Folly in Craft Businesses

What's the quick way to see your craft business go bust? Quite simply, being overly restrictive! Many craft designers are now publishing CD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs containing papers and other pleasing items that crafters can print out at home and use for a variety of purposes. Fair enough! However, many of these will soon be disappointed by sales. Nor are the CD/DVD-ROM publishers alone in their folly! Companies across the crafting world are likely to be facing tough times as crafters fight back against restrictive terms and conditions.

Crafting is not an inexpensive hobby! Most hope to at least recoup their costs and perhaps earn enough to purchase new materials and/or tools. This is accomplished by selling some of their crafted items, usually at craft fairs and sometimes by commission by individuals. Now, we're not talking mass production here! We're talking about what a busy individual can make in very limited time.

With craft groups increasing in numbers every day, particularly on the Internet, the natural intelligence of crafters is being demonstrated by ever increasing dissatisfaction with companies supposedly "serving" them. More and more, we are seeing crafters sharing information on which companies place restrictions on the use of their products. Those that don't permit crafters to sell items which they have, after all, made in their own time and at their own expense, are being named and shamed. Crafters are refusing to buy from such companies in greater and greater numbers. Meanwhile, the so-called "Angel" companies are gaining! These permit the sale of crafters work, provided it meets certain criteria, such as "for charity" or "not in large scale". Other companies place no restrictions beyond the protection of their own copyrights, and these will prove the biggest winners, ultimately.