Break Up With Custom Orders And Sell Your Own Offers
When I started my handmade business, I took any order I could. I needed to make money. I did not have the luxury of my income being optional, or extra. I did not have a padded savings account to fall back on. So creating whatever people wanted me to create seemed like the best option. And honestly? At the time, it was. Read on to see how and why I broke up with custom work…
When you are just starting out in a handmade business, custom orders seem practically NECESSARY. And for me, to get that ball rolling and start making money that I absolutely needed to make to contribute to our family, it WAS, for a time. [You can read about how I got started drawing in customers both local and online using Facebook groups here.] I make party & event supplies, and home decor, and it definitely felt like I needed to offer custom everything in order to have enough sales. At first, this was true. My Etsy shop was not pulling in what I needed it to yet on it’s own, and the bottom line is that people are absolutely willing to pay great money for high quality custom work. Banners that aren’t just in their chosen theme, but also have their child’s name? YES. Something obscure they can’t find anywhere, but I could design? YES. They found the perfect bedspread and want the decor in their child’s room to match it perfectly? Definitely YES.
There are upsides to doing this much custom work. The good part was building lots of great local relationships- especially with photographers as they booked me over and over again to make their smash cake set ideas come to life. This was so valuable and I have actually made friendships this way with other local entrepreneurs. I love working with other creatives and getting to see my work in their finished product. I love meeting a challenge and seeing if I can make something, no matter how tall the order. I love customers being so happy that they could have a vision and I could work my magic.
But the downsides are fairly large as well. I was HUSTLING. All the time. I was posting, selling, messaging, following up, going back and forth via emails and nailing down details. Meeting up with people to get color samples. Running to the craft store to find the supplies I needed for a very specific thing. Giving price estimates, giving discounts, calculating shipping, looking for boxes and other packaging the right size….the list goes on. It was GREAT in one sense, but I also had a stark realization that I wanted less of all of that, not more. When I started my business, I assumed I would expand into event planning, mainly because I am good at it. But I realized I LOVED online business. I wanted to streamline more and more and have a much less full agenda. I didn’t want to spend my work day communicating back and forth about custom details. I wanted to make things, post them, and have people purchase them, and then ship them, and be done with work for the day. (Of course there is more to business than this, but you understand what I am saying.)
So I broke up with custom orders. At first, I started to limit custom orders, especially as my Etsy shop started bringing in more organic traffic every day. When the pandemic hit, not only was it more difficult to take custom work because of meeting with people, or taking frequent trips to the stores (and some of my supply shops were closed!!), but I also experienced the same boom that many online shops did. I pared down the amount of custom orders drastically in 2020 because of circumstances, then in 2021, I let my customers know that June 1st would begin a new chapter for my business- no more custom work. I do still allow color customization for my shop products when time allows, but other than that, my shop is now my MAIN income. Everyone orders through there, and I ship it out, and that is that.
What have been the pros and cons of moving away from custom work? Well, the downsides are that I hardly ever have local customers anymore. I occasionally still work with a few photographers, but people mainly fine me through Pinterest, or Etsy search. I do miss that. Additionally, doing custom work was a fun challenge and a creative outlet, and simply stocking my shop doesn’t offer the same level of creative stimulation. But the upsides have been ENORMOUS. Not spending my time working on custom orders has freed up my time in a profound way. I now spend time designing new ideas, stocking up my products, marketing on social media and Pinterest, and generally taking more ownership of my time and my life. I am finally running my business, instead of my business running me!
Tell me in the comments: are you working toward getting away from custom work? In what way do you feel like this would change your business and your life?
