Start Selling Your Leatherwork Today! 90% Are Making This 1 BIG Mistake

Us leather workers are sometimes a closed minded bunch. But before you scoff and close the tab, let me explain.

We love what we do, and it’s quite common to assume everyone else thinks the same way when we’re passionate about what we create.

We create a beautiful traditional briefcases, exotic skin bags, or wallets with perfect edge work. We then post it online to the applause of like minded leatherworkers.

In the social media fueled echo chamber we call a leathercraft community, we can sometimes forget not everyone outside of the community likes what we like.

This can be evident when we offer up our work to the world via social media, a website, or online sales platforms like Etsy. The bag we lovingly crafted over 30 hours isn’t even getting a sniff of interest. 

What gives?

Well, here’s a recent story I want to share with you. You may have seen that I put up a video showcasing how to make an arm guard for archery. Now this isn’t something the fine leathercraft community would be (or is) interested in, it’s too niche and combines two hobbies that rarely connect.

However, even though I clearly didn’t offer the item being made for sale, I have been inundated by emails and private messages from archers, and friends of archers, asking if I can make one to order for them.

This got me thinking about the time I made a leather strop for my straight razor (for shaving). It was the same story. DM after DM asking if I could make a custom strop.

Now, being good at business and selling your work, entails being able to see opportunities where others don’t.

Many have the dream of being a full time leatherworker, able to support a family and the lifestyle they currently enjoy. Some also want to have a successful side hustle that adds an appreciable addition to their current income and allows them to indulge their passion.

However, here is some sage advice I once heard I’d like to share with you, ‘Be stubborn about your goals and flexible about your methods’.

Meaning, hold on to your goal of making money from your craft, yet be open minded about what you create for customers.

What you create doesn’t have to be something you particularly like or have an interest in. Your job as a creator and business owner is to find out what your market wants you to create, then go about making it with the high degree of craftsmanship they have come to expect from you.

So, if you’re looking to start a small business and you're a passionate bag maker, but sales just aren’t happening, it doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t make a leather goods business work. It could mean that the market wants more than the usual leather accessories, such as bags, belts, wallets and watch straps.

I’ve heard too many times 'no one wants to pay for handmade goods anymore’, or ‘people these days just don’t appreciate quality’. This is unlikely to be true, and we know that deep down. But we sometimes persist in making only what we love to make, despite a lack of general interest. If you build it they will come right? Not necessarily.

If you only want them to buy what you enjoy making, you better have some decent savings ready to pump into clever online targeted ads. But, there’s a cheaper way (even free) that I’ll explain in just a moment.

It is more likely to boil down to the simple fact you aren’t supplying what the market demands. Or put even simpler, customers aren’t buying your work because you aren’t making exactly what they want. 

So, how do you find out what potential customers actually want to buy? The answer is simple.

Market validation.

Market validation is a term often used in business and marketing, referring to a technique used to find out what people really want to purchase. By testing various offerings and letting customers tell you what they want by voting with their wallet, you'll quickly see what's in and what's out.

In a nutshell, I’m recommending you start making leather goods for various niche markets. Goods you may have never made before, or even knew existed.

These can be goods designed for everyday convenience (toddler harness), an interest or hobby the customer has (binoculars case), or it can be something useful for a profession (leather tool belt).

At worst, you’ll learn to create new designs, experiment with different techniques and leathers, and add more experience to your leathercraft repertoire.

There’s nothing wrong with you picking something from another interest you have too. For example, if you’re also into interior design, what’s stopping you from getting some wooden speaker stands, wrapping them in leather?

Showcase your work, then, IF there’s no takers, you have a lovely set of new speaker stands to show off your work to guests.

Make experimenting with different products a good use of your time and energy, so you can keep, or gift what doesn’t generate interest.

Eventually, as long as you have an audience to present your work to, you’ll quickly find out what people are interested in buying, and what they’re not.

Once you pick up on this, you now know what products to put your energy into, and what to drop.

Although it’s wonderful to create leatherwork that piques your own interest, there are many times I’ve created projects for seemingly mundane items that have given me much pleasure.

I recently had a lot of fun making a bridle leather flashlight holster that attaches to a belt or a backpack. To be frank, I’m not passionate about flashlight holsters, but it was a quick little project I had a lot of fun doing.

So, below are some ideas you can try to get you started. My recommendation is this, sit down with pen and pad, and give yourself the goal of coming up with your own ideas. Aim for 100 fresh ideas. 

Even the boring and bizarre should make it on that list, the idea is to get your brain searching for new projects.

I don’t care if it’s leather teddy bear chokers, put it down. If you only put down serious projects you would actually do, you’ll get stuck on number 8. Putting down everything that pops into your head allows you to get into flow, where ideas just start appearing.

It's usually the ideas in the last 20 or 30 on your list where you'll find gold. At a point where you're mind is having to get really creative and inventive.

In that 100 idea list, there’ll be projects you never thought of doing that will go on to make sales and get your business going strong.

Baby changing bags

Leather mouse mats

Leather bookends

Straight razor strops

Scissor holsters

Gardening tool belt

Leather lined drinks tray

Baby shoes/mitts

Perforated leather lamp shades

Key wallets

Toddler harness

Cooks knife sheath

Leather Fly swatter

Leather wrapped shoe horn

Memory card wallet

Sobriety tokens

Doggy bag dispenser

Leather tissue box

Leather napkin rings

Leather mirror case

Leather wash bag

Safety razor holster

Leather match box

Leatherman holster

Leather coasters

Leather wine rack

Golf club protectors

Leather wrapped picture frames

Rifle scope caps

Gun slip

Leather wrapped speaker stands

Binoculars case

Camera case

Leather earrings

Leather bowtie

Leather pencil case

and so on..

Comment below if you have any ideas you would like to share, or unusual projects you have completed that got people's attention.

Thank you for reading. Philip