Find out what the market is like for the product or service you are offering. How many other people are offering the same, or similar? Do they seem to be busy? How much do they charge?

Value your time and effort

To do this, consider your costs for making a single item or providing a service. How much will raw materials, posting and packaging, travel expenses and more, add up to? Can you lower these costs by buying some items in bulk – or exploiting supplier discounts?

Consider what the price you are thinking of charging converts to as an hourly rate, and decide if that is reasonable. If you are providing a service, this will be more straightforward – and easier to compare with the market.

Think about who your typical customer is likely to be and where they might look for a product or service you are selling. Are they social media users or using search engines such as Google to locate what they need quickly? Do they live locally, or are they spread across the country?

It can make sense to do your marketing and sales in one place. For example, if you set up a storefront on Instagram or Facebook you can grow your audience on the same platform via hashtags and content. These are free to set up and launch.

If you want to upgrade for greater reach and management options when you become more established, there are a number of pricing plans via software companies such as Ecwid that allow you to do so from £19 a month.

Dr Nikki Ramskill turned her hobby of blogging about personal finances into a small coaching business, the Female Money Doctor, which she runs alongside her main job as a GP. She charges £1,050 for a bundle of six money coaching sessions, as well as providing free resources and low-cost planning advice to those who need it via her website.

“Stay organised,” she says. “Dedicate a time to work on your project, and do a little towards it every day, even if it is just posting a listing on Etsy. Be gentle with yourself and realistic about how much you can achieve around your main job.”

“Master a handful of things first,” she says. “No one is amazing at social media straight away, it evolves as time goes on and you adapt. It doesn’t have to be perfect either. Don’t spend hours choosing a colour for your logo, for example. You can always adapt it further down the line.”

“One of the main things we try to warn people about beforehand is to think about whether to set up a limited company,” he says. “Mainly because of the additional admin that comes with that – the balance sheets, the statement of accounts – and the hundreds you will end up paying an accountant to manage it. We recommend setting up as a sole trader first.

Source: The Guardian

Powered by NewsAPI.org