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How to Start a Scrapbooking Business from Home

By Holly Campbell

Wouldn’t it be nice to stay at home with the children, do what you truly love and make a bit of extra money while enjoying your hobby? Well, if you are a creative person who love to spend hours and hours working on scrapbooks, then here’s a great opportunity to your beautiful hobby into a very lucrative home business and start earning decent profits.

Whether it is for wedding, graduation, family tree, retirement, or birthday, a scrapbook is a wonderful way to record and preserve these precious memories. However, because of busy lifestyles today, many people cannot find the time to sit down and assemble their mementos into a scrapbook. So that’s where you, the professional scrapbook artist, come in – create custom made scrapbooks for others.

The most attractive aspect of this home-based scrapbooking business is its low startup costs and high return on investment but before you get all excited and jump straight into it, here are a few helpful tips to keep in mind.

First and foremost, clear out a space in your home where you can work undisturbed. If you don’t have an extra room in the house which you can turn into an office, a quiet corner with adequate ventilation and lighting is good enough. For example, a place that’s near a window so that you can take advantage of the daylight.

In addition, you will also need a big table, preferably a scrapbooking craft table to work on. If you are a mom with young kids at home, you might want to invest in a filing cabinet with a lock where you can keep all your scrapbook materials and supplies. Kids are usually attracted to colorful small items such as trinkets and beads so it’s better to hide them to avoid accidents. As a cheaper alternative, use clear plastic storage bins that have several drawers but keep them out of reach of small children.

When your stuff are organized, begin by making a few samples and take digital pictures of your products. Then post these pictures online along with their short descriptions and their prices. Once you have that in place, you can start marketing your products by sending out e-mails to relatives, friends as well as colleagues, and invite them to take a look at your products. Also, make sure that your email signature has your business address and a short sentence that describes your scrapbooking business, or a few words that will make potential buyers want to visit your website.

Another good marketing strategy is politely ask them to invite their facebook friends to your website. Feel free to use your current customers for word-of-mouth marketing, and don’t forget to offer them an incentive such as discounts or other perks to bring you new business. Remember, satisfied customers are sure to come back repeatedly for the same service.

You may also send out press releases to free public relations websites and join forums to invite people over to your website. Although there are really no guarantees that press releases and open invitations at forums will translate into business, it can create awareness and help your website gain some mileage over time. Or, consider promoting your scrapbooking services on smaller sites that won’t charge you too much to advertise on them.

Aside from that, there are also many places that will allow you to put up free fliers – bulletin boards at grocery stores, cafes and community libraries – or distribute them door to door in your neighborhood. It’s also a good idea to carry your business card with you at all times as you never know when a sales opportunity might arise.

To get your first batch of customers coming in, why not offer some really good deals? For example, you can offer a 50% discount to your first 10 customers and offer a 20% discount on repeat orders. The advantage of giving out discounts is, many people will be enticed to buy your product to avail the discounts. However, keep in mind that too many discounts might devalue your products so you try not to do it very often if you can to build a solid client base.

That said, one very important factor that will grow your scrapbooking business fast and keep your customers coming back to you is creativity and personal service. Remembering your customers’ names, kids’ names and even birthdays will make them feel extra special and therefore, they are more likely to use your scrapbooking service time and again.

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