Do you want to start selling your crochet items? Before you start selling your crochet items, you need to consider the following things: 

1. YARN

Like most people, I enjoy some of the finer things in life, but when it comes to expensive yarn, put that aside for another day. When you are considering what yarn to use for a crochet item that you plan to sell, you need to pick a yarn that is good quality, durable, but most importantly, AFFORDABLE! 

Let's do the math: The more the yarn costs and the smaller the skein, the less profit you make! 

2. SHIPPING

Shipping Included: When I say shipping is included, I don't mean that you are paying for the shipping. I mean, you have calculated the average cost to ship the item and factored it into the price. If you are like me, I never pay for shipping. I will add more to my cart so I qualify for free shipping before I ever pay to have something shipped. Before you judge me, there are a lot of people like me who won't pay for shipping. For that reason, I often think it is best to include shipping in the price of the item. The downside to including shipping is that when people are scrolling through and comparing similar items, an item that includes shipping  may appear more expensive, and a shopper might just scroll right by. However, that shopper might come back and I will explain why in a moment.  

Shipping Extra: There are a few good reasons to separate out the cost of shipping from the price of the item. 

• The price appears lower than other similar items in your category and may get more clicks/views, which may lead to more sales.   

• Instead of estimating the average cost of shipping, you can calculate the actual cost based on location. This means your shipping costs are always fully covered.    

The downside is that customers may decide not to purchase the items once actual shipping costs are calculated at checkout.  If they are unwilling to pay for shipping they might start their search over and look for items that already include shipping costs.  

Cost of Shipping: When I started out, I was selling physical items on Etsy. I soon discovered that the cost to ship items from Canada was almost as much as the items themselves. I spent a lot of time trying to find solutions, but in the end, the cost of shipping is what led me to stop selling physical items on Etsy. If you live in the United States, you still need to consider shipping costs, but you appear to have more options and the parcel rates are much cheaper than in Canada.     

Let's do the math: The cost of shipping is based on size and weight.  The larger and heavier the item you are shipping, the less profit you make!  Consider selling smaller crochet items that are inexpensive to ship.   

NOTE TO CANADIAN SELLERS:   For all of my Canadian friends who still want to ship items after reading this, my advice is to sell small items that can be shipped as oversized letters and not parcels (this only applies within Canada). An oversized letter is a fraction of the cost of a parcel.  There is also a BC-based company that sells small boxes perfectly sized for letter mail.  I have purchased these boxes many times; although they are pricey, it still works out to far less than shipping as a parcel (around $3.00 versus $20). If you are shipping items to the United States, I recommend using Chit Chats (check first to see if it is available in your area). Chit Chats rates are much cheaper than Canada Post.  I find it much faster, and the price includes tracking.  You can also add insurance for a small additional fee.  

3. ADDITIONAL COSTS

When considering how to price your items, you don't want to forget any additional costs. Additional costs include things like:

• Social media and advertising

• Craft vendor fees, displays, transaction fees, travel

• Other materials, such as buttons and  handmade tags

• Packaging materials

• Etsy or other selling platform fees

• Website building and hosting fees, domain registration

4. TIME 

We all love to crochet, and it's not work when you are doing something you love, right? Whether you plan on making this a full-time business, a part-time job, or a hobby that makes some extra cash on the side, the point is you made the decision to sell your items. I am not going to sugarcoat things or tell you what you want to hear so you will read my post. The reality is that selling your crochet items is a lot of work, and you want to be compensated for that work.  

5. LOCATION

Once you have considered all of the factors above, you need to decide where you want to sell. If you are doing this full-time, you will want to sell in more than one place.  Some of the options are:

• Your own website (Shopify, etc.)

• Other websites (Etsy, etc.)

• Social media (Facebook, Instagram, etc.)

• Craft fairs 

• Word of mouth

6. PROFIT

Profit is really just a mathematical equation, so when you are figuring out how much you want to price an item, figure out how much you want to make and work backwards. If you are making baby booties and you want to make $10 per item, you need to factor: 

Price - Yarn, Shipping, Additional Costs = Profit.

Now calculate how long it took you to make the item. If your profit was $10 and it took you 30 minutes to make the item so you can make 2 items in 1 hour, then your hourly rate is $20/hour. 

You need yarn, and it is going to take time to crochet the item, so those are fixed costs. The additional costs are what you need to be mindful of and try to limit as much as possible. The lower your "additional costs," the higher your profit.