How to Start a Knitting Business and Tips to Be Successful

If you want the best tips on how to start a Knitting business and be successful, this article will really help you.

It explains a lot about Knitting as a business and exactly what to do and how to be successful.

 

First things first…

Have you ever heard of Michael J Kittredge?

When Michael was 16 years old, he decided to make a Christmas gift for his mother. He was successful in creating a candle that was made from melted red crayons.

The Christmas gift was so beautifully done and very touching that a friend of the family offered to buy this wax candle that young Kittredge sculpted.

Seizing the possibility of this becoming an opportunity of earning money with candle selling, the young entrepreneur used the family’s garage to start the candle-making process in greater quantities.

Not only were his candles a sensation as he sold them at school, but he also went to various businesses in his Massachusetts hometown, and had the businesses sell them on a consignment basis.

Sales were so successful, and business expanded, that the young lad in 1972 rented out a former paper mill that was in his hometown for $80 a month.

The rest, as they say, is history.

From a simple hobby of candle making, a gift of love made from red crayons by a 16-year-old young man was presented to his mother on that Christmas morning.

The name of the company eventually became Yankee Candle and grew to be a $1,000,000,000 company until it was sold in 2013

 

Importance

The importance of our creativity and passion for our hobbies should never be underestimated.

As the saying goes, “Do what you love, and you’ll never work another day in your life.”

There are always potential customers who appreciate arts and crafts and the tremendous loving attention and work that goes into their beautiful creation.

If one realizes that they have a knitting talent and a creative flair for creating quality knitted products, then perhaps the next possible step is to consider starting a knitting business.

Therefore, take out the yarn and the knitting needles and begin to weave your plan accordingly in how to start and succeed in the knitting business.

 

7 Tips to Becoming Successful with a Knitting Business

 

1. Knit From a Pattern

As an experienced knitter, before picking up those knitting needles and starting to weave together a beautiful knitted product, you have to have a plan or an idea of what the end product will look like.

Often, to ensure that this happens, a knitter will use a pattern.

So, it is when considering the starting of a knitting business. You need to have a pattern or a plan that you can follow.

 

2. Create a Knitting Business Plan

The first critical step in starting a knitting business is how the business will run, the development of a budget, articulating what your mission and vision are for your business, how you will fund your operation, etc.

Another critical component as part of the plan or pattern process is to determine from the onset how much you will charge for your knitted products?

Other miscellaneous items to address prior to conducting business will be your business process in taking orders for certain items to be created.

Also, it is important to think through how you will report your income from this business to the IRS.

Therefore, at the onset of conducting business, it is important that in order to maximize deductions that you have a set area aside that is dedicated strictly to the business.

That way you can use that used space as part of your income and expense reporting to the IRS.

It also is strongly suggested that a business create a separate checking account so that the finances will not be co-mingled with your personal income and expenses.

As always, it is always a sound strategy to seek advice from trusted professionals on how you may wish to proceed on starting your knitting business.

Talking about businesses, below are some businesses that can bring in good money if done right:

• Soap Making Business
• Shipping Business
• Lip Gloss Business
• Pet Sitting Business
• Lawn Care Business
• Transportation Business
• Painting Business
• Lash Business
• Commercial Cleaning Business
• ATM Business

 

3. Knit Together a Name

An important part of your business is to give your enterprise a name.

The name of your company should be as unique as your style of knitting or knitted products your offer and as catchy as possible.

An example could be the “Knitting Lady” with the tagline of “off my rocker.”

Also, as part of your brand, you may want to consider a particular logo for your company. It should be eye-catching and capture pictorially what your company is all about.

You can develop your logo by yourself, by either drawing or taking a picture, utilize somebody with artistic talents, or hire a marketing individual.

Before moving ahead with your developed logo and name, it is best to search the website to see if other names or logos similar to yours are being used.

It may also prove to be valuable to you as the business owner that if you have developed a unique name and logo to register those brands as your own.

There are various online websites that can offer this service and help to walk you through the process. One such website is Trademarkengine.com.

 

4. Knitting Creations

Another important aspect of your retail strategy is how you will go about selling your created items.

Specifically, will you just be knitting certain items and selling those generic items through various means? Or, will you be offering personalized knitted items to customers?

This process would entail being more market-specific, reaching out to people, taking orders, and then fulfilling these orders within a certain timeframe.

Additionally, your plan of operation may not only be the selling of quality pre-knitted products but a combination of taking customer orders.

Of course, the choice is yours, but prudent thinking ahead would suggest that this possibility may present itself when people want knitted products to be personalized or they themselves present a pattern to you and ask if it can be done.

Addressing this possibility or offering this possibility should be considered prior to present your products for sale.

Also See: How to Start a Hair Business from Home.

 

5. Develop Knitting Patterns

Another aspect of your company’s service to others through your knitting business may be the development of patterns that can be offered for sale to other knitters.

Your expertise and experience may allow for this added dimension of your business to develop these patterns and sell them to interested individuals.

Additionally, the patterns developed by you and your business can also be presented to other retailers that attract individuals who enjoy knitting as a hobby.

It is also within the realm of possibility that these professionally developed patterns can be presented to various knitting magazines with the intent of selling those patterns so that they can publish them in their periodicals.

Related: Best Ways of Making Money Knitting.

 

 

6. Set Your Knitting Price

As part of your knitting business venture, it is important to set pricing beforehand.

As a business, it is certainly within your right and privilege to negotiate with potential buyers about knitted objects.

However, in order to be successful, you cannot give away the knitting store.

Therefore, it is highly recommended that set pricing be established.

Of course, to do this you must include the cost of your knitting materials, any overhead expenses, and of course include your hourly wage.

By joining these expenses together along with your hourly wage you can put a reasonable price tag upon the knitted item.

It is important that you don’t short-change yourself and make sure that the value of your time is fully realized in setting a price for your quality knitted creation as part of this process.

It is important to include your full time and not just the time that you spent knitting the item.

Specifically, that would include the time developing the pattern, the time spent purchasing the items needed, and the actual time spent knitting.

Also See: How to Make Money from Copywriting.

 

7. Market Your Knitting Business

An important aspect of being successful at your knitting business is how, where, and to whom you will market your knitted product.

For example, the owner of the business may wish to strictly offer their knitted items for sale at various craft shows, festivals, fairs, or other locales that provide for the selling of crafts.

This may be a good option if the business owner is working at another job during the course of the week and uses their evening hours to create their knitted projects.

If this is the scenario and the crafts are sold only on the weekend, this may be a good marketing and selling option to pursue.

Another marketing option is to develop an online presence that can be through either the development of a website, creation of a blog or developing a YouTube channel.

This will certainly expand the business owner’s reach to interested individuals in purchasing the knitted products and be more beneficial in accumulating business revenue.

Also, don’t forget social media platforms.

Instagram, Facebook, etc. is an excellent way to display your talents and products to interested groups who have the same love and appreciation for knitting.

Related: How to Make Money Posting on Social Media including on How to Get Sponsored on Instagram and How to Get Sponsored on Youtube.

Another option is to approach local retail hobby or knitting shops and ask if they would display your wares.

Perhaps a deal could be negotiated to rent out that space that they give to you in order to display your craft ability.

A combination of all or a few of the above would give you a well-rounded approach to marketing and selling your knitted products.

One added suggestion is to develop a label or a tag that has your contact information on it, the name of your company, and your logo.

This tag or label should be attached to all products and is a powerful way of putting your company information into the hands of existing customers and potential new customers.

 

Respect and Admiration

I grew up in a family of knitters and crocheters.

In the evening hours, my sisters and mother would all break out their knitting baskets with various vibrant colors of yarn and their knitting needles or crochet hooks and begin to work magic with their talent and fingers.

It was a hobby that never appealed to me, but I was always the grateful recipient of knitted socks or knitted sweaters that portrayed my favorite sport of hockey.

I was always amazed that from balls of yarn such wonderful, creative, and warm sweaters for those long Wisconsin evenings could be created.

It was a skill that I did not have but one in which I admired and respected.

The individual looking to start a knitting business should realize that such admiration exists even today from people who remember and wish that certain personal patterns of knitted products could be made for them.

Also See: Websites to Sell Stuff Locally for Free including Best Value Investing Books.

 

You Can Do It

Your reputation as a devoted knitter and producing innovative and quality knitted products is well-known.

On holidays and special occasions, people have looked forward to receiving a knitted gift from you.

Additionally, individuals will politely but in all likelihood speak the truth when they say that you should go into business.

You’ve decided to take the plunge.

Your motivation is not only to realize a potential profit through the starting of this business but to promote your pure love of knitting.

Just as your creativity is demonstrated in your knitting from a single strand of yarn so is your creativity and drive to be successful in starting this enterprise from a single creative thought of starting a knitting business.

 

Conclusion

Knitting is a time-proven and popular art of intricately weaving together yarn to create a variety of knitted articles of clothing and other assorted novel and practical items.

It is safe to say that Americans are rediscovering this wonderful craft of expressing their love to others through knitted items but also providing for their family needs by knitting various articles of clothing.

America is also a land of entrepreneurship. Its economic system is built on capitalism which means that creators of all types of products have the freedom to follow their dreams and promote their services and product to the public for sale.

As a knitter extraordinaire, why not combine your artistry with the American economic system and start your own business?

What better way than to weave or net the art of knitting with venturing into the business world.