6 Reasons You Might Not Start A Cricut Business
And How To Overcome Them
If this is the year you told yourself you would start a Cricut business but you haven’t quite taken that leap yet, then I wanted to debunk a few things that might be stopping you.
Either watch the video here…
The below content contains affiliate links and we may earn a commission if you shop through them, however this won't cost you anything, it just helps us to keep the site running for free. For more information on affiliate links, see the disclosure here.
Or read below…
1. The Market Is Already Saturated
Probably the most common reason I hear from people who are unsure about starting their own Cricut business is that the market is too saturated. And they’re not wrong, there are A LOT of people out there who are creating their own products with their Cricut or other cutting machine and selling them. However, what I see is a lot of the same sort of stuff, when actually these machines can do SO many different things! But even if you want to focus on vinyl decals like me then you have so many different options there as well.
I don’t love this term, it feels very corporate, but you need to find your USP and not just copy others. So whether that’s a specific niche, or a certain style, or just using what’s unique about you to speak to your audience, you can definitely stand out.
So it could be selling decals that look very retro.
Or it could be targeting a certain type of pet owner in particular.
Or becoming the go-to in your area for local businesses when they need window displays…
Window display - Photo by Artem Beliaikin from Pexels
…there are so many options out there.
In my course, How To Start A Vinyl Decal Business, I do go over some ways to find your niche if you want to check that out. It’s free for 1 month for all new members.
Whenever this reason stops me creating or launching something new I just think of the aisles in the supermarket - think about how many different brands of bread, and sauces, and cereals and all sorts of other products there are. But they all have their place because they offer different things, and different people are going to buy them.
Photo by Kevin Malik from Pexels
2. Too Hard To Market Things
Marketing is hard when you first get going but there are so many options for getting your products in front of customers that this shouldn't be the reason that stops you.
It does depend on where you’re marketing them, but my biggest tip would be to post content that will either encourage engagement, or that shows your products either solving a problem, or how they can be used in real life. So show behind the scenes…
Photo by Katya Wolf from Pexels
Give them a few sneak peeks of new products and ask their opinion on which one you should launch next. Look at templates like the ones on Canva below if you need some inspiration…
Show different scenarios with your products in them.
Anything but just flat pictures of your products that customers are likely to scroll past.
If you really want to nail this there are tonnes of accounts across social media and also courses that can give you a tonne of tips. Just make sure they’re giving you the most up-to-date information, and remember what works for one person might not work for everyone.
Also check out my post below for inspiration…
But if that sounds like a lot of work (it does for me!), you may not even necessarily need to do a tonne of marketing eventually, this is probably my weakest spot because I get almost all of my sales on Etsy from just Etsy or repeat orders - although it did take a while to build this up to be as consistent as it is now.
3. Products Aren’t Good Enough
It is usually the case that we are our own worst critics. But we all need to start somewhere. When I first started my product photos weren’t great…
…the fonts I used for my designs weren’t very smooth and I hadn’t really figured out how to make my packages look pretty. But I just kept going and all of those things I just gradually improved upon and now they are 1000 times better.
If you need some convincing, just look up some of the first products or designs from major brands - like have you ever seen the first series of The Simpsons? Look at these designs below!
And did you know the first ever nike shoe was made in a waffle iron?
If you’re really worried that your items have issues though, or you’re not sure if people will even want to buy them, then you could do an introductory offer where you start with lower prices in exchange for feedback, and then that gives you the chance to make improvements and practice your craft a bit before you put them up to the full price. It also gives you some good feedback to build on as well if your first set of customers like them.
4. Don’t have enough time
So we all have the same amount of hours in the day as Beyonce!
Do we though?!
Unless we have a team of people supporting us then no we probably don’t.
Where does the time even go?! And if you have kids, you’re working a job or you have other responsibilities then I’m sure your new business will often end up being last on the list of priorities.
But, if you just focus on doing one step at a time, just figure out what that one next step needs to be and then even if you just do one tiny step a week when you can fit it in, then a year from today you’ll be 52 steps closer to having your business off the ground than you are today.
5. Don’t know where to start
Leading on from that though, you might not know what your next step is, or where to start!
This is a tough one, because you don’t know what you don’t know!
Again, I have courses, free for 1 month, if you want to check those out as they walk you through all of the how to make vinyl decal basics, how to start a vinyl business, how to create decals that are appropriate for selling, and then also how to price your items and where to sell online.
And there are tonnes of other courses to help on Skillshare too depending on where you’re at in your journey and what you want to make.
And then there are also so many resources on Youtube, on Pinterest, social media, in books, on podcasts - maybe too much really, but there will be something to answer any questions you have, or even if you just want to hear about someone else’s work journey to figure out what steps they took then that is out there too.
I think with this, you just really need to look at where you are right now and again just think of one next step to work on, rather than overwhelming yourself with the big picture.
Photo by Suzy Hazelwood from Pexels
6. Won’t make enough of a profit
If you’re not making a profit, then your prices may not be high enough.
Or if customers are telling you your items are too expensive, then they probably aren’t your customers.
You obviously need to make sure your items are worth what you’re charging for them, and yes sometimes it is difficult if competitors are undercutting you. But in the long run, there is no point in underselling yourself if you do want to make this into a business as you may as well be doing something else.
Again, this course goes over setting your prices to make sure you’re making a profit if you want to check it out…
It also might be the case that some items just aren’t very profitable though. If so, it may be worth not selling them at all, or swapping them out for something else unless you feel like you can change them enough to make a profit.
That was what I had to do with make up & tote bags - I used to sell them with htv on…
…but I wasn’t selling enough of them to bulk buy in huge amounts so the base cost was quite high. And I used to make mistakes on them all of the time as well so I spent a lot on wastage. And in the end it just was not worth it so that’s why I now exclusively sell decals.
You’re Ready!
It really is all just a journey at the end of the day, it’s not always easy, but for me it is 100% worth it. And if you’ve read this far then you must be committed enough to be ready, so this is your sign to make that leap!
Let me know in the comments if you have any other reasons that are stopping you from starting a business with your Cricut, and let me know if you have any questions too.