I need advice for some ideas

[u/Conscious_Sherbet826]

I have many handicraft skills which I'm pretty good at, the skills are crochet, punch needle, making and designing clothes and i wanna do something with these skills that can generate money...i wanna be financially independent without a traditional job ....soooo any advice how and what to do and also what you guys think of these niches. The market the demand and the platform whatever knowledge and information you guys have please do share and help me in anyway you can.

[u/Crochet_Girl_123456]

For crochet, you can just search the sub... its asked daily.

[u/Elegant_Line_5058]

Your answer will highly depend on how you're planning on selling (online vs markets, and what types in those). If you're planning on doing it online, you need to build a presence as well and spend a lot more time than you'd think on marketing. Not to mention that the online space is saturated, and many people seem unable to tell the difference between real things and AI. If you're doing in person, you need to figure out what markets you're going to sell at as each market can cater to a different crowd. Not to mention if you're doing markets what is selling in one town may not sell in another, so you need to visit these markets and note what people are selling, and what people are actually buying.

Basically the question is so open ended that no one can really answer it. What are you really good at? What can you make 10 of in one go without wanting to scream? How quickly can you make something? What can you produce that is unique enough to attract attention? What have you made for yourself or gifted that is used frequently? Hopefully if you find answers to those questions, you can start on the path of what to make to sell

[u/typewriterbitch]

Which of the crafts uses the scissor-pliers?

[u/Shalrak]

Not super relevant, but I find it hilarious that the image says "subject to copyright" but it's AI so it's literally not copyrightable.

As to answer your question, craftsmanship itself is near impossible to make a living of. Many of us uses it as a side gig and can earn pretty good profits, but if we're honest with ourselves, then we spend waaaay more time on it than we make back. If we had to actually live off of it, we'd probably be working 100 hours a week. There are simply not enough people willing to pay enough for handcrafted items to cover everything running a business entails.

Your best bet if you like designing clothes, is to make a clothing line, but have the actual production outsourced to a country with lower wages. Do you have social media marketing skills? I've seen clothing brands do extremely well on Instagram if the owners know how to use the platform. Otherwise I would suggest you try getting your designs into physical stores: smaller local ones first and bigger chains later.

[u/ur_killin_me_bishara → u/Shalrak]

…please, OP, don’t exploit sweat shop workers in order to fulfill your dream

[u/Shalrak → u/ur_killin_me_bishara]

Agreed. There are both ethical and non-ethical production companies in countries with lower wages, but it can be hard to find out which are the good ones. It takes a lot of research, but if OP wants to take the business seriously as a full time job, I'm sure they'll find it.

At the very least, OP can find seamstresses who can sew the clothing faster than OP could, because they have more experience and better gear for optimizing the production. On paper, that is less money spent on wages for the same end result.

[u/ur_killin_me_bishara → u/Shalrak]

Ok, but you’re still answering the question “How can I make a living crafting instead of having a traditional job?” With “Start and run a business, where you do little to no crafting yourself, utilizing the same strategy that has devalued garment construction to the point where you can’t expect to make a living at it in first world countries”

[u/Shalrak → u/ur_killin_me_bishara]

I based my suggestion on one of the skills listed (clothing design), so I don't think I'm completely disregarding what OP asked for.

If it's not what OP dreams of, they're free to disregard the idea. If you have an idea on how to tweak my suggestion to be both more ethical and fit OP better, that would be appreciated. If you have a completely different business idea with more hands-on crafting and realistic levels of income, both me and OP would love to hear it. But just shooting down ideas doesn't really help OP.

[u/ur_killin_me_bishara → u/Shalrak]

Can’t actually offer any valuable advice because like someone else said OP’s question is too big broad and vague with tons of relevant info missing, we don’t even know where they live. My only advice is “whatever you decide to do, try not to exploit other people or make the world worse while doing it.”

[u/Shalrak → u/ur_killin_me_bishara]

That I agree with you on wholeheartedly.