The essentials to designing, making, and selling custom handbags. Ever think about how many handbags are bought each year? Where do all those purses come from? You know, someone has to make them. Sure, millions are mass-produced by nameless, faceless machines in factories around the world.
But, guess what? Lots of them are designed by entrepreneurs, with each individual bag made by hand (sometimes with the help of a trusty sewing machine) and marketed by that very same designer.
Have you ever looked in a shop window or dug through the mountains of bags at your local discount store and thought, "If I had the chance I could do that. I have great design ideas. And mine are even more appealing than these little things."?
When you think "handbag", do all kinds of great shapes, sizes and colors fill your brain? Can you sew perfect seams and attach fasteners that withstand the rigors of daily searches for keys that inevitably work their way down to the bottom of a purse? Do you have some good business sense? What about marketing? Think you can make those sales?
Then, your ideal small business may just be "in the bag." There are millions of females out there just waiting for the latest thing in purses. Have you noticed that there are handbags made from cigar boxes? Evening bags with every inch covered in spangles and sparkles of every shape? Velvet bags with layers and layers of petals forming enormous roses? Not to mention those good solid (but highly decorated) canvas carry-alls. Yes, the competition is fierce.
If you're going to make it in handbags, you must set your business apart and give your potential customers slam-dunk reasons to choose your products over the competition. You can do this if you:
* Create smashing designs
* Find perfect, but cost-effective, materials
* Make a beautiful, quality product
* Design an innovative marketing plan
* Provide extraordinary customer service
Remember the market is wide-open because women don't buy just one handbag–one bag is never enough. But still, you'll want to consider picking a niche, especially at first. Choose an age group, then tailor your designs and your marketing to that target audience. You can always branch out later, once you've cornered your first niche market.
Think about doing some testing. Design and make several different bags and start carrying them (or if you're male, and a lot of great designers are, elicit the help of a friend). Give them as gifts and when the questions start coming, be ready with cards that tell all about your business. Or better yet, design and print some tags to tuck into every bag before it heads out the door to a new home. And ask for feedback. You'll be surprised at how quickly you can start a business by word of mouth. But, remember, this will depend on how much "wow" factor your designs have. A rehash of your mother's brown tote is not going to generate buzz. And buzz is what you need.
You'll still have to do all the normal start-up stuff and make lots of sound business decisions to get going and make a success in the handbag business, but for the right person, this can be a dream job.
Resources:
http://www.etsy.com/
http://www.catsbagnook.com/handbags–material.html?gclid=CP3ImMvekJQCFQhzHgodlnLNuA
http://www.endlesspurseabilities.com/index.html
http://www.nappastudio.com/Handbags_Purses/handbags_purses_links_handbags.html
December 10, 2008
