The handmade goods industry reached a global market size of $906 billion in 2024. By 2028, that number is estimated to reach nearly $1.94 trillion.
Unlike many industries this size, the handmade goods market is the domain of small business owners. If you’re passionate about making beautiful or useful creations, starting your own craft business is a great way to share your talents and earn money doing something you love.
A Cricut machine can be just the tool to take you there. Here’s how to start a Cricut business and market yourself to stand out from the crowd.
Ready to start your business? Create your website today or learn more about Shopify’s tools for selling online and in person.
What is a Cricut?
A Cricut machine is an electronic cutting tool that’s popular with home crafters and craft business owners. Cricut offers four machine models—Cricut Maker, Cricut Explore, Cricut Joy, and Cricut Venture—as well as a range of materials and accessories, such as heat transfer tools and Cricut-friendly inks, foils, and fabrics. The machine works in conjunction with design software and uses a small, precise blade to cut shapes or patterns.
Users can design directly in the Cricut app, upload their own designs, or purchase ready-made options. The machine automatically reproduces the design by cutting it out of materials like paper, vinyl, fabric—even wood or leather. Thanks to its versatility, a Cricut machine lets you create intricate designs, lettering, and shapes you can apply to various surfaces and materials.
How to start a Cricut business
- Decide what to sell
- Conduct market research
- Define your target audience
- Decide where to sell your products
- Design your Cricut product line
- Project your expenses
- Price your products
- Choose a business name
- Form your business
- Draft a business plan
- Purchase supplies and make products
- Set up your online store
Starting a Cricut business can be a rewarding venture. On top of making money doing what you love, you can grow your professional network and experience the satisfaction of building a company from the ground up.
It can also be a big undertaking, involving careful planning and a keen understanding of your business and target audience.
Here’s how to get started:
1. Decide what to sell
There are a few types of Cricut businesses you can start. Here are some niches to consider:
Paper crafts
Cricut lets you create a wide variety of paper products, including banners, greeting cards, gift tags, envelopes, and stationery items. With a Cricut machine, you can start producing and promoting your paper products right away, without having to pay a manufacturer upfront and wait weeks (or even months) for your goods to arrive.
Martina Calvi, author and owner of Martina’s Tiny Store, started her sticker business with a scanner and Cricut Maker 3. Today, you can find her sticker sheets at retailers like Urban Outfitters.
Many Cricut design businesses also offer custom orders. If you’re comfortable creating bespoke items on demand—like vinyl decals or leather goods—consider including customization options for an added fee.
Products customized with Cricut
You can take existing products—like t-shirts, mugs, and phone cases—and customize them using a Cricut machine. Add your own punny slogans and cute illustrations, or create bespoke items for customers, like gold foil placecards for weddings and special events:
Digital products
Your Cricut machine relies on SVG (Scalable Vector Graphic) files to make precise cuts and shapes. If you’re tech-savvy and enjoy dreaming up new designs, you can create files and sell them as digital products to generate passive income.
Angie Holden of The Country Chic Cottage sells a variety of digital files featuring original designs that other crafters can use to print on mugs and more.
One-on-one virtual classes
For newbies, a Cricut could be intimidating to learn. Use your expertise to help others master the ins and outs of the craft machine. One-on-one classes offer personalized help in a way that general tutorials might not. Use an appointment booking app to make it easy for clients to schedule a private lesson with you.
2. Conduct market research
Market research is the process of gathering information about consumers and potential competitors to better understand market conditions within a specific business sector. It is usually part of a broader market analysis. Before spending money on your business, identify your target market and get to know their appetite for your products.
For a Cricut business, you might research competitors in the Cricut design space to analyze pricing, branding, marketing language, and product information. This will help you understand who they’re targeting and the kind of value they provide to their audiences.
You can also browse Cricut Etsy shops, read reviews, and check total sales to gauge how well these businesses are performing. Reading trade journals, ecommerce blogs, and industry reports is a great way to uncover market trends and statistics.
3. Define your target audience
Once you know what kinds of products you’ll sell and what the competition looks like, it’s time to get specific about the target audience you want to reach and how you’ll position your offering to them.
For example, if you prefer working with high-quality materials, you might decide to target an upmarket customer. To do this effectively, you’ll need to understand what motivates this type of customer to make purchasing decisions and what their expectations of a product like yours might be. Consider holding focus groups, sending out surveys, and doing deeper research into the demographic and psychographic factors (personality traits and lifestyle characteristics) common among this audience.
You can also create buyer personas—fictional representations of a business’s ideal customers. Identify your target audience’s demographics, behavior, and preferences. Then, group similar characteristics together, assign names, and summarize their motivations, pain points, and buying habits. These insights can help you position your product to meet your customers’ needs and create marketing materials that appeal to potential buyers.
4. Decide where to sell your products
Selling online gives you the opportunity to target a wider audience. Launching your own website offers the most flexibility. The easiest way to build a Cricut business website is with a no-code, drag-and-drop website builder like Shopify.
Shopify offers customer profiles and digital marketing tools to help you learn more about your audience and create effective campaigns that target the right people. If you want to sell on an online marketplace like Amazon Handmade or Etsy, you can use Marketplace Connect to automatically sync your products.
To make your choice, research each platform’s demographics to see if they align with your target audience, compare selling fees, and consider how much control you want over your branding and customer experience.
If you want to make a more personal connection with your customers, consider selling in person at local craft fairs or markets using Shopify’s Tap to Pay POS. You can also use a free QR code generator to create signs for your booth, linking to your website or social media profiles.
5. Design your Cricut product line
Use your buyer personas and competitor research to refine your initial product line. Ask yourself what kinds of products your target audience wants most, and identify gaps in competitor offerings.
An ideal product meets a specific need that isn’t currently addressed by other vendors. Next, finalize your designs, color options, and material choices. Consider creating mockups for review or developing a checklist of customer needs.
6. Project your expenses
Planning your finances can help you set your financial goals and understand what’s feasible for you. You’ll want to identify possible funding sources, forecast revenue, and estimate operating expenses, including:
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Startup costs. The price of your Cricut machine, business licensing fees, and any initial branding investments.
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Direct costs. The costs directly associated with manufacturing a product and completing an order, such as materials and shipping costs.
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Overhead costs. Ongoing costs associated with running your business, such as software licensing fees, marketplace selling fees, and marketing spend.
It’s OK if you don’t have exact numbers for every expense at this stage. Your software licensing fees will depend on which platform you use to create your online store, and marketing costs can vary based on your strategies. For these figures, create a budget estimate that tallies what you can expect to spend in each category based on research. When you’ve settled on a website provider or marketing strategy, use your estimate to determine what you can afford to spend.
7. Price your products
When it comes to pricing your products, there are a few different approaches you can take. You can look at your competitors and aim to position yourself around the average, so your prices fall in line with customers’ expectations.
You can also set your prices based on your estimated expenses. Here’s how:
Calculate direct costs and overhead
Start by calculating the direct cost of each product and factor in ongoing overhead costs as well as startup expenses into the pricing equation. Let’s say you sell mugs with Cricut designs. You spend $5 on materials per product and anticipate 100 sales a month. Your monthly overhead cost is $1,000.
Figure out the cost of an individual item
Divide your monthly overhead expenses by 100 and add this figure ($1,000 / 100 = $10) to the direct cost of producing each mug ($5), arriving at a cost of $15 per mug. Many businesses plan to pay down startup expenses over time, so you could add an additional $5 per mug to help cover the cost of your Cricut machine and other startup fees.
Apply your markup
Once you’ve determined the cost of each item to your business, you can use a profit margin calculator to factor in your markup, determine your retail price, and calculate your gross margin. Markups typically range from 20% to 100% of the item’s total cost.
A 25% markup on your mug would set your sale price at $25, and give you a $4 profit per mug.
Once you’ve priced your products, you can project your income based on the number of sales you expect to make over a given period of time.
8. Choose a business name
Your business name can offer clues about your products and services. For example, Andy’s Custom Mugs tells customers exactly what to expect. If you need help coming up with a business name, try Shopify’s AI Business Name Generator to find the perfect name.
9. Form your business
With a solid plan, you’re ready to form your business. Depending on your business entity and state and local laws, you may also need to obtain a business license and register your business with the state. Visit your state’s website to determine these requirements for your business type. It’s common for the Secretary of State’s office or the Department of Revenue/Taxation to handle business licensing matters.
If you form a sole proprietorship, you must register your business name using a doing business as (DBA) to open a business bank account.
10. Draft a business plan
Your business plan is a roadmap for running your business. It includes these elements:
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Company description. Outline your business model, big-picture vision, goals, structure, mission, and value proposition.
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Market research. Detail the strength, opportunities, size, and competitive landscape of your chosen market.
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Products and services. Describe your offerings, including how you’ll price your items or services.
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Financial plan. Present your operating budget, which will reflect your projected expenses and income. Note any startup capital you may need.
11. Purchase supplies and make products
Now for the fun part: purchasing your Cricut machine and additional materials, and starting to make products.
Because you’re making products yourself, you likely don’t have to worry about storing large amounts of inventory—handmade goods makers often offer made-to-order or custom products. When you maintain minimal inventory, you can focus on photographing and listing products to fulfill weekly sales estimates in each category.
If you sell digital products, your inventory needs will be even lower—although you’ll probably want to create at least some physical products to help promote your business on social media.
12. Set up your online store
Once you’re ready to start selling, set up your online store. Start by choosing a website builder that offers customizable templates or themes, like Shopify. Choose a theme that meets your budget and reflects your aesthetics, then get to work adding product pages and collections.
As you set up your online store, keep these ecommerce UX best practices in mind:
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Load time. Does your website load quickly across devices?
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Website navigation. Are your menus easy to navigate? Do they make sense from the user’s perspective?
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Accessibility. Does your store meet the latest website accessibility standards?
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Journey mapping. Does clicking a link or button take the user to the right place?
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Responsive design. Does your website function properly on all devices, including mobile and tablet?
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Copywriting. Do your words effectively convey information and reflect your brand’s voice?
How to market and promote your Cricut business
Marketing your Cricut business is both an initial setup step and an ongoing task. Marketing can help you raise brand awareness, reach new customers, and increase sales. You can also organize and optimize your marketing efforts by creating a small business marketing plan. Here are a few strategies:
1. Market on social media channels
Establishing a professional social media presence can help you reach a wider audience and increase visibility. You can create a business Instagram account and feature stylish pictures of your products, information about sales or promotions, customer testimonials, and behind-the-scenes footage.
For example, Martina of Martina’s Tiny Store shared a behind-the-scenes video about getting a dedicated space for her business for the first time.
2. Partner with creators
Many businesses also partner with creators to reach new audiences. Perhaps you look for a business owner with a complementary business to offer limited-edition products. For example, you might work with a poet and create greeting cards featuring their words. Or you could create custom merch for an influencer with a following that includes your target audience and split the profits.
3. Leverage your online store
Your online store is more than just a place to sell products—it’s an opportunity to build customer loyalty and communicate your brand’s value. Include promotional materials, such as marketing pages and your brand story, as well as educational or entertaining content, such as a blog post about how to throw an epic baby shower with decorations made on a Cricut.
Angie of The Country Chic Cottage maintains a robust blog with Cricut tutorials and more:
You can add calls to action at the end of your post and encourage people to sign up for your newsletter, so you can continue to grow your relationship with them.
How to start a Cricut business FAQ
Are Cricut businesses profitable?
Yes, successful Cricut business owners can earn significant profits selling Cricut designs.
How much capital do I need to start a Cricut business?
Cricut businesses have relatively low start-up expenses. Costs include your Cricut machine, materials, and business formation fees, such as obtaining a license.
Do I need prior experience in crafting or design to start a Cricut business?
No, you can purchase pre-made design files to create projects using your Cricut machine.
