Selling Hair Bows Online (Instagram, Facebook, How to Price) Inclusive Interview of an Expert Crafter

Making and Selling Hair Bows… Is that a profitable venture? Well, I have managed to track down one of India’s popular “bow crafter” who shares her journey of making and selling hairbows, hijab pins, bracelets.

How to sell HairBows Online? Learn how to make good hairbows ( with professional finish), use free platforms like Instagram, Facebook and your own website ( eventually) to sell online. You can also setup booths at trade shows, fairs, flea markets and events.

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For aspiring entrepreneurs who love crafting and making things themselves, you are in for a treat. I have an interview with Amatullah Bhagat, aka India’s “bow crafter”.

Interview with India’s “Bow Crafter”

Hiii… I’m Amatullah Bhagat.. A 23yr old who loves crafting.. My hobby became my business and so I craft bows.. Few people call me “bow crafter” 😅

When did you start crafting Bows?

I started my business on 18th June 2017 and it has been 2yrs since I have been doing this.

Can you tell us about your products?

My products are mostly for young ladies and girls. I craft hijab pins, and make different bow accessories, and also trendy bracelets.

What does a Crafter’s Schedule or Day look like?

A crafter like me has no schedule.. My work starts when my eyes open and gets over when my eyes close… There are no timings…

Sometimes I start work as early as 9 am and work until late night 11 pm or 12 pm too..

Depends on the urgency of my orders..

What motivates you to keep working?

The only thing that motivates me to keep working is the love and appreciation I get from my customers and my Instagram family which is really powerful…

You feel like going on so that the love you get never stops… There are days when I get sick or I’m on vacation that I miss doing my work and people often text me asking me when I shall resume working and I feel how important it is for me to work because there are people out there waiting to get there hands on my handmade…

And this feeling pushes me through..

What about balancing Family and Business?

Since I’m not married yet it’s a bit easy to manage the business as I get a lot of support from my parents…

If you were to start again what would you do different?

Yes maybe I would start differently… I started taking part in small exhibitions… And then I started my page on Instagram.

f I had to start again I would first Market my page on Instagram and then take part in exhibition…

How to Start a HairBow Business from home – Make and Sell Hairbows

So in this section we will be asking her in depth questions about her business.

Skills and Equipment for making Hairbows and Bracelets

Handmades are based on skill only… You need to have the talent and patience…

Basic equipment are required but most importantly creativity is required…

Raw Materials for HairBows

I get my raw materials from various places… I always go in search of things which are unique and not many people have seen…

I try getting and making things which people would get attracted to in the first look…

There are challenges where many times when you just run out of particular stuff that you want or something that is no longer available and you have to start with some other trend..

How do you make time to make the products?

Working at home making handmade is as good as doing a 9-5 job outside…

In fact, this handmade business is more time consuming and stressful. As I said earlier I have no fix timings so I work like more than 10 hrs a day too…

So you make them yourself?

Yes, I make them myself… Right from purchase, crafting, photography, packaging, dispatch, handling of Instagram account, maintaining accounts, everything is single-handedly managed by me.

Can you suggest a course someone can take to learn this?

I don’t know of any courses of such… I have learnt everything from trial n error, from my customers who gave some ideas and I modified them. It’s a whole new learning n trying process by itself…

How did you learn how to brand your products? Packaging etc?

We all know it’s important to brand your products…
[su_highlight background=”#fcff99″]A brand name is a key to attract customers [/su_highlight]…

No one would purchase something online with no name at all…

These days nothing can be trusted.. hence branding and appearance of products are all that wins customers..

Packaging also I have tried many different types of stuff and finalised on my convenience and the sturdiness of the box that I pack them into as I ship my products all over India.

Is there a course or institute we can learn this at? How did you learn marketing?

There are many videos online these days… Also, there might be institutes…But I’m a self learnt crafter as I said… Photography, marketing, packaging everything I have tried on my own and failed and tried again until I felt it worked well…

[su_highlight background=”#fcff99″] I have tried on my own and failed and tried again until I felt it worked well…[/su_highlight]

Do you earn from selling Hairbows?

Yes, I do earn from my business, that is why we call it a business…

[su_highlight background=”#fcff99″] When I started my motive was never money.. It was always about quality…[/su_highlight]

Till date, I believe in giving quality stuff… Customers love stuff that has good quality, and if you give them good quality they pay you without any bargain…

In my business too I never allow bargaining.

A handmade product being bargained is a shame on the efforts that we make…

I believe handmade products should never be bargained as it involves a person’s creativity, time, their heart and soul into crafting it especially for you, and then when you bargain you are not valuing a person’s talent that’s put into it…

I don’t have a fixed income as it’s a handmade business n depends on how many orders I get but roughly
[su_highlight background=”#fcff99″] I earn from 7k to 15k[/su_highlight], depends on the customer flow… Some months when I’m on vacation or not well I don’t earn anything…

And yes it covers all my expenses that I put into crafting…

How do you price Hairbows?

I price my products based on the material cost, time and efforts that I put into..

After all handmade are never cheap because of the efforts and talent that we put in..

How much money do you spend on your business? What was your initial investment?

I spend money only when it’s required. I don’t buy in large quantities as storage and money is an issue…

My initial investment when I started was just Rs. 400 worth of stuff which I crafted and out of which I made Rs. 2400… [su_highlight background=”#fdff99″]My initial investment when I started was just Rs. 400 worth of stuff which I crafted and out of which I made Rs. 2400… [/su_highlight]

Guidelines for starting a HairBow Business

Before starting a business always think of the positives and negatives and make sure you are ready for the negatives more than the positives…

No start ups are easy…

We all face issues and problems but we got to learn how to deal with it and come out of it…

We should have a backup plan always incase things don’t go as planned..

And accepting failures and also the risk of people criticising or copying you is something you should be prepared…

Any other thoughts?

I would definitely like to say one thing is that whatever you do make sure you stick on to your originality…

Make sure you make an identity in your products…

Many people will come and copy your products but customers will identify your original product based on the creativity touch that you put on your products…

[su_highlight background=”#fdff99″]You can get inspired by many but what makes your products unique is when you add your touch of creativity to the inspired product… [/su_highlight]

Hope you liked the Interview.
I don’t know about you, I am so inspired and motivated. Please do visit her on Instagram.
P.S. I have added some more information below, might help you with your bow making business

How to Sell Successfully on Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook

Over the years working with and watching various crafters I have found that they thrive on Social Media platforms.

I have seen successful businesses made on Pinterest and Instagram. So here are my tips if you want to make sales and earn some money from home as a crafter.

It is my understanding that Pinterest is the best for sales. People using Pinterest are spenders and are willing to shell out a ton of money almost immediately.

I would recommend learning the platform and using it for generating income.

add a CTA
Post behind the scenes

How do I promote a Product on Instagram

include hashtags
apply filters
post at peak times
scarcity
spotlight new products
social proof

How to Photograph Hairbows

I found this video with some excellent tips for product photography at home. It includes some no-cost ways to get excellent photos at home.

She uses Photoshop for editing. If you have zero skills or do not have the software you can use canva.com for free.

This post first appeared on indianmomvlogs.com

1 Join My Team
- 1.1 I am on a mission of helping 10,000 women gain financial security. Join my team!
2 Interview with India’s “Bow Crafter”
3 How to Start a HairBow Business from home – Make and Sell Hairbows
4 How to Sell Successfully on Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook
- 4.1 How do I promote a Product on Instagram
5 How to Photograph Hairbows
6 Other Mompreneur Interviews