet.com and through a few galleries I also teach silversmithing and jewellery making privately at home and at a local college, and write projects and articles for UK jewellery magazines. It keeps me busy all through the year, but I’d still like to find more wholesale accounts!
Courtney Dirks
The other great aspect of adding new revenue streams is that it keeps you from getting bored and burned out! Especially within the creative community, I find that most folks I’ve come across get exhausted when they get too caught up doing the same thing over and over again.
Rena Klingenberg
I’ve found that there’s an additional benefit to having multiple streams of income in a handmade business.
When I work on the income streams that don’t involve actually selling my jewelry (such as teaching workshops, writing, consulting, etc.), new people get to know me and see my jewelry – and very often that leads them to buy some of my pieces directly from me. Many of these folks become valued regular customers.
So I think of the additional income streams as opportunities to become known as an artist by new groups of people. Any time you’re doing any sort of activity – even volunteer work – you’re getting exposure for your art.
bonniejonesphoto
Another path for artists to look into, especially those who work in 2D, is image licensing ~ meaning publishers and manufacturers using your images on their products. This is an additional stream that I’m currently trying to build for myself. Companies usually license images for periods of 2-3 years, so it’s nice that you are setting up income for yourself a few years out. It requires a lot of researching and submitting work for review, but like everything, I know it takes serious persistence. I’ve just found a company who is interested in some of my photographs, so I’m very excited about seeing where this goes.
Anna
This is a timely article for me as well because we’ve noticed a slight slow down in our sales online and have decided to make some items to sell at a local arts and craft show. We did one of those last year and it was fairly successful so it would be helpful to have that added bump in sales in the summer months when most people who sew are outside gardening or playing with their kids. (Hopefully they’ll attend the craft show too!) I would caution anyone who has both an Etsy site and a website and tries to promote their website on Etsy. We got into “trouble” with Etsy because we had a link to our webstore and it has the same products as what we have on Etsy. They deactivated our listings until we removed the link. In the end, it all worked out though. Thanks for this great advice!
Anna
Natalie Fontane
I felt this way when the views dropped drastically on Etsy recently. I bought a Zibbet account and am looking for a new job close to home with weekends off so I can do all of the pet shows and craft fairs in town. I still have trouble talking to retailers over the phone, but hopefully after I redo some product photos and my line sheet, I can start getting in touch with them again.
Andrea Chapman
In January, I celebrated four years of being in business. I began on eBay, climbing the ranks to Power Seller, and later discovered Etsy where I just made my 800th sale. In the midst of what appears to be a greater handmade movement, there seem to be so many new forums for artisans to promote themselves: artfire, zibbet, ecrater, 1000 Markets, etc. While I agree it is essential to diversify your income streams, I think it can be very time consuming to establish oneself within a new venue. That being said, my goal this year is to focus on building the Watermelon Wishes brand name which I hope will drive more traffic directly to my website where I will not be at the mercy of the continuous changes which seem to have negatively impacted the search features on the aforementioned sites.
Leyla
If I only had one revenue stream (online), I would think that hardly anyone liked my cards and crochet items.
I’ve been wanting to wholesale my cards for years now but finding Etsy (and making a few sales) – plus a super encouraging husband who doubles as a wonderful salesman – gave me the courage to find boutiques and gift shops. I’m very new to selling (both on and offline) but the value of multiple revenue streams is already evident. My cards seem to sell much better in gift shops so I’m going to keep looking for new venues….flower shops, here I come!
Layne
I have been doing etsy, and craft/retail shows. I mainly created custom order for brides, and would love to set up a few wholesale accounts with bridal shops and gift/boutique stores in my local area. I am just not sure how to approach. What is protocol for this? Any information on approaching stores for wholesale whould be helpful.
Thanks,
Layne
Rhonda
This is very timely material. I’ve done shows and Etsy for 3 years and am now looking at several wholesale opportunities. Mastering social media is my next challenge.
Ella Parry
Thank you for sharing!!
After I open my etsy shop, i have lot of commission work coming along and now I start to do wholesale abroad as well.
I also do some graphic design too!!
love my work and enjoy it so much!!!!
Ella Parry
Joana Miranda
I’m really glad to read this post! My multiple revenue streams have naturally evolved from my varied interests in the jewelry industry. I have won awards for my hand-drawn/painted jewelry designs as well as CAD renderings, and also love to work at the bench creating my own line of jewelry. Because the designs I create are high-end and involve more sophisticated stone-setting techniques than what I currently am able to do, I outsource that work to other jewelers. On the flip side, my primary goal for the line of Argentium sterling silver jewelry that I hand-fabricate myself, is to offer great designs at an affordable price.
I am currently growing a client list of people who come to me for custom high-end designs, and others who want the jewelry that I have made myself. (Incidentally, some of the high-end clients have started out first as purchasers of my JLM studio line of jewelry.)
Teaching rendering is a logical next step, as is seeking out wholesale venues for my hand-fabricated jewelry. (I currently have a home website, Etsy shop, 2 consignment galleries, presence on Trunkt and a wholesale presence on Pink Calyx.)
Thanks for the great posts and encouragement, Megan!
Sue Betanzos
I love getting this newsletter and learn so much just by reading the comments. I opened an Etsy store and it has made only a few sales. What am I doing wrong? I’m new to online selling and even though I read all of the Etsy advice and apply some of it the sales have not moved up. How often should a seller relist an item? I jumped into wholesale right away because of the low sales on Etsy and did very well. Now I just have to go back to fixing the Etsy sales.
Thanks so much for the great posts and advice. It is all so helpful! Sue :~)
Faith W.
Hi Sue!
Problems I see with Etsy are a) several items of a similar nature being listed, which drives down sales/prices and b) Etsy’s primary viewers are other crafters, who tend to make things themselves versus buying. That’s not to say that crafters don’t buy- it’s just that we tend to be pretty selective.
What’s an interesting social phenomena are crafters thinking they have created something unique, yet they get on Etsy and lo and behold there are 10-20 other identical sets of items! We often forget that it’s hard to be a lone wolf artist in the classical sense when we live in a Web 2.0 saturated world. We’re so bombarded with images and raw materials (that are, by the way, manufactured based on studies of trends- something else social in nature), that we often confuse “our” ideas with what we’ve been influenced by. Thus its hard to make a niche for one’s self when our ideas look a lot like what others are doing (even though we think they are unique!).
Unless you are lucky, e-commerce in all its varieties takes a few years to establish. The good old days of throwing a few things on eBay with little effort are long gone. Now you have to market, create content for your website, use social media, look into search engine optimization, and beef up your photography skills.
Sue Betanzos
Thanks Faith and you are so right. I was pretty excited about my first sale on Etsy and was sure more would follow. Then I saw that there were many sellers with the same product. That’s when I dove into wholesale locally and did much better. No one local is doing my product which is great for me. Now to just keep the momentum going.
I looked into SEO and it was a bit overwhelming, but I am determined to learn it! What’s been challenging is finding the balance between internet time and studio time. Still working on that! Thanks again so much for your insight – we ARE bombarded by tons of info and it’s easy to lose sight of your true self!
newsprout
Yes, multiple revenue streams are important in any business, but when your art business is something you do on your days off or balanced with supporting your family and another job, its hard. I went years without doing my art at all becuase my job took all my time. I finally decided to make time about a year ago and dream everyday of being self employed. Etsy has given me the ability to keep this dream alive, but the ups and downs in sales can be discouraging and yet it is my reality. I tried craft shows and they took too much out of me getting prepared. I have the inventory and should look into wholesale but that takes time too, and time is something I don’t have much of. So for now, I create on weekends and late at night, keep my dreams alive and soak up all this great advise. I look forward to reading your newsletter.
dolcebeada
I have had multiple revenue streams for the past 5 years or so. I have wholesale accounts – many of whom have different “high” seasons. I do my own local art & wine shows as well as holiday shows. I have a few consignment customers. I have my website and my Etsy shop was just opened in January.
I think it is great having these different routes for selling because in addition to the steadier income it also gives me more time with my family than I would have if I only relied on craft shows for example.
I do find it hard to juggle all of this as I am basically a one person show and sometimes wonder if all areas are really that profitable. I think that is what I need to evaluate at this point in my business. I am also trying to increase my online sales in 2010 because I beleive this revenue stream should be both profitable and flexible.
Thanks for the article and I love the comments too – lots of additional ideas.
Mitzi Curi
I read this article with interest as well as each comment. It’s fascinating to find out what others are doing. I sell antiques, primarily, but as I’ve acquired lots of vintage materials I’ve begun to create jewelry and other crafts from the unique materials. Now I’ve started an Etsy shop, which I need to work on, and I’m looking into shows for both antiques and crafts. Eventually, I’d like to sell directly from my blog, which I began a year ago and really enjoy.
Nickie Frye
Agreed! I’m planning on selling at an Antiques & Collectables show next month & am working on a plan for a blog that will have links to my etsy shop & eventually connect to my own shop outside of etsy. It’s just a lot to plan/execute when it’s just you running the business. Good luck to everyone!
Regina
This is so true! I am working on having multiple streams of income. I primarily exhibit at art shows through out the year. I have been on Etsy for 1 year now and am doing my first bead show later on this year. I do a very small amount in wholesale at this point but it is definitely another avenue to explore and to work into.
Thanks so much for taking the time to remind me of what I need to work toward. It is greatly appreciated!
Regina
jenn
Nice reminder that those venues are out there! I have been lax lately, but will shorty be selling in a museum consignment store.
Marley
How do you get into wholesale? Is this mostly for jewelry makers? I am looking for other revenues for my supplies. I am in the beginning stages of designing clothing and other handmade items.
Debra
I’ve been thinking about what other things that I could do to sell my items. I’ve done one craft fair I learned a lot I don’t know if I would want to do them all of the time. I would love to have some of my items in other people’s shops just thinking of what I could do to have multiple streams of income coming in.
Thank you for all of this good information
Amanda Devine
I am thrilled to discover your site and am really enjoying your articles.
This one in particular is a subject I am working with at present and I feel it is essential to the success of any business, but in particular crafters and artists.
However, it can get overwhelming to produce “art” in any form to such a high quantity. Here in South Africa we are blessed with affordable labour forces that can manufacture if trained (which aids the unemployment sector etc) but I think it is important to broaden your diversity in what you offer too.
Classes and educational’s are a good addition if you are confident enough; eBooks are promising for us because it is still a relatively new concept here; business to business services are also a growing sector.
Crafter’s and Artists would benefit from looking outside their core business to revenue streams that don’t rely on their capacity to produce but harness that skill in another way.
Thanks for a thought provoking subject.
black onyx jewelry
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