So now you have mastered the techniques to using Craft Resin and you have been perfecting your work through lot’s of practising and experimentation. Have you considered turning your new found hobby into a resin art business?
Lot’s of people have used their new found resin art skills to take what was a part-time fun hobby, and have turned it into a thriving business. If you have the resin skills, people have been commenting how great your work is and your entire family have your resin art proudly on display in their homes, why not take a leap and try to earn an income from your passion?
My name is Caz and I’m one of the team at Craft Resin and I’m co-writing this Blog today with the wonderful Kat Tegg. Kat is one of our Craft Resin Facebook Community Groups Moderators and has built her own resin art business from the ground up over the past 10 months. She has a great customer base, adds new customers to that weekly and also has a rapidly growing YouTube channel. We’ll add Kat’s details at the end of this Blog so you can check out her business, should you wish to.
We’re going to be talking you through how to start your own resin art business in six simple to follow steps. These could take you from being an employee to entrepreneur in a matter of weeks. Let’s begin…
Step 1 – Choose what will you be making?
This may seem a bit obvious, but this is going to establish your brand and give your business a unique selling point. If you are going to offer your customers everything, this can create confusion, and a confused mind says no and won’t buy. You can offer people a selection, or create bespoke items for individuals however have a focus to centre your brand on.
Find your niche, pick something that interests you, people will connect with your brand more if they can feel your passion through it.
Fun Fact – Kat actually wanted to make some coasters for her own living room to begin with! From that, she found her niche and her own style and started to make a variety of coasters which many people wanted to purchase!
Step 2 – Once you know what you’re going to create get to work creating your inventory.
It’s a good idea to have some stock ready to go, but you need to be careful that you don’t make too much of an item that hasn’t got much demand for.
If you have been practising creating resin art then you will already have an idea what your supporters are liking, it’s the only way to test your market out by practising. The more you practise the better your work will be, the better your work is the more customers you’ll draw in. So keep practising till you have a high enough inventory to start selling.
Kat’s tip – if you are stuck on what you think would sell, use your social media to create polls on your products! This is a great interactive way to reach out to your potential customers! Kat discovered that her Black & Gold Agate Resin Coasters were going to be one of her more popular items through polls & comments over on her Instagram!
And remember, resin art has taken off in the last year with the pandemic, so there is more competition out there now. The more your work can stand out with quality, offering and great customer service the better you will stand a chance of making it.
Another good tip at this stage is to get snapping with your camera or phone while you are practising so you have lots of media to use later on!
Step 3 – Looking at the supplies you need and getting the best value for these so you can make the highest profit margins.
As your business grows and you become more of a regular user of resin, you may want to look into what different brands offer when it comes to the supplies you need.
At Craft Resin we offer a Subscription Service when you go to purchase our resin or Mica Powders. If you order regularly through this then you save 15% on each order that goes through automatically for you. You can set these to deliver the exact amount of resin you need, and you can up it if your demand grows. You can set the frequency for 1 week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks or 4 weeks, and change this if needed. And you can cancel at anytime, giving some notice if you need to.
Do your research on other items that you need and find the best deals out there, it’s worth setting aside some time at the start to do this as it can save you a lot of money in the long run.
Step 4 – Check out the safety precautions you need to take from the resin brand you are using.
As you will be spending more time working with resin, you really need to take extra precautions to make sure that you are working as safely as possible. Click to read Craft Resin's safety guidance. Different brands guidance will differ, check out the specific brand you are using before you begin.
When it comes to your workspace, at the start you may have to make do with something that’s not quite perfect, however try to make sure that it is well ventilated, that it’s away from any children, animals, food areas and that it’s as clean as possible. As a business you do not want people complaining that the resin art they have purchased has dog hairs or dust in it!
Step 5 – Time to set up your shop – Online will probably be best, especially right now and to future proof your business.
We recommend looking into online stores like Shopify, Etsy or Amazon Handmade. We can’t advise you on the one that is right for you as they all have different factors and limitations to them, but do your research and pick the one that is going to work for your needs and budget.
Where does Kat sell? Over on Etsy! This platform works best for her and has made over 800 sales since June 2020. If you need advice on Etsy, Kat will happily answer any questions you may have!
Step 6 – Marketing
Sounds scary if you haven’t got a marketing background, but actually there are some really simple and cost affective things you can do to market your resin art. The great thing about resin art is that’s it’s very aesthetically pleasing, and so as long as you have some great pictures of your work it’s very appealing to potential customers.
The first step with marketing is thinking about your brand, what do you want to be called? What do you want your logo to look like? What do you want to get across to your audience? What do you want them to do?
After you have a plan of the above, get your camera/phone out and start snapping your work. Things to consider with this is lighting, you want your art to be seen, stay away from dark places when shooting or purchase something like a ring light. Make your background neutral, you again want your work to stand out, if it can’t be seen because the background colours are too distracting this won’t be good. Staging, you might want to buy (or rummage through your house) for some simple props. If for example you are selling jewellery trays, do you have some beautiful jewellery you could place on them, if you have created a coaster set, do you have some beautiful mugs/glasses to rest on them or some beautiful flowers to put by them.
Once you have your images you can look at different platforms to showcase your images on. Great places to start are Social Media channels like Facebook and Instagram. These can help you advertise and get your products in front of people quickly and for free (unless you want to look at paid social media advertising, which can be a good option once you are more established).
Instagram is all about the beautiful pictures on your grid, you want these to catch people’s eye and build your brand. It’s always a good idea to not only post what you are selling on your Instagram but also sprinkle a bit about you in there too, people buy from people. If people can see who is creating the art and know a bit about your background and journey, your story of why you have started a resin art business, they are more likely to trust and one day purchase from you.
Instagram could be a whole new Blog, so once again do your research, but also get on it and have a play.
Try stories, create videos, share your intro, be your fabulous creative self. Another great tip with Instagram is to check out a scheduling tool like Later.com. Because you will have already created your inventory and photographed it, you will have a supply of beautiful images that you can schedule in advance. So then you aren’t having to think about posting every hour of every day. Once a week schedule your posts and then they can go out without you having to do it. Do monitor your social media account still though, you want to be engaging with comments and likes, and your followers, build a relationship with them, be social on social media, your posts will go further.
Kat’s favourite social media platforms are Instagram and TikTok. Both are a bit of fun and you can really express yourself through these! One more quick tip from Kat is that you should show behind the scenes content! People love to watch resin pouring videos and even packing videos! These don’t take much to film either!
We think that’s enough for you to all get your heads round for today. Good luck if you do decide to start your own resin art business, we hope this helps. If you already have one and have any tips for our readers please share them in the comments below.
Caz and Kat
Caz Grant
Managing Director
Craft Resin Limited
Kat Tegg
Primrose Designs
