Home business: making handmade cards. Business plan for a company producing handmade cards Now we are deciding on the platforms on which, in addition to social networks, you can show your portfolio for free

) draw, why not translate your creativity into additional finances. Moreover, the sales market for designers and illustrators is not limited by geographical location. You can sell your digital goods (drawings, illustrations) or do custom work all over the world. On the international market, for example, the price for illustrations and designs is much higher than in Russia.

If you are a beginner illustrator, you don’t need to rush headlong into the deep end and leave your main job in the hope that now you will start drawing and your illustrations will sell like hot cakes. Start small - just do something every day to promote your creativity. Draw every day for at least half an hour, engage in self-development, study, look for inspiration in the world around you. And gradually, you will have the opportunity to leave your main job and completely switch to freelancing.

1. Start with your dreams.

To start your dream job and start earning money through creativity, you must first understand your dream, analyze yourself, your character, desires, opportunities and abilities.

Let's answer a few questions for ourselves before we start freelancing in the field of drawing, illustration and design:

You can also have a more flexible style. For example, you create art in different media, adapting it to different industries and consumers. Today you draw with watercolors, tomorrow with pencil, and the day after tomorrow you work in Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop. Your style may change depending on the needs of the client or market you work with, but your work must include yourself, your thoughts and desires.

STYLE IS UNDERSTANDING WHO YOU ARE AND WHAT YOU WANT TO SAY

The main key to success is understanding your desires, skills and preferences.

2. Analysis of the selected niche.

You have decided what you want and can draw, now you need to analyze this niche. See what is in demand in your chosen market:

1. See what professionals in your field have to offer.

I made a list of designers and illustrators that I like:

4. Visit exhibitions and stores where your products are displayed

5. See what's popular in your niche on visual social networks like Instagram and Pinterest

3. Where to present your work. Portfolio promotion strategy.

At this stage, you need to think through a strategy for developing and promoting your creative business, based on an analysis of your target audience.

So, we already understand what the market for our product looks like. Now we need to decide where and how we will present ourselves.
I focus on international market, so my portfolio, website and social networks are in English.

Based on my orientation towards the international market, I also decided on social networks.

I will not show my portfolio on Odnoklassniki and Vkontakte. My main platforms for promoting my work will be:

Pinterest— my favorite visual social network. It is not very popular in Russia as a resource for promotion, but I have a lot of buyers and visitors coming from this site. In the following posts I will talk about promotion on Pinterest.

Instagram is also a popular visual social network. You can find a lot of information about Instagram on the Internet.

Twitter And Facebook I don't really like it. But I decided since I have them, I will automatically post my new works there.

Now we are deciding on the platforms on which, in addition to social networks, you can show your portfolio for free.

Here are the platforms I chose:

Beehance is one of the most popular free platforms for posting a portfolio. I upload my work there as large projects or collections.

Dribbble is a free platform for illustrators, artists and designers from all over the world. You can post your portfolio there at the invitation of one of the project participants, having previously registered. You can search for invitations on Dribbble itself by typing invite or dribbble invite in the search. In order to get there, I prepared my debut shot in advance and sent a letter to everyone who had invitations, asking them to give me one of them.

By the way, I often have invitations— I publish news about this on my social networks and on portfolio platforms.

Illustrators.ru- a Russian platform for posting portfolios, also free. Since I have a lot of patterns based on Russian ancient ornaments, and patterns with Khokhloma painting People from Russia buy from me very often, I decided that I needed to be present on this platform.

I decided to stop on these three platforms for now, since updating my portfolio takes a lot of time, and it’s simply unrealistic to have time for everything.

There is also such an interesting free platform as Illustration Friday There, once a week, one word is given, and anyone can post their illustration or drawing on the site with an active link to the portfolio, on the topic of this word. The illustration can be created in any style and using any technique. The limit for imagination within the framework of this word is unlimited. I periodically go there, look at the topic, and if I have something ready, I post my work there. Sometimes there is a desire to draw specifically on a proposed topic - I do not limit myself to this.

There are similar free sites on the topic of recipes They Draw & Cook and travel They Draw & Travel But since I don’t like to draw on these topics, I don’t bother there.

4. Where you can sell your drawings and illustrations.

So, we have decided on a niche, decided what and where we will show, posted our portfolio for free, now we will look for platforms to sell our art.

Drains

I'll start the list with stocks - I've been selling my patterns and illustrations there for a long time. I won’t go deeper into this topic, since probably only lazy people haven’t written about stocks and making money on them. You will find a lot of information on this topic online. My portfolio is available on all major illustrator sites; one of them, the most profitable, is a relatively young, but profitable and cozy resource for creating your own store with digital goods, illustrations, drawings and postcards. In order to get into it, you need to pass the exam, providing the administration with a link to your work.

• The Hungry JPEG- a platform similar to Creative Market. Same requirements, features and exam.

One product or illustration can be sold on all platforms at once an unlimited number of times.

There are also print shops - sites that sell finished physical products with your prints, drawings and illustrations. I don’t work with them, you can look for information on the Internet.

In order to start making money from your creativity, you need to think through your own strategy for your small art business.

You will have to not only create, but also promote your portfolio. If you spend at least an hour every day drawing and an hour promoting on social networks, in a year you will already have your own small business and extra income. If you sit and dream about your dream job, but do nothing for it, then you will remain living with rose-colored glasses.

Don't start doing your work too actively and diligently creative business on initial stage. You will quickly get tired and burn out without having time to wait for any results. It is better to move slowly, in small steps, but surely and regularly towards your goal.

Even 100 years ago, when telephone communications and social networks didn't exist the only way communications and notifications were handwritten letters. Nowadays, every person can send messages of varying content and size every day at any time of day and place in the world via email, but this has not forced some people to completely abandon paper correspondence.

"How nice it would be to receive beautiful postcard with warm words...", the Portuguese Paulo Magalhesa once thought and created a postcrossing project that provides an opportunity for millions of people with different countries world to communicate and exchange postcards.

The creative movement arose in 2005 under the influence of bookcrossing - a social movement whose goal is the free exchange of books, which, after reading by their owners, can be left in a cafe, in a park, at a train station and bridge, etc. Over the 12 years of its existence, 676,000 people from 208 countries have become postcrossers. During the same time, more than 40,000,000 postcards were sent.

The success can be explained by the simplicity and accessibility of the project. To become a postcrosser, you first need to register on the official website. To do this, you must indicate not only your name, email and password, but also all the necessary email data.

Before sending your first postcard, you need to write at least 5 messages, which verifies your account real person. The site determines addressees randomly, so when sending a postcard, the recipient does not even know who. When the card reaches its destination, its owner registers receipt, and the sender is sure that someone received it.

There are other ways of sharing, where several people join in the process or the postcard travels around the world many times. The most active participating countries are Russia, China, USA, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Finland, and the Czech Republic.

The largest number of postcards were sent from Germany, Russia, the USA, the Netherlands and China. Thus, the popularity of postcards has increased, and they have become a sought-after product in many countries around the world.

Postcrossing is a creative activity that gives a special experience, but it can also become profitable business, outgrown from a hobby. This movement turned out to be interesting and exciting not only for amateurs, but also for professionals - philocartists who collect a variety of postcards. They collect both exclusive old and original new postcards.

This business niche remains unknown to many novice entrepreneurs, who have no idea how much money an active postcrosser can spend per month on purchasing postcards. Such people can become regular customers a company that produces unique postcards in small editions.

Target audience and business development options

Postal and greeting cards can be developed in three directions, which determines target audience And starting capital. The first option – opening your own printing house – is the most labor-intensive and costly option. Implement such a project for less than 2,500,000 rubles even in small town It won’t work, since most of the budget will be spent on purchasing expensive and high-quality equipment.

You will also need a room of impressive size where you can place the equipment. A lot of time and effort will also be spent on finding highly qualified workers, of whom at least 50 people will be needed in order to put the production of postcards on stream and not incur additional losses.

Basic expenses are covered by profits in 1-2 years, but during this time the company may already go bankrupt. Of course, it is much easier to make money on postcrossing if you have your own printing house, since then you can set your own quality standards, control the supply of raw materials and avoid losses due to the fault of another enterprise.

People of different ages can come to the printing house to purchase a postcard. social status, therefore this business development option covers a wide range of target audiences.

Attention! If you can buy a postcard in a store for 15 rubles, then its cost is approximately 8 rubles, and if it was printed in a personal printing house, then the price drops to 5 rubles per piece.

Opening an online store

The second direction for the postcrossing business is opening an online store. This method is simpler and less troublesome; it is suitable for beginning entrepreneurs who do not have large financial investments or they don’t understand printing standards, so they would like to simply sell products that have already been created by someone.

In the future, the online store can expand its scope of activity and not only sell postcards, but also look for original artists and create layouts postcards and send them to print.

An online store can be managed by one person who will create the website himself, but in the future, with an increase in sales volume and the development of the company, it will be necessary to expand the staff.

Ideally, an online greeting card store needs 6 people to thrive:

• a programmer who will create an electronic resource, support and modernize it;
• an artist who will produce ideas for unique postcard designs;
• a copywriter who will write about store news, create product descriptions, etc.;
• a translator who adapts website content for buyers from other countries;
• an accountant who will professionally maintain the necessary documentation;
• content manager who will administer the store’s pages on social networks.

Selecting qualified and experienced personnel, as well as providing an original assortment, are the main stages on which the success of a postcard store depends. As a rule, people aged 18 to 35 make purchases via the Internet because they are not suspicious of electronic resources just like the older generations.

Work to order

The third business option at postcrossing is the search for rare postcards to order for philocartists. This area of ​​business requires not only a lot of time and acquaintances in certain circles, but also the ability to distinguish fakes from originals.

You need to be an expert to engage in such an industry. Those who are not knowledgeable about vintage postcards can work for collectors of modern postcards. They “hunt” for exclusive postcards, which are produced in small editions (100-200 pieces). Competition in this segment is insignificant, and the costs of finding and selling postcards are low.

Legal subtleties

Beginning entrepreneurs most often choose the second option for developing a postcrossing business, namely creating an online store, since, in addition to the above advantages, it is also easy to register legally. First you need to register as an individual entrepreneur.

There are four ways to do this:

• self-registration, after paying a state fee of 800 rubles;
• registration via mail is a lengthy process, but mandatory if the business is opened in a city other than the one where the entrepreneur is registered;
• registration via law firm– an expensive pleasure that allows you to save your time and nerves;
• registration of individual entrepreneurs by power of attorney.

The last three options relieve the novice businessman of the obligation to collect necessary documents, but knowing the list of required papers, everyone can easily do this themselves.

To register an individual entrepreneur you will need:

• a copy of all completed passport pages
• receipt of payment of state duty;
• application for transition to a simplified taxation system;
• statement about state registration an individual as an individual entrepreneur.

For ease of reference accounting the owner of an online store can sell postcards, receive a profit for it and pay taxes according to a simplified system or a general one (STS or OSN).

You can also work according to UTII (taxation system individual species entrepreneurial activity), if payment for the goods occurs at the point of delivery, and not on the website. This form of interaction with the buyer falls under the definition of retail trade under Art. 346.27 Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

Taxes

The simplified tax system is best suited if the company has a small number of employees. With the simplified tax system, the amounts of taxes deducted will be significantly less than with the simplified tax system, and reporting is simplified, so small and medium business chooses the simplified tax system.

Under the simplified tax system, there are two rates for taxes: 6% deducted from income, or 15% from “income minus expenses.” Rates are selected individually.

The first option is convenient if the costs of running a business are significant less income, and the entrepreneur does not want such information to pass through tax service. For trading, a more acceptable rate is considered to be 15%, which must be paid to the individual entrepreneur, after deducting the amount of expenses from income. In this case, documentary recording of all expenses is mandatory.

If an entrepreneur chooses the simplified tax system, he needs to submit an application in two copies within 30 days after registration, and ideally during it. You can draw up such a document by filling out form No. 26.2-1 (KND 1150001) manually or free of charge on a special electronic resource.

Important! The transition to the simplified tax system can only be carried out at the beginning of the calendar year. If you are late, then throughout the current year the entrepreneur will have to maintain complex accounting and pay large amounts of taxes.

To register a business, you must indicate the OKVED code, which more precisely defines the scope of activity of the new enterprise. You can specify several of them so that in the future there will be an opportunity to expand the scope of your business without financial and time losses on re-registration of documents. The universal code for all online stores is 52.61.2 " Retail carried out directly using television, radio, telephone and the Internet.”

In addition to this, you can indicate in the papers:

• 52.6 Retail trade outside stores;
• 52.61 Retail trade by order;
• 52.61.1 Retail postal (parcel) trade;
• 52.63 Other retail trade outside stores;
• 72.6 Other activities related to the use of computer technology and information technology.

If the assortment of an online store consists not only of postcards, but also of related products, then the entrepreneur needs to indicate other OKVED codes:

• 52.47.3 Retail trade of stationery and stationery;
• 52.48.36 Retail trade in philatelic and numismatic goods;
• 64.11.14 Other postal activities.

To produce postcards that you later plan to sell, the following codes are suitable:

• 21.23 Production of stationery and paper products;
• 22.15 Other types of publishing activities;
• 22.22 Printing activities, not included in other groups.

Postcrossing business promotion

It is easy to tell potential buyers about a company that produces unique postcards and sells them, since the advertised product is simple and understandable, attracts attention with its originality and can interest even those who are not post-crossers.

The best way to promote handmade products is social networks and contextual advertising in search engines.

We promote on social networks

To photograph a product in style, to tell an interesting story about it, to organize a promotion or giveaway, to invite a respected blogger to recommend it to their subscribers - these are free opportunities on Instagram, Telegram, Facebook and Vkontakte, with which you can short terms tell a large number of people about the products produced and sold.

Those who search on Google or Yandex about how and where to buy unique postcards or other products for postcrossing will definitely become your customers if you use the services contextual advertising. A person in the background on various sites will be asked to go to the site of your online store and get acquainted with the assortment. This fashionable and convenient way of promotion does not require much time or money.

Stores

When the company becomes recognizable at the city level, local bookstores and stationery stores will gladly accept the original product for sale. You can talk about unique postcards at specialized fairs of handmade products. They are regularly held in almost every city, or at exhibitions dedicated to public holidays.

Instead of a conclusion

In order to finally decide whether it is worth running a postcrossing business, how profitable it is, and whether it is difficult to achieve success, it is enough to weigh all the pros and cons.

The advantages of creating a business selling postcards for a novice entrepreneur include:

• low cost of goods;
• its relevance among postcrossers and phylocartists;
• demand exceeding supply;
• simplicity legal registration business;
• the opportunity to advertise a company in a short time;
• low initial investment;
• a hobby that has grown into a business;
• work from home;
• low level of risks;
• the opportunity to realize your own creative aspirations.

Negative factors can be called:

• long-term payback;
• low income;
• narrow segment of the target audience;
• the difficulty of creating unique postcards;
• cooperation with third-party printing houses that do not always comply with the terms of the contract;
• the difficulty of selecting an artist whose style will glorify the enterprise;
• the need to constantly replenish the assortment and make it original;
• the uncertainty of predicting demand for a certain type of postcard;
• some seasonality of the product.

The disadvantages of a postcrossing business are not so significant and can only discourage an entrepreneur who places too high hopes on this area and primarily wants to make money, and not create something unique and beautiful.

Starting capital was about $1000. It could have been more; at the beginning of your journey you can always spend more than you have (on promotion, on production, etc.). But taking out loans or borrowing funds for a start-up is a thankless task. Therefore, all capital is our personal funds. We risked our own, we are also responsible for this ourselves.

We are not even 70 days yet. But the most difficult thing was to launch by February 14th - it was important for us to do everything quickly in order to capture the big news feed for as long as possible. Now we are not in a hurry, and we are approaching our next product more carefully: we conduct surveys, tests, and attract specialists. Us this was not enough in the first month.

First month We celebrated by recording a small congratulatory video.

Our business does not have quick profits. We are now investing everything that we earned on the first product into the next one.

A good idea is not enough, you need to actively work on its implementation. The main thing is not to stop and not be afraid of transformations if they are necessary.

Starting capital was about $1000. It could have been more; at the beginning of your journey you can always spend more than you have (on promotion, on production, etc.). But taking out loans or borrowing funds for a start-up is a thankless task. Therefore, all capital is our personal funds. We risked our own, we are also responsible for this ourselves.

We are not even 70 days yet. But the most difficult thing was to launch by February 14th - it was important for us to do everything quickly in order to capture the big news feed for as long as possible. Now we are not in a hurry, and we are approaching our next product more carefully: we conduct surveys, tests, and attract specialists. Us this was not enough in the first month.

First month We celebrated by recording a small congratulatory video.

Our business does not have quick profits. We are now investing everything that we earned on the first product into the next one.

A good idea is not enough, you need to actively work on its implementation. The main thing is not to stop and not be afraid of transformations if they are necessary.

Do you want to open your own business at home, but don’t know what you can do with your own hands to sell? Eat good idea For quick start: making postcards to order. This niche is only 30-40% filled, so there is little competition here. You can create from 10 to 15 copies per day. If there are more orders, you can attract an assistant, for example an art college student. The profitability of the gifts and souvenirs market is about 20-25%. If you produce postcards at home and do not pay taxes, the profitability of the business will be about 80-100%.

Homemade cards – great idea for home business.

Making handmade cards as a good business idea

There are several most common ways to make homemade cards. These include:

• Scrapbooking as a home business option

A type of handicraft widely used in decoration family photo albums. The literal translation of the term is scrap book. Now this technique is used to create leporello (a postcard using the scrapbooking technique in the shape of an accordion), home-made creativity for creating house postcards, designer postcards in the form of boxes or baskets. Making custom postcards using scrapbooking techniques makes availability easier large quantities templates and interesting blanks with fastenings in the form of springs, rings, ribbons, which are perfect if you have a standard postcard size. You can make a special blank with your own hands, using cardboard and decorative elements as raw materials.

• Quilling - business idea on postcards

A postcard made using the quilling technique is always unique. The method is based on twisting paper strips and resulting in a spiral. These designer birthday cards are not alike. You don't need to create them. serious investments. The range of products can be impressive. Bookstores readily accept them for sale. An indispensable condition for business development is perseverance, dexterity and accuracy. It is enough to buy paper of different densities and several colors, cut it into strips and fasten it with glue. This is a great souvenir and an original gift for a memorable date. Proper promotion will ensure a constant flow of orders and business profitability.

• Vitinanka as an idea for a business creating postcards

Cardmaking using the paper cutting technique is the creation of patterns and paper pictures, which are blanks for future cards. This method divides technology according to artistic features into: openwork, silhouette, single and complex. Making postcards with your own hands can combine several methods of making cards. The result is products in the form of silhouette embroidery, figures of horsemen, and superimposed images. Drawn Vitinanki is a picture with a pronounced compositional structure and thematic character. The Crafts Fair willingly accepts such exhibition handmade displays for sale, so your business will quickly take off.

• Popular Iris folding for home business

It’s not difficult to make money from bright, colorful equipment. Paper is the filling for the selected silhouette of the picture and forms the image from the inside. The designer uses templates, pictures, and diagrams in his work. You can create the basis for greeting cards yourself or use proven techniques. The buyer will willingly pay money for spectacular handmade cards that will look like decoration. Just like an original scrap card, a card using the iris folding technique will be an excellent solution for a portfolio. Although at first glance this type of needlework seems complicated, the Iris folding technique is great for additional income and a low-cost home business.

Materials for cardmaking business

To make cards you will need consumables, such as:

• designer paper for handmade cards
• openwork paper napkins
• buttons, small accessories
• sparkles and sequins, beads
• chipboards and die-cuts
• borders for scrapbooking
• ribbons, ropes, braid
• contour and volumetric stickers
• cameos and paper figures

You can buy materials for the business of creating handmade cards with delivery on the following sites:

• shop.delki.ru - materials for crafts
• domovitto.ru - useful accessories
• homyachok-shop.ru - goods for handicrafts
• livemaster.ru - paper
• lelekahobby.ru - blanks for postcards

Latest trends in cardmaking

Before wondering how to make money at home with your own hands, it is worth assessing fashion trends in cardmaking and starting a business producing the most popular designs. Now watercolor cards are in fashion: they are preferred by 70% of customers, they provide stable income and are a good basis for a home based business. They are profitable in production: their cost is lower than creating postcards using the scrapbooking technique, and the manufacturing process takes less time. Excellent and profitable option There will be the creation of miniature postcards using watercolor techniques and selling them in flower shops.

The chevron pattern is still popular, which is chosen by every 3rd client out of 5. The technique is a V-shaped pattern that can be used everywhere as a background.

This is very convenient if making cards with your own hands is your “home” business. A kind of template always looks original and thorough. Do-it-yourself shirt postcards are also gaining popularity, but their creation is quite labor-intensive.

Selling handmade products online

Have you made hand-drawn postcards, but don't know how to sell them? Indeed, where can you find customers who want to buy handmade cards and are willing to pay a real price for them? The answer is simple - online sales! You can easily find your buyer on the Internet. The portfolio will become the basis of your online business project. The quality of the photo will largely determine how quickly a buyer for your work will be found and how quickly the business as a whole will develop. Therefore, take beautiful staged photos, without necessarily contacting well-known photographers; find a beginner on social networks and offer to make a portfolio for little money and a link to it on your online resource.

A designer product will definitely attract its buyer. But making a sample is half the battle; you also need to tell potential clients about it. The easiest way to do this is through your virtual trading platform on the web. It is enough to post photographs of the assortment in an online store of handmade cards and your original work will be seen by millions of users, but its creation and promotion requires serious financial investments.

Making postcards with your own hands: ways to sell goods

Basic ways to sell postcards:

• own website on this topic on the Internet
• services for the sale of handmade products, for example, Crafts Fair
• various social networks
• beauty salons and spa centers
• flower shops and mini-markets for stationery
• custom publishing houses
• shops selling handmade products

Examples of services for selling postcards include: b:

• livemaster.ru – Masters Fair
• tut-pe4at.ru – DIY postcards
• top-otkrytka.ru – Top postcard
• tiu.ru – Your own postcard business store on Tiu
• uckytoys.ru – Service for selling handmade goods
• magazin-masterov.ru – Shop of masters

The most suitable and effective way to find buyers on the Internet is to sell goods through social networks and blogs.

Having your own online store is both expensive and makes no sense at the first stage; it would be much more cost-effective and correct to start promoting your business through social networks. In Odnoklassniki and Contact, sales are built through groups and personal pages. On Instagram you can publish new crafts and talk about your small business subscribers. Run promotions to attract followers by encouraging posts and likes. Come up with unusual idea, for example, portrait postcards. Come up with a story for your brand, make a logo, simple, with a sincere slogan. Unusual things, with history, made by hand will always be in demand. Perhaps your cards will become a new trend and find particular popularity among post-crossers and bloggers. Such a business organization will not require additional costs for advertising products.