I’ll be completely honest in saying that I am not a marketing guru or a millionaire however I’ve had a lot of experience at running a handmade business and I hope my story can inspire you.
When I started out I was really struggling financially, unsatisfied to the point of depression in my dead end call center job and really not in a good place mentally.
I was lucky to meet my mate Chris who taught me a little bit about woodworking one summer and I really got the bug for making things with my hands. Woodworking gave me a sense of pride and purpose (something I’d never experienced before at work or creatively) and I was soon drawn to websites like Etsy where people were selling handmade items.
I wanted to be able to make and sell products by hand like the sellers on Etsy! I needed extra income to cover my living expenses and something constructive to do with my time instead of just drinking. All I needed was a product to sell.
After a lot of experiments (some not so great lol) I tried making wooden rings. It turns out they are great handmade products to sell and here’s why:
- Rings are small/light enough to post anywhere in the world.
- They are beautiful and durable when they are made to a high standard.
- Rings are the most useful pieces of jewellery as they are symbols of love and devotion.
- Wooden rings can be made to a consistent quality with repeatable processes.
- Materials and tooling costs are cheap/minimal.
- There’s a great market for wooden rings and you can charge a decent amount of $ to cover your time/make a profit.
Unfortunately for me my first two years of trying to make wooden rings were a slow, painful learning curve. There were only a handful of resources out there for wooden ring makers and most of them contained vague/flat out bad information. I had to sift through a lot of garbage and develop my own techniques before I got good enough to make any sales.
My first significant sale
Since starting out I’ve sold over 1,500 rings but I will always remember my first significant sale. I’d been doing temp work as a car park attendant to try and make a little extra money.
This involved standing in torrential rain for 6.5 hours for minimum wage which was about £7.50. I earned a total of £48.75 but was drenched to the bone, freezing cold, bored, demoralised and ironically had to spend £10 on the train fare to get to work! £38.75 for 6.5 hours of my life.
As I was sitting on the train home looking forward to a warm cuppa and an evening of bad tv when I got an email notification from Etsy. I’d sold a ring for £100! By the time I took out materials, fees and postage I was left with about £85 and I made that ring in 3 hours from the comfort of my spare room.
I was warm, I got to watch Youtube videos while I worked and I earned over twice as much money in half the time as my call center or temp job.
That was the day I got serious about making and selling rings.
So can you make money selling wooden rings?
Absolutely YES! I’ve made my living for over 5 years selling wooden rings and I have never starved (if anything my belly is just getting bigger!)
To help budding makers learn how to craft epic rings I’ve made a course called“Next Level Wooden Rings”.
I’ve made “Next Level Wooden Rings” as detailed and comprehensive as possible so you can learn how to make high quality and beautifully made wooden rings which you can sell for a fair price.
The course will shorten that initial learning curve and/or show you advanced skills to make intricate rings to a professional standard. Whether you’re just a hobbyist or you want to make money with your craft the course will help you.
Online enrolment is open until Friday the 22nd of November (the cart will then be closed until at least February).
