Antique Quilt

Quilting Business – Finding A Niche Market

Starting a quilting business and being successful, will depend totally on how many others are doing the same thing in your area. So how do you compete? How do you make money with a craft business, such as quilting and find customers willing to pay you?

The answer is: You need to find a niche market. Before you click the back button, because you have heard the phrase “niche marketing” a hundred times, just really think about your business ideas.

Start off by writing down your strengths as they pertain to your quilting skills. Start by asking yourself some questions.

1. Do you love to come up with your own ideas and patterns?

2. Do, you like to fix up an old quilt and bring it back to life?

3. Are you constantly being asked to fix a quilt or create a quilt.

What is your favorite part about quilting. If you enjoy finishing other people’s quilts or fixing up old traditional quilts, then you have found yourself a niche market.

You can now market yourself differently than all the other quilters out there, who love to make their own quilts and then try and sell them. You see them all the time at craft shows, and as beautiful as they are, there are many of them to choose from. Way too many.

So, you should approach your quilting business a bit differently. Instead of creating quilts and then trying to sell them in a flooded market (The problem with a flooded market is the prices drop, and you have to compete with too many others) advertise yourself as someone who will complete or finish a half started quilt.

There are lots of people out there, who loved the idea of a quilt, bought everything they needed years ago, and then the project slowly worked its way to the corner of the dining room, bedroom or basement, collecting dust. With workloads, kids, ball practice and more, these quilting projects worked their way to last on the list or not on the list at all.

Or maybe your friend or neighbor, loved the idea of a homemade quilt, but really after sewing a few squares, realized it was not “their thing”. So, why not offer to finish it for them. Let their pattern decide the finished product?

Or maybe you know people who have inherited a beautiful traditional antique quilt that has seen better days, and they are terrified of displaying it or using it. You could offer to repair and clean it for them, or frame it for them.

Whatever your skills are in quilting. There are ways to compete in this field and make money, you just have to spend a bit of time at the beginning of your business and decide what route you will take. Do some market research. Something a little different.

The trick is to find a market. Take a look around, how many friends of yours have unfinished crafts or quilts? How many have old quilts that need fixing? If you know a few, then there are bound to be many more… This can work for any home based craft business. Quilting is just one of many. Find your niche and start making money.

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Stella Rubin, Antique Quilt Expert, on Martha Stewart

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