What

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What product are you going to market? If you specialize in making custom cards then you should look at who the competition is. How do your cards stack up to what is being produced and sold by other people? This is a good time to be honest with yourself. Do you make a quality craft that people will want to purchase?

Who

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Who will you sell to? It is very important to know your audience. If you want to make custom cards then you need to know what type of person would like to purchase something like that. Middle-aged men who work in a law office probably won’t be your target. That doesn’t mean they won’t buy your product, they are just less likely to. Get to know the type of person who wants what you have to offer and then cater to them.

When

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Consider time constraints. When making a product it is important to not only consider how much it will cost you to create but how long it will take to make it. Something you need to understand is that time is money. It may only cost you $3 to make a card, but if it took 2 hours to put it together, charging $5 doesn’t seem worth it. You would only be making a dollar an hour.

Where

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Where will you sell your product?

• Craft Fair – Lots of crafty people like taking their items to sell at craft fairs. This isn’t a bad idea, but you should be aware that the booth space will most likely cost you at least $50. If you only make $60 from an entire day at the fair was it really worth it? Maybe it was because you handed out business cards and got your name out there.
• Online – There are many online sale options you could look into. You will need to know how you will get the product to your customers and be willing to be available online for questions and concerns people might have.
• Brick and Mortar – There is also the option of setting up a deal with a local store to sell your product. They will likely want a cut of your profit or they will charge you for the space where you display your product.

Why

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Why should people choose your product? There are thousands of people that sell custom made cards so you need to figure out what makes your product worth buying. Perhaps it is the best deal. Maybe you do custom work. It could be that you’re a good and honest businessman that people enjoy giving business to. Whatever it is you need to find it and market it.

How

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You’ll need time and a plan to get your product ready for market, whether you’re creating it all yourself or enlisting the help of a local manufacturer. Long term goals are great, but make sure you set short term attainable goals as well. You could decide that you’d like to create and photograph one new card design per week to help you build up your product selection. The choice is up to you.

You don’t want a fun hobby to become something you dread doing. Make sure you feel comfortable with starting a business (everything from getting your company certificate, and doing the work, to doing taxes every year), and if it feels right, give it a try. It may take a moment to take off, but a little elbow grease could have you enjoying a nice side income doing something you enjoy.

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Sometimes it can seem that everywhere you turn someone wants you to buy something.

And it can be very tempting not to give in and buy it because most of us feel like we might actually need it.

But the truth is we probably don’t, outside of the basic necessities of food, shelter, and water.

So, what is there to do when you’re got caught up in the cycle of “stuff”?

Luckily, there are many ways to be less wasteful, but here are five to help us all start out and keep our homes and our planet from being overrun.

Buy second hand

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Speaking of garage sales, instead of going out and buying something new when you need something for around the house or maybe the kids to need new clothes, shop second hand.

You can go to garage sales, thrift stores, and now, thanks to technology, there are online forums and Facebook pages that also sell nice items second-hand.

Just like the garage sale, you are re-purposing things instead of just throwing them away and filling the world with more trash, which is really good and helps you to live more sustainably.

Care about who you buy from

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There are certain companies that care about waste too, and it’s a good idea to buy from them versus others who don’t necessarily do that.

Do a little research to see who you are really buying from and how they treat this planet.

There are companies like BioLogiQ who use recycled materials to build and create other sustainable materials.

You may see which companies help you to recycle or even incentivize when you do so.

Have a garage sale

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If you are looking around your house, storage shed, or garage and thinking, “I don’t even know where half of this stuff came from let alone the last time I used it?” It’s probably time for a garage sale.

A garage sale is a great opportunity to give a second life to items you don’t use anymore and receive a little profit from them.

And when it is all over the items you didn’t sell you can donate and wa-lah! So much less clutter and waste.

Buy less and less plastic

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Plastic can be so easy, especially when you have kids who like to touch everything and who aren’t very gentle with things either.

But the hard part about plastic is after you ‘re done with it and throw it away, when it gets to the dump it ends up sitting there and just adding to all the other trash that is there.

If there is a way for you to use less plastic or to make sure you recycle the plastic you are done with, you can help lessen the waste and help keep things like the ocean cleaner.

Donate your time

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One great way to keep yourself from being tempted to buy more and more is to use the free time on your hands to volunteer somewhere and help.

Helping others can make you more grateful for the things you already have as well as give your time to others or causes that may sorely need it.

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