Knitting, crocheting & sewing at home: From hobby to self-employment

• Sparkling idea
  • Business plan
  • permits
  • clerical activities
  • customer acquisition

They love to crochet hats, to knit scarves or to sew sweaters and want to become self-employed with their hobby ">

Sparkling idea

A sparking idea is the basis

First, you need an idea for your founding. The concept should not only suit you, but also the market. Because only if these two criteria are met, your foundation has a real chance to be successful. Therefore, it is best to brainstorm and ask yourself the question: What would you prefer to do as a self-employed person? You can give your ideas free rein. At first, there are no inappropriate ideas - only then should you evaluate your thoughts and critically question them.

When brainstorming, try not to be blocked and capture any thoughts that come to your mind. Afterwards you can critically question your ideas and concretise your business idea. If you are not sure, you should consult close confidants. These can be easily assessed and provided with advice.

Business plan

Creating a business plan is essential

If you have an idea for your founding, it is important to formulate it. This is best done in a business plan. In addition to summarizing your business concept, it should include more aspects:

• Your name and contact information
• Unique selling point of your idea
• your qualifications
• Information about the target group
• Marketing Concept
• Market and competitive analysis
• Financial concept
• Possible risks
• aims

Only then can you optimally prepare yourself for independence. Because with its help, you ensure that you have well thought through your business idea. They weigh up possible risks and try to minimize them. You also have to come up with such an approach if you are dependent on debt capital. Because banks and Co. grant you loans only if you can present a solidly prepared business plan and convince with this. In this way you can secure the corporate financing on which your independence is fundamentally dependent.

permits

Obtain permits from authorities and Co.

If you want to start a business, it usually requires specific approvals, qualifications, or approvals. Find out what you need to fulfill. Then get all necessary approvals. These include, for example, the application for the tax number or the entry in the commercial register or the business registration.

clerical activities

Completion of office activities

In addition to the actual core business of handicrafts fall for self-employed more tasks. The settlement of these also has to be clarified in advance. For example, self-employed people have to write bills or keep books properly. These tasks are often not very popular. However, many financial founders can not afford to outsource these activities.

But who takes over the bookkeeping itself, not only saves costs, but keeps track of his independence. To make this task easier, you can use a computer-based solution, such as Lexware's accounting software. Because this makes it possible for you to do the bookkeeping yourself with little experience in this area. Office work is done quickly and you can concentrate on your core business.

customer acquisition

Acquire new customers

If you want to be successful in the long term, you need to establish yourself in the market and build a customer base. Only then can you achieve your desired sales. In order for potential customers to become aware of you and find you, you need a sophisticated marketing strategy. Essential in the age of digitization is a social media presence as well as an own website. Because only then can you be found at all. It makes sense to sell your products on platforms like Etsy, Amazon Handmade or eBay. Because there you can make interested parties aware of you and your goods and expand your customer base. Disadvantages of these platforms are high fees and low customer loyalty. Thanks to modular systems, online shops can be set up quickly, cost-effectively and flexibly. You thereby retain full control over your customer contacts, but you will have to deal even more intensively with legal issues (cancellation policy and terms and conditions) and payment processing.

You can also share images of your home-made products through social networks like Pinterest. Even so, new customers can be gained. In addition to the Internet, you can also attract attention through well-proven advertising channels. How about, for example, an ad in regional newspapers ">