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Have you received inquiries about making an extra large order for a customer with your Silhouette Cameo? If you haven’t, at some point, you probably will. A good small business owner knows the limitations of themselves – and the limitations of their cutting machine. For example, it isn’t cost effective to handle an order of 300 t-shirts with your Silhouette Cameo and heat transfer vinyl (HTV). Unfortunately, when you factor in the cost of the vinyl, the time to cut it, the time to weed it, the time to apply it, and the cost of supplies; you are likely to find out that your customer doesn’t want to pay a price that will leave you any room for profit. Generally, customers that order large quanities of items expect that they will receive bulk discounts for the large volume order. Luckily, you don’t have to simply pass on the potential large order!

Here are two alternatives to handle an extra large order:

Option 1) Order screenprinted (platisol) or digitally printed transfers. For my t-shirt example, you would create the t-shirt design to meet the needs of the customer. Then, you would order the transfers online. Once the transfers arrive, you apply the transfer to the shirts using a heat press. The process goes quickly, and you could probably do about one shirt every minute or two. I’ve had great luck ordering transfers through Transfer Express (by Stahls) when I did a large t-shirt order for a local non-profit. Transfer Express offers both custom and stock designs, and offers products for t-shirts, rhinestones, stickers, window decals, and much more. If you’d like to try them out before you jump into ordering transfers, Transfer Express offers a free sample pack, and you can learn more about the types of transfers and instructions for each here. You make money using transfers because you are able to save on supplies and the cost of the labor is lower – because you spend less time working on the order.

Option 2) Use a direct to garment printing company. Using the t-shirt example again, you would create the t-shirt design for the customer. Then, you would order the shirt to be printed through companies like Printaura or Printful. These companies print your design onto your t-shirt and mail the final product directly to your customer. Both Printaura and Printful operate on a white label basis. This means that your company’s name will appear as the return address on the package, and all paperwork included with your order is branded with your company name. I used Printaura for a set of family reunion tees that I created and simply ran out of time to complete on my own. I was impressed by the entire process. In addition to t-shirts, both companies carry tote bags, canvas, posters, framed art, mugs, pillows, and embroidered goods. You make money using direct to garment printing companies, because the company charges you a set price for the product they create. You charge the customer a higher price for the product that includes your time to design it.

What the biggest order that you would take on with your Silhouette or Cricut? Let me know in the comments. Then, share this post on Pinterest:

Disclosure: I received no compensation for this article and was not approached by any company mentioned in this article to write this article.

If you don’t have an email list for your craft business, this article is for you.

While a mailing list may seem like another ‘to do’, email lists are the easiest way to reach your current and future customers.

What is an Email List?

An email list is a list of customers and potential customers that have signed up to get updates directly from you and your company.

You are probably subscribed to a number of email lists: Your favorite craft store, your favorite clothing store, updates from an app you use all the time, or even your kid’s schools or sports.

You can use any email program to send emails to your subscribers, but an email list provider will help you create attractive looking emails and help you manage subscribers as your email list grows.

Social Media & Search Engine Algorithms

To understand why email lists are so great, you have to understand why search engines and social media can be limiting. Both search engines and social media are controlled by algorithms.

Algorithms are the behind the scenes formulas that run search engine results and social media sites. If you’ve been on social media for a while, you know that these algorithms are constantly tweaked and updated. When an algorithm is changed, you’ll have to learn how to best work the new algorithm. Of course, this takes time. In addition to time, your small business may be seen less on the network.

Search engines work using algorithms, too. After an algorithm change, you may notice your products or website pages aren’t ranking as high as they used to be as visible to customers as they once were.

What’s So Great About Email Lists?

Now, imagine a world without algorithms. Wouldn’t it be nice to simply have a direct line of communication with your current and future customers that didn’t depend on pesky algorithms to control who sees your content?

Fortunately, when you use an email list, that’s exactly what you get! You don’t have to learn new systems. You can just keep on sending emails to your customers and reaching them.

5 Free Email List Providers

It’s not going to cost you anything to get started with your own email list, because there are a number of free email list providers. (So, you have no excuse to not get started building an email list!)

Mailchimp

Free for up to 500 subscribers and 1,000 sends per month.

ConvertKit

Free for up to 1000 subscribers.

MailerLite

Free for up to 1000 subscribers and 12,000 sends per month.

Sendinblue

Free for up to 300 emails a day with no subscriber cap.

SendPulse

Free for up to 500 subscribers and 15,000 sends per month.

15 Email List Topic Ideas for Craft Businesses

• New products or designs
• Upcoming public sales (Available to anyone that visits your store, shop, or site.)
• Exclusive sales (Available only to email list subscribers; usually promoted through a coupon code.)
• Free shipping promotions
• Company news and announcements (Have you expanded selling in other places lately? Are you closing for a vacation?)
• Upcoming schedule for craft shows, fairs, or other events
• Customer testimonials
• Question and answer sessions/FAQ (Example: How does a custom order work?)
• Contests or giveaways that you have running
• Behind the scenes at your company
• Short lists of best sellers that coordinate with the holiday/season/or common event (Graduation parties, Mother’s Day, Summer, Christmas)
• Spotlight a single product. Highlight the cost, the available designs, and showcase photos of the product being used in different settings.
• Share things that inspire you to create products
• Simple DIY projects or tutorials for your email subscribers
• Changes to your store or shop policies, newsletters, etc.

Where to Get More Email List Ideas

After you’ve run through my list above, head over to my article on ChatGPT. ChatGPT is a great way to find inspiration on email list ideas.

My Number One Email List Tip

Before you go, I want to leave you with one more piece of advice: Be consistent. If you send out a newsletter each week, be sure it is sent each week. In contrast, if you sent out a newsletter every three months, don’t start sending it once a week unless you notify subscribers ahead of time.

Not a subscriber to Cutting for Business? What are you waiting for? I send out exclusive subscriber content regularly. Subscribe here.

Reading this around the holidays? I’ve also got a list of email subjects for Christmas.

Has your Silhouette or Cricut craft business gotten a point where you are trying to aggressively grow it? One way to grow a home based business is to get your business featured in the press. If you are thinking this might be difficult or expensive; keep reading because it isn’t!

How to Grow Your Business Using Magazines, Newspapers, and TV Shows

There is a free mailing list called HARO or Help a Reporter Out. HARO allows journalists, bloggers, and tv casting departments that are looking for people to interview, appear, or be quoted for an article or show to post a “wanted ad”. Each weekday, three times per day, HARO mails out their list of wanted ads to subscribers. Subscribers can read through the requests, and email the journalist or other person directly. Learn more about HARO and sign up (it’s free!) at Help a Reporter Out.

What Else Do You Need to Know About HARO?

• You will want to make sure that you have experience selling, a decent amount of feedback, and many items for sale before jumping into media requests.
• You should realize that you have the potential for your business to be featured and seen by thousands or millions of potential customers. Have everything in tip top shape from your social media to your shop. Be ready for a potential onslaught of orders.
• HARO has a great list of information you should know before answering queries. Read it here.
• There are subscriptions available for HARO with a varying number of different features that you can find at this link. For the average Silhouette or Cricut craft business owner, I don’t think these are necessary.

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Once you start selling your handmade Silhouette Cameo crafts, other crafters (or new crafters) will eventually stumble onto your page and one might ask you where you got your supplies for a certain project. Similarly, maybe you’ll get a customer that wants to start their own cutting business and they ask you – either publicly or privately how you create your items. How do you handle it? Here’s a few options for gracefully handling these requests:

• You could tell them. There’s no harm in sharing a few of your “secrets” and everyone needs more good karma in their life.
• If the person is local (or you can manage to teach them online), offer to teach them how to operate the machine and make items. You can charge the crafter for your time and materials. This becomes a win-win situation: the crafter that asked the questions get their questions answered, and you make some extra money.
• You can ignore and/or delete the comments. If the comment about your supplies or secrets is posted on your social media accounts, you can always delete it.
• You can answer vaguely. If you get a question about what machine you use to create your items, feel free to be vague. For example, I use a Silhouette Cameo for most of my items. If someone asks what machine I use and I don’t feel like sharing, I tell them I use a plotter. This is the truth, as the Silhouette Cameo is a desktop plotter.
• Lastly, you can always find a picture of the biggest, most expensive plotter on the market and send it to them. Most people won’t want to invest several thousands of dollars and the conversation will be over quickly.

Ultimately, the choice of how to handle an aspiring crafter or competitor asking questions is yours, but I urge you to stay professional no matter how you handle it. Your response is a direct reflection of not just you, but of your small business.

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