Let me guess, you have a hobby making things and you thought, “I think I can make some money with this!” But now that you are getting more serious about starting a business, nailing down a product that is actually going to make you money is not so easy. Or is it?

I’ve got a straightforward method for product creation you can use, no matter what it is you make or what kinds of niches you’ve been thinking about. Heck, I even made you a PDF guide to make it even easier! So, download that and let’s make some products!

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1. How will the product be made?

There are too many possibilities out there, especially for people like us who have more than one skill. Maybe you can sculpt polymer clay, weld and paint. Or you know how to use a laser, how to crochet and industrial farming.

There might be some overlap of possible products in your skillset, but when you are just starting out, the easier the better.

Starting a handcrafted business is a marathon, and this will be just one of the many new things you need to master to make it to the finish line of profit.

So, here is the first hurdle to jump: Choose just one method of creation.

Let’s not laser coasters and make little bathmats with your new tufting machine. Let’s JUST pick one. You can add more later, but like I said, we’re taking this easy.

When choosing, make sure you are picking one that is sustainable. Do you like this particular crafting method? Will you still like it in 5 years?

Here’s another good question to ask yourself. Have other people made this craft a business?

If your craft is making sculptures out of locally sourced boogers and hair, there might not be an actual business there.

2. What Category will you focus on?

I do love lasers, so let’s use that as the example going forward. A lot of things can be made with a laser. TOO many things.

So, here’s where we decide the next big thing, and it’s why this gets hard and scary and confusing. We’re getting serious now. It’s time to choose a Broad Product Category.

But what if we choose the wrong one? What if it fails completely and you just ended up wasting time?

In my opinion, all time going toward any goal is time well spent even if you fail. Failure is just a lesson in disguise. It sucks dude, no one likes to fail, but so long as you learned something from it, you come out ahead in the end. Trust me, if you keep taking steps forward, you’ll end up closer to your goal no matter what.

Plus, you can always change it. Nothing is permanent. If you choose your product category to be drinkware but find out later it’s just not the fit you thought it would be, then try something else.

For now, pick one broad category. Not too specific, we’ll get into that later. Think Jewelry, Babies, Pet Supplies, things like that.

3. What can you make for this category?

Now that we know our method of creating products and what broad category we are aiming for, what can you make?

If your method of making is a Laser, and your broad category is Babies, we can make a lot! Try to list at least 5 things you can make, and they can be different from each other! We’re just getting ideas and we’ll narrow it down soon. Bonus points if you’ve made these things before.

Here’s my list:

1. Custom Nursery Name Sign
2. Piggy Bank
3. Age by Month Signs
4. Growth Chart
5. Engraved Photo Album Cover

Great! We’ll be keeping these in mind for the next steps.

And, if you are having a hard time picking things and have a laser, I have a few videos on laser cut product ideas to get your brain juices flowing, I’ll link that in the description.

Find more inspiration on Etsy, Pinterest or a good ol’ google image search. You can even hit up TikTok and Instagram for reels of other people suggesting or making products. You may be surprised where the rabbit hole takes you!

4. Pick a Complimentary Theme.

Themes are the magic sauce that makes a product stand out and sell. It’s similar to a niche, but we can nail that down in another video. The goal here is to match a product with a theme people are looking for.

Let’s consider the examples from before. If you want to sell custom baby name signs, instead of a basic font alone, incorporate the birth month flower into the design. Then you could do the same theme with a Photo Album Cover and the Age by Month Signs.

Alternatively, you can make those same types of products with other themes, like local landmarks, animals, zodiac signs, and more!

You could go two ways down this path. If you chose piggy banks, for instance, you go all in and make different themes of piggy banks. Some shaped like mountains, some are shaped like zoo animals and others are shaped like fruit, and so on.

But, what I recommend, especially for beginners, is to choose three similar products in the same category and just one theme. Such as Custom Baby Name Sign, Photo Album Cover and the Age by Month signs with a Birth Month Flower Theme.

This way, you increase the chances of people buying multiple like-items from your shop to decorate their nursery. You can even combine these items into gift sets and increase your chances of bigger purchases and repeat buyers without having to add more products.

5. Research

We are really narrowing it down now, but before we start making anything, let’s make sure people want these items of ours.

There are a lot of ways to research if a product has any sort of demand, and that is going to greatly depend on how you plan on selling it.

If you want to sell on Etsy, check out similar products on Etsy and see if they are selling well. If they don’t exist or you aren’t seeing listings with any badges or reviews on the products, it might not be worth your time.

If you want to sell in person, find local groups on facebook and ask for feedback. Or make a few things and bring them to a craft show and see how they do.

When you are just starting out, you don’t want to invent a new wheel just yet. Once you have a mountain of return customers waiting for your next big reveal, you can get a little wild and test out those booger sculptures you’ve been working on. But, until then, stick to products with a proven track record.

Hopefully by now you have at least 3 product ideas that fit well together, can possibly be paired together to increase your listing numbers and exposure, and already have demand and interest in your chosen method of sales.

If you want to get more insight into niches and how we can position these products to a targeted niche, then check out this article next.

I also have exclusive videos to take your laser hobby to a full-time business on my Patreon. Other perks include access to past masterclasses and a chance for product reviews and 1 on 1 coaching calls.

Happy Crafting!