3 BIG Mistakes Crafting Club Owners Make (and How to Avoid Them)

Let’s take a journey back in time, to when we started our kids crafting club.

There we were, trying to navigate the wild west of starting a small creative business.

We had no one to turn to for guidance and just sort of figured things out as we stumbled along.

And while we wish we could have skipped past all of those mistakes, we now see that all those whoopsidaisies helped us to learn a few lessons to share with you.

In today’s episode, we share the top 3 BIGGEST mistakes new crafting club owners make… so that you can avoid the same missteps.

Everything from:  

• thinking Social Media alone is enough for marketing, to
• taking payments the 'wrong' way, and
• going too big too soon!

Spoiler alert: not paying attention to mistake #3 will virtually guarantee your kids crafting club will stress you out!

We hope you can learn from us, avoid these same mistakes, and grow your crafting club quickly!

Watch the video or read the written version below.

Let's chat about the 3 BIG mistakes we've seen new crafting club owners make time and time again.

These mistakes are so big that they often lead to clubs not being successful. And this really breaks my heart. 

I wanted to share them with you today and chat about how you can avoid them. Because I'd hate for you to make any of these mistakes. 

Let's dive in...

Mistake #1: Thinking Social Media alone is enough for marketing! 

So maybe you’ve spent countless hours taking photos of your crafty kids, writing a blog, you've created a social media page and are posting everything… and then all you hear back is.... crickets!

Ouch!!! 

Fear not my friend, there’s a simple solution to kickstart and assist you with your kids crafting club customer growth, without having to change too much of what you’re already doing, and that is…. something that you’ve got total control over. Drumroll... 

Your email list! 

Start building your contact list from day 1. 

The number 1 mistake is thinking social media alone is enough for marketing! 

If you already have a social following or social media pages, I am certainly not saying  that you should ignore that portion of your marketing. Instead, keep talking to them and use that space to warm relationships to grow your email list. 

Now, you may be thinking…. “But Christelle, what good is email list building if I already have a website, or active social media accounts?”

Have you ever noticed a random change in your YouTube suggestions or your Facebook or Twitter feed?

That’s usually because they've made an algorithm change behind-the-scenes.

Social networks are known for making changes without notice, which sometimes can cause your post reach to drop dramatically.

This means that very few people may see your Facebook posts!

However, when you have your own email list, you’re completely untouched by these types of outside decisions.

Let me give you some crazy numbers:

• 99% of people check their email every single day. 
• More than 50% of people check their personal email account more than 10 times a day.

Start building that list if you have not started yet, start today!! 

Pssst: we offer detailed training on this in our  “START TO THRIVE WITH CRAFT KITS” course.

If you build your email list of customers who are interested in what you do, you can use it to send out anything from your latest promotions, new class schedules, new craft kit releases, newsletters, exclusive offers, and everything in between. 

Mistake #2: Taking once off payments

How do you structure your payments? Do you let your customers pay for one class at a time or monthly? 

We’ve seen many crafting club owners start out with the wrong mindset here and this is a big mistake.

Having your customers pay for one class at at a time might seem like the normal thing to do, but here’s the thing:

Consumers are more and more accustomed to paying on a monthly or termly or even annual basis for things that they enjoy.

People are mentally prepared when it comes to paying for this kind of stuff because we do it all the time now. 

Just think about the things and activities you pay for and how you pay for them. Netflix? For our friends in the USA; Amazon prime? What about activities that your kids attend?

Whether you host online classes or in-person classes or sell craft kits - you can set up your club to take monthly, termly payments or even run a subscription model. This is way better than worrying about making a payment every single week!

There are 3 great benefits to NOT pricing your classes individually:

1. This gives you way more stability in our business!! You don’t have to keep chasing one off payments.
2. You don’t have to remind people constantly to pay for every single class every week or to buy every new craft kit you bring out. I don’t know about you but I feel very awkward reminding people to pay for stuff, so doing it this way makes it so much easier!
3. It’s easier for your customers to do prepayments. If your customers pay for a block of classes you can ensure that all payments are made before the block resumes.

Mistake #3: Going too big too soon

Right now you might think you have to pay a rental fee or spend a lot of money on:

• If you are teaching in-person: a studio space, on studio decor, on tables and chairs etc.
• If you are teaching online: on fancy camera and lighting equipment, supplies and software. 
• Or if you are selling craft kits: on buying tons of supplies to get going.

But what if it didn’t have to be that way? 

• For in person. What if instead you pay a small fee per child to host your classes or wait for it - host your classes for free? 
• For online classes. What if you used your phone which you already have and Facebook that’s free?
• For craft kits. What if you got paid first for your kit orders before you purchased the supplies? 

I get this may be pretty different from what you’ve heard before about kids crafting clubs.

With many other new businesses you usually need a bit of startup capital to get going, this is what makes starting a crafting club so appealing, there is actually a very low financial risk.

Here are a few examples on how you can keep your costs down: 

• If you are thinking of hosting classes at a studio: consider renting the space per hour or negotiate hosting classes at a public space such as a restaurant or church for free.
• For online classes, don’t buy fancy camera equipment, lights and a microphone, use your phone and create a cheap pretty colourful background.
• Pre-sell your craft kits, don’t buy the stock before you have the orders paid for.

Start small and expand as you GROW, otherwise you will  be stressed out and not have fun. And running a kids crafting club has to be fun!

Did any one of these 3 tips resonate with you today?  Let us know your biggest insight in the comments below.

Let’s do a quick recap of the 3 mistakes new craft club owners make:

1. Thinking social media alone is enough for marketing! (Start growing that email list!)
2. Taking once off payments
3. Going too big too soon

Until next time, cheers!

Christelle

xo

P.S. Want to sell craft kits but not sure where to start?

Get your hands on the Ultimate Craft Kit Starter Guide and go from dreaming to starting your creative kit today!