Start Small

While I have never owned a scrapbooking business, I am a person who frequents these scrapbooking stores and I do "try" to do my scrapbooks.

I have noticed in the past couple of years, that more scrapbooking stores open and then close quickly I assume due to lack of business.

I would definitely suggest researching your market area and making sure you position yourself in an area where scrapbooking is a frequented hobby.

Or, maybe more important, and a more affluent area where people appreciate the art of scrapbooking, but don't have the time themselves to create a scrapbook and therefore are will to pay someone else to do it for them.

I have noticed in many of the school auctions I have attended, people offering up their scrapbooking services to complete "your scrapbook".

What I appreciate the most when I enter these stores are the examples that I can copy for myself.

I don't really have the time to do the intricate cut-outs and such, so I appreciate when an example is shown and all the pieces are categorized close by so I can just pick them up and go instead of hunting through the store.

I can certainly put the page together, but don't have the creativity to think of the page myself.

I have many friends who scrapbook and also make invitations.

At least two of these friends have tried to make a business out of making invitations.

They have not been successful.

I think the problem lies in supply in demand.

One person just cannot make that many hand-made invitations.

So, if you are considering starting a scrapbooking business, I would suggest offering up scrapbooking parties and marketing yourself as a person who will actually do the scrapbook for you (if you have time) to start out with.

As people begin to know you, you may develop a more sound base to start a business with.

Another opportunity that exists when starting a scrapbooking business is to think about pre-packaging original templates for people who don't have the time to do all of those intricate cut-outs.

I would also create some original pages and sell those pieces as a package for people like me.

But they have to be cool and original, not like those pre-packaged things at Michaels.