How to Start a Calligraphy Business from Scratch in 2024 (The Ultimate Guide to Registering, Operations, Pricing, and more)
If you feel lost and overwhelmed thinking about how you might start making money with calligraphy, then this blog post is for you.
Running a calligraphy business is not as simple as 1, 2, 3! Rather, it's a lot of figuring things out, being organized, and keeping consistent.
I wish I could give you a one-size-fits-all solution for how to make money with your calligraphy, but that would be impossible because a lot of what you do in your business will depend on many different factors.
It depends on your goals, how much time you can spend on your business, and what exactly you want to accomplish.
After running a calligraphy for two years, I've learned some things along the way that many calligraphers have asked me about:
How do you set up your business?
How do you invoice customers and charge deposits?
How do you figure out your pricing?
How do you build your portfolio?
And a lot more!
In this blog post, you'll learn the steps to starting your own calligraphy business.
If you're looking for more resources on how you can build your calligraphy business, welcome to join my free Facebook group Calligraphy Business Bosses, where I have done more than 15 trainings on topics related to starting a calligraphy business.
Setting up your business
Disclaimer
Disclaimer: I am not an accountant or lawyer, so this blog post and resource document should not be considered legal, tax, financial or accounting advice. This blog post and resource document are for educational purposes to act as a guide for when you do your own research on rules and laws pertaining to your country, state/province, and situation. Any action you take upon using this information is at your own risk. I am not liable or responsible for any losses that arise from you using this information.
Choosing a business legal structure
The first thing you need to do to officially be in business is to register your business! Depending on where you live, the legal structures might have slightly different names, but here are the three main types of business structures you’ll commonly run into.
There are many different ways these types of structures differ—and I highly recommend you dig into this a little more if you have never come across these. They differ in the areas of taxation, liability, ownership, set up costs, ongoing maintenance costs, and more.
Sole proprietorship or sole trader: You are literally the business. It’s just one person—you!—in the business. You own and operate the business. This is the simplest and cheapest type of business legal structure to set up.
Partnership: You and one or more people/entities are working together for profit. In most cases, this doesn’t apply to calligraphy businesses.
Corporation: A corporation is a separate legal entity from you. Simply put, it is more complex in terms of everything.
There are also different kinds of corporations depending on where you live.
Note: If you are in the US, you should also look into what a Limited Liability Company (LLC) is. It combines aspects of a sole proprietorship and corporation.
For most calligraphers starting out, the sole proprietor business structure is the most common because it’s simple to set up. If you’re in the US, the sole proprietor and LLC business structures are common starting points. As you grow in your business, you will want to consider incorporating.
In most countries (or your state or province), there is an office or agency created by the government to help small businesses set up. In my province, it’s Small Business BC. They usually have free or very affordable resources and/or services to help you with your business setup, so check out those resources.
If you’re starting a business in BC, definitely take advantage of Small Business BC’s free 30-minute consultation with one of their business advisors. At my consultation, I asked about business set up, sales tax, business insurance, and other questions I had about starting a business. I highly recommend it!
If you’re not in BC, make sure you check if your area has an office that supports small businesses because they can be an invaluable resource for you.
Some comparisons between sole proprietorship and corporation
Sole proprietors have unlimited liability which means you are personally responsible for all business debts and transactions. For example, if you fail to pay its debts, they can come after your personal assets (house, car, etc).
With a corporation, you have limited liability which means you are personally responsible for a fixed sum of business
transactions. This is usually equal to the amount you put into the business. If your business gets sued, your personal assets aren’t at stake. However, this protection can also be provided through insurance which you can look into!
The tax rates for a sole proprietorship and corporation differ. For corporations, the provincial tax rate for small businesses in my province in BC is between 3-4% and the federal net tax rate is 9% for the first $500,000. Corporations have the highest setup and administration costs, therefore, you would have to make sufficient income in order to account for the added costs and actually make a profit. Corporations can also be subject to double taxation as you must file both business and personal taxes.
As a sole proprietor, you pay personal income tax rates on the net income generated by your business.
The personal Income tax rate for Canada in 2020 are:
15% on the first $48,535 of taxable income, plus:
20.5% on the next $48,534 of taxable income (on the portion of taxable income over 48,535 up to $97,069), plus:
26% on the next $53,404 of taxable income (on the portion of taxable income over $97,069 up to $150,473).
There’s also a tax rate for every province in Canada, which I suggest you familiarize yourself with.
Generally, the higher the net income of your calligraphy business the more advantageous it is to incorporate instead of remaining as a sole proprietorship, but talk to your small business office, accountant, or lawyer if you are unsure about anything.
Choosing a business name
As you look into registering your business, you’re going to come across this question: “What should I call myself?”
Business names can be a complex topic—in fact, all the topics in this blog post can be somewhat complex.
If you Google How to pick a business name, you’re going to find thousands of articles.
But what should you actually do?
If you’re starting out, you’re probably just going to be running the business by yourself.
When you think about naming your business, do you want to include your own name in it, or come up with a fictitious name? (A fictitious name is a name that isn’t your own name.)
My first business name was Jennidi Creative (a ficticious name). I had started the business with my mom, Jenny, in 2018 so I combined our two names into one. My name is Dina, and hers is Jenny, so Jennidi. I tacked on the word Creative at the end because I thought it showed that we were an artsy thing.
A year later, my mom was less involved in my business, so I renamed it Dina Calligraphy. I purposely put my own name in my business name because it was easier for people to remember my business name. I stopped using Creative because I decided that I would only focus on calligraphy.
Here are some questions you could think about:
Do I want to include my own name in it?
Do I want to include the words calligraphy or studio or creative in it?
Or do I want to use a fictitious name?
There’s really no right or wrong answer. It really depends on where you see your business going in the future. For example, you might use a fictitious name if you think that in the future you want to expand your business and have some employees working for you, but don’t want the employees to be working under your actual name.
In Canada and the US, you need to register your business name. Sometimes, a business name is also referred to as a Doing-Business-As name (DBA name). If you opt to use your legal name and you are a sole proprietor, then you might not need to register your business name.
In my province, BC, it costs about $30 to submit a business name for approval.
Don’t stress about picking the perfect name. You can always change it in the future! (Many companies re-brand themselves and change their names.)
When you choose your business name, also remember to check if the social media handles for that name are taken.
Banking
It’s widely recommended to have a separate bank account for your personal and business expenses.
Luckily, it’s not that hard, and many banks offer business accounts for free or at a very affordable monthly rate.
Personally, I went with the bank I use for my personal banking just because seemed more convenient. I don’t pay a fee for my business banking account.
It also helps to get a separate credit card for your business transactions!
When you file your taxes, you are required to report business expenses separately. So don’t mix it up with your personal expenses!
At the very least, keep track of what you spend on business expenses and keep your receipts. Depending on where you live, the tax authorities will require you to keep your receipts for several years in the event that you get audited.
Financing
Some businesses need financing as upfront capital to start their businesses, but most likely you won’t need that for a calligraphy business! Restaurants, brick-and-mortar shops, and any business needing big equipment or a physical location most likely will need financing from banks or investors.
For a calligraphers starting out, you’ll most likely be running it from home and don’t need a lot of capital to get started. If you don’t require outside capital, your business is “bootstrapped,”meaning you are using your own savings and subsequent revenue to run the business, which is awesome because you don’t owe anyone anything!
I’d say having at least $1,000 is the minimum for you to start a calligraphy business so you can pay for your business registration, website hosting, and some supplies.
Licences and permits
Be sure to check your country/province/state and municipality for licenses that you need to run your business. A simple Google search will do! For example, I need a home-based business license in my municipality in BC.
Sales tax in Canada
In Canada, based on how much you make in your calligraphy business and what services/products you offer, you might have to charge GST/HST to your customers.
If you provide taxable goods and services in Canada and your total taxable revenues exceed $30,000 in any single calendar quarter or in four consecutive calendar quarters you will have to register for the GST and charge it. You can, however, voluntarily register for it (and there are reasons for doing that if you want to look into it more).
For me personally, I decided to voluntarily register for the GST/HST tax even before I hit the $30,000 threshold. This was so that the companies I was pitching to would view me as more professional and legitimate. And why would I want people to know that I haven’t made the $30,000? But again, this is not necessary.
For provincial sales tax, it varies from province to province. I highly recommend you take a look at this government resource.
If ever in doubt, get in contact with your small business office or accountant.
Sales tax in the US
You need to charge sales tax if you have a sales “nexus” (sufficient physical presence in the US).
There are many resources about whether or not you need to charge sales tax. Starting out with this article is a start.
If you are unsure of whether or not you should charge sales tax, get in contact with your small business office or accountant.
This site also is a good resource to see what you need to do in your state.
Business insurance
As you begin your business, something else to keep in mind is business insurance. No matter what kind of legal structure you decide to go with, it’s a good idea to make sure you are covering all your bases in terms of protecting yourself.
There are many different kinds of business insurance. Whether you opt to pay for business insurance depends on your risk level, what you are offering in your business and other factors.
If you have quit your job to run your calligraphy business, don’t forget about personal health insurance!
Operations
Bookkeeping and accounting
You must keep track of your expenses and revenue in some shape or form for when you do your taxes. Keep all your receipts related to your business expenses.
Depending on where you live, you might need to keep your receipts for several years. In Canada, you should keep your receipts for six years.
To keep track of my money, I use a book keeping and invoicing software called Wave. Wave is a free desktop and mobile app for bookkeeping. On mobile, you can just take a picture of your receipt and then you fill in all the applicable sections (taxes, category etc). Super easy!
Other alternatives are Freshbooks, Quickbooks, Honeybooks which are all paid services.
You could also use Excel if your bookkeeping is quite simple. But don’t forget to keep your receipts! Since you most likely have to keep your receipts for many years, I recommend organizing your receipts digitally by scanning or taking photos of them.
How to invoice customers
When you get your first calligraphy commission or paid project, how do you charge the customer?
There are many options for charging customers. For many people, their preference will be paying by credit card for which there are many options: Wave, Stripe, Paypal, Freshbooks, Quickbooks, Honeybook, Square, and many more.
To invoice clients in my calligraphy business (my clients are usually in Canada and the US), I use Stripe or Wave. Stripe and Wave connect directly to my bank account so when the customer pays, I will get a direct deposit into my bank account a few days later. The fee is $0.30 and 2.9% of the total of the invoice. This fee is the same across most platforms around the world.
Non-credit card options are cheque, cash or e-transfer. Personally, I don’t like using these methods because I manually need to make a receipt and send it to the customer, whereas with Stripe or Wave, the software automatically sends the receipt to the customer.
Don’t forget to charge sales tax if you’re required to charge it!
If you’re starting out, I would recommend using Wave for both invoicing and book keeping. The reason I use both Stripe and Wave is because when I first started using Wave for book keeping, I didn’t know that it had invoicing options.
If you want an all-in-one solution for book keeping, invoicing, and CRM system, I’ve heard good things about Honeybook (paid software). Many creatives use it when they have a lot of custom project-based work with clients.
I do think that if you’re starting out, Wave is an awesome option because it’s free (I wish I got a kickback for recommending Wave but I don’t!).
Deposits
If it’s a large project, use a contract and collect a deposit! If it’s a smaller project, get the customer to pay everything before you start.
For a large project, collect a deposit of 25-50% (depends on the project).
For on-site work, I charge 25% of the total cost as a deposit. (This is low because I don’t actually do any work before that date.)
I haven’t done a lot of commissioned work, but this is how I would invoice:
For small calligraphy projects (under $100), I would charge 100% upfront.
For larger projects, I would charge 50% as a deposit. (Higher deposit than the on-site work because after the client pays, I would start on the project right away and I would lose the cost of my time if they backed out.)
For rush projects, I would charge 100% upfront with a rush fee.
Contracts
Disclaimer: I am not an accountant or lawyer, so this blog post and resource document should not be considered legal, tax, financial, or accounting advice. This blog post and resource document are for educational purposes to act as a guide for when you do your own research on rules and laws pertaining to your country, state/province, and situation. Any action you take upon using this information is at your own risk. I am not liable or responsible for any losses that arise from you using this information.
Depending on the project, you might need a contract.
Why are contracts important?
Contracts are important for many reasons!
It protects you and your client.
It sets out specific details of the work you’re doing, the timeline, the payment terms.
You and your client both know exactly what’s happening.
An important legal document in case the contract is breached
And more…
Personally, I haven’t done big commissioned projects, so I have not used the typical long, written contract where you get the other person to sign. I’ve used contracts for my coaching business for calligraphers, where the payment is $1,000-2,500.
For smaller projects, if you don’t get your customer to sign a contract, at least get everything written in email. I’d say for projects that are less than $700.
I would definitely use a contract if it’s over $1,000 and it’s commissioned work.
Nowadays you can use online software like HelloSign, DocuSign or other websites that let you upload contracts and allow for signatures so you don’t need to go through the hassle of printing it out, signing it, scanning it, and sending it back to your client to do the same.
So where do you get contracts?
I personally don’t feel comfortable writing a contract myself—I’m not a lawyer. But I’ve purchased contract templates online before.
First, do your own research to see if a contract is necessary for your business. If so, as a start, you can Google calligraphy contract template and you will find options. I personally would not use a free contract template. There are many good contract templates you can find and purchase.
IMPORTANT: Do not copy someone else’s contract!
When you Google for contracts you will see many examples of different contracts, do not copy them as this could count as stealing! Always buy contract templates. If you believe it is the right thing for your business, get a lawyer to review it.
Most importantly, make sure you understand your own contract!
If ever in doubt, get in touch with a lawyer. Many lawyers offer free 30-minute consultations, so take advantage of that!
CRM System
What is a CRM system and most importantly, do you need one?
Client Relationship Management System: A system that helps you manage your relationships with clients.
It’s not the same as a project management system like Asana/Trello.
Examples of CRM systems: Honeybook, Salesforce, Hubspot, Zendesk, Zoho CRM (be careful: not all of these are good for creative businesses)
I personally don’t think you don’t really need one for your calligraphy business until it becomes hard to keep track of projects with clients.
Personally, I’d would just stick to plain ole’ email until it gets too out of hand and you find it very difficult to keep track of clients.
I never used one in my business, but that’s because I didn’t focus on doing commissioned work.
If I were to use one, I would consider Honeybook—I haven’t used it myself, but I’ve heard good things about it.
Two options for operations for calligraphers
As a summary, here are my suggestions for what to use in your business:
OPTION 1 (for a general calligraphy business)
Invoicing and bookkeeping: Wave (free)
Contracts: Buy contract templates online when needed for larger projects (paid)
OPTION 2 (for more commissioned client work)
Use Honeybook (Look online for a 50% off your first-year coupon code. Honeybook can do bookkeeping, invoicing, and has contract templates for you to use. It’s an all-in-one solution! I haven’t used it personally, but I know many creatives love it.
Pricing
Pricing, ahhhhh.
It’s a complex topic. But also a super interesting one!
As a business coach for calligraphers, I get asked about pricing a lot from my clients:
What should I charge for this?
How do I know what to charge?
Do I charge different prices in different situations?
Should I ask for a deposit?
The answer to all those questions are… it depends.
I hate to break it to you, but there is no exact formula to pricing. It all depends.
I’ve done a more in-depth training about pricing in my free Facebook group Calligraphy Business Bosses—welcome to join if you’re a calligrapher—but here’s a summary:
Pricing will depend on many factors. These are what I consider when pricing (in no particular order—they are all important).
Market rate and competitor’s pricing
When you think about pricing, one thing you should definitely look at is what the current prices in the market are.
When I say market, you can look at the global market, but it depends on what you’re doing (if your main competitors are calligraphers in your area or all calligraphers online).
If your competition is local, then look at your local prices in your city or country.
If you charge way too much, people will look for alternatives. If you charge way too low, people will think you’re the “cheap calligrapher”—which you don’t want!
Cost of supplies
Obviously, we want to make a profit from our work. So charge more than what your supplies cost, duh! Usually, this isn’t too much of a problem, but do take into consideration the cost of supplies to make the piece.
Time that you will spend on a project (including revisions)
Depending on how long you think a project will take—and most of the time you don’t know exactly unless you’ve done similar things before—you need to charge for your time’s worth.
The more you do something, the more you’ll be experienced, and the less time it will take.
If it’s something like wedding invitations, where it’s very customized, do take the time that you’ll spend on revisions into consideration.
Also, don’t forget about the time you spend communicating with your client or packing supplies!
Your personal brand, reputation, and experience
If you’ve been doing calligraphy for 10 years, you’re pretty established: your brand and reputation are up there.
If you're in the beginning stages of starting a calligraphy business, your brand and reputation won’t be as well-known.
The more experience you have and the more well-known you are, generally the more you can charge.
But take your skill level into consideration too! Even if you haven’t made money doing calligraphy, think about where your skills are at! How much time did you spend honing your calligraphy skills?
You might not have had customers/clients before, but that doesn’t mean you’re inexperienced in calligraphy.
Value-based pricing vs cost-plus pricing
Cost-plus pricing is a pricing model where you figure out the cost of everything and you mark it up by a percentage (say 20% or 50%). You would definitely make a profit on that.
Value-based pricing is based on what value the customer will derive from your work. So it’s not based on cost.
For example, with wedding vows, what is the value? The “thing” I’m giving to my client isn’t jut a piece of paper with random words. It’s a keepsake, a memory piece that shows his love for for his wife. And he’ll frame it and keep it there forever.
So what’s the value? The value is the joy that his entire family will feel when they see that piece. It’s timeless!
Look at the intention of the piece you’re creating. What will it be used for? What is the customer getting in terms of feeling?
Another example: When someone orders a seating chart from you, they’re buying a piece of mind—their wedding guests don’t have to scramble to find their seats.
Charge what you think the value is for the customer is one way to look at pricing.
Flat rate vs hourly rate
Charging a flat rate is when you give your client one price to pay for the entire project.
With commissioned projects like wedding stationary and custom work, I commonly see calligraphers charging flat rates. With flat rate, the customer knows exactly what it costs, and you know exactly what you’re going to get.
However, with a flat rate, you need to be careful with how many revisions you’ll do. You might underestimate the time you need to spend on the project. Hopefully, you can make a good “guesstimate” of how much time your project will take!
Charging an hourly rate is when you charge your client based on the time it took you to complete the project. The disadvantage with hourly is that your customer doesn’t know exactly how much they’re going to pay at the end and then they might be surprised at the end with the invoice. But the advantage for you is that you are compensated well for your time.
On-site calligraphy is usually charged by the hour. So if you charge by the hour, how much should you charge? There’s quite a range, as it can vary between $30-400 depending on who the customer is, what the occasion is, what your experience is, and what exactly you’re doing. I would start off with $50-150.
Remember, the hourly rate might change depending on what you’re doing: engraving is more difficult and hence I would charge more for engraving compared to regular calligraphy on paper.
Who your customer is, what your relationship is with them, and what you think they are willing to pay
If you know your customer has money, then maybe you’ll feel more comfortable charging more.
Who’s buying from you? Is it a friend, an acquaintance, a friend of a friend, or a stranger?
Depending on who the customer is, I might adjust the pricing of custom commissioned work. For close friends, I typically like the give a discount or trade them for something rather than charging full price, but that’s entirely up to you.
There’s one kind of customer I would definitely charge more though, and that’s corporate clients.
Consistency in pricing
If you charge $100 to customer A, and $200 to customer B for a similar project, customer B might get mad if they find out what customer A paid. “This is unfair!”
Generally, you should be consistent in your pricing. Of course, there will be different prices for different things depending on complexity, so if one customer thinks something might not be priced correctly, make sure you can justify your price.
Making a price list is a good idea! In the wedding industry where stationary is highly customized, you could make a price list with a range of how much typical projects are priced.
Sales tax
Don’t forget sales tax! Double-check if you need to charge because if you don’t charge it and you’re supposed to, it’s going to have to come out of your own pocket. If you’re unsure, check resources put out from your state, province, country, small business office, or accountant.
Ways to make money as a calligrapher
There are so many ways to make money as a calligrapher, I couldn’t list them all!
But these are the 5 most common ways.
For specific action steps on how you can get started with making money, I highly recommend you check out my other post 6 Easy Ways to Make Money with Calligraphy.
Greeting cards
When I started out my calligraphy business, the first thing I sold was greeting cards.
I honestly think that if you are just starting out, selling greeting cards is the easiest thing to do because everyone buys cards, it’s fairly simple to make, and people can see the value of buying a card already.
Whether you do handmade cards or print cards, that’s up to you!
Custom commissions
Love writing out sentences or paragraphs with your calligraphy?
Tell your friends and followers that you’re accepting custom commissions! These could be framed as a gift, or for home decor.
Everyone loves an inspirational phrase or two!
Wedding stationary and signage
One of the first things calligraphers will think of when it comes to making money is selling wedding stationary to couples.
Whether it’s wedding invitations, name cards, table cards, menus, seating charts, or welcome signs, brides love to customize their wedding with calligraphy!
Workshops
Teach the awesome skill you’ve learnt to others! If you love meeting new people, teaching workshops will really be rewarding for you.
Find a location, get your supplies, make a plan for what you’re going to teach, and go do it!
Once you’ve mastered teaching workshops for the public, teaching workshops to corporate teams and private groups might be the next step.
If you’re interested in hosting workshops in your city, I have an in-depth guide about workshops: How to Teach Your First Calligraphy Workshop (The Ultimate Step-By-Step Guide).
On-site calligraphy
Ever see those calligraphers sitting in a luxury store, looking all fancy and doing calligraphy for customers?
That’s on-site calligraphy or live event calligraphy!
To get these gigs, companies will mainly look for calligraphers through Google search, so it is a must to have good SEO on your website!
I have an in-depth training on how I got on-site calligraphy gigs with no experience in my free Facebook group Calligraphy Business Bosses (welcome to join if you’re a calligrapher!).
Make a business plan
If you’re just starting out a business, it is so crucial to make a plan of what you’re doing to do! Without a plan, you’re going to feel lost and overwhelmed trying to do everything.
If you Google “business plan template,” there are a million results.
Having been through business school and business-related jobs, a lot of things you see in templates on the internet are unnecessary. You don’t need to make a 10-page plan.
A simple 1-2 page plan will do for now.
These are the main things that I believe you, as a calligrapher, should think about when you are making a business plan:
Vision or dream
Goals
Target market
Market analysis
Your solution
Marketing plan
Operational plan
Financial plan
When you are ready to make your business plan, head over to my blog post How to Write a Calligraphy Business Plan for an exact step-by-step guide to writing one.
There’s also a business plan template in my free Facebook group here if you request to join.
Setting up an online portfolio
So you’re ready to get going with your business! You’ve set everything up, you’ve made a business plan, but now what? How do you actually get clients?
There are many ways to get clients, but a common way to start is to be active on social media and also create a website.
Social media
In my opinion, if you had to choose one social media platform to focus on in your business, it would be Instagram, for these reasons:
Instagram is overall widely used
Instagram is highly visual, and calligraphy is a highly visual art
You can use Instagram to build a portfolio on your feed, but also use it to engage with followers (and potential clients)
You can use Instagram to keep in touch with past, current and potential clients
You can message people easily and get their attention by engaging
Overall, Instagram is great for housing your calligraphy business and keeping in touch with people.
The second one I’d say to get is a Facebook business page. Instagram is owned by Facebook, so it’s fairly straightforward to connect the two.
Set up your Facebook business page, and the maintenance is pretty easy.
If you’ve connected your Instagram to Facebook, your Instagram posts can automatically be posted to your Facebook business page!
Other social media platforms to consider are:
LinkedIn (For example, I use LinkedIn to network and get corporate clients for my corporate calligraphy workshops.)
Pinterest
TikTok
Youtube (More for calligraphers looking to grow an online calligraphy business)
Depending on what you’re going to do in your business, choose the right social media platforms! If you have no idea, start with Instagram and Facebook!
I have an in-depth blog post about how to grow your Instagram with some concrete strategies if you need support in that aspect! Also a video!
Etsy
Okay, we can’t continue to talk about selling your calligraphy without talking about Etsy. Should you make an Etsy shop or not?
My answer is… it depends!
It really does depend on where you want to go with your business and what you want to sell.
Who do you want to sell to? How will you do your marketing? Answer these questions and then let’s talk!
As for me, I decided against making an Etsy when I started my calligraphy business. I knew I didn’t want a product-based business where I needed to ship out products regularly. (Oh yes, you could use Etsy to sell digital products too online but I didn’t want to do that.)
The first time I sold any product, it was greeting cards. I didn’t make an Etsy. I didn’t put e-commerce on my website. I made a form on my website and collected e-transfers and cash because I really had no idea how many people would buy, so why set up e-commerce?
The next year, I decided to set up e-commerce on my website, and not sell on Etsy.
These were the main reasons I decided against Etsy:
I wanted more control over my site
My target audience for my products are my current followers, not new people, so I can direct people from IG directly to my site (not looking for random people to find me on Etsy)
High fees paid per product sold
Personally I feel like selling on my own site seems more professional. It also gives a cleaner feel (people won’t be distracted by the other products)
I was paying for a site already so the additional charge wasn’t too big
You might want to consider Etsy for these reasons:
You want your products to be exposed to a greater audience through Etsy
You don’t want to go through the hassle of setting up e-commerce on your website
You want to try out selling with an online shop without paying for a website
There are other print-on-demand sites like Redbubble and Society6 where you can sell items, which you can also look into!
Website
If you’re serious about your business, you need a website! (Even if you have an Etsy shop, I’d still recommend making your own website). If you come across a company without a website, would you take that company seriously? Probably not.
While it’s not the most urgent thing to do when starting a business, you’ll need to make one eventually.
There are a ton of resources on the internet for how to make a website.
The main things to do are:
Buy your domain name
Get hosting for your website
Sometimes, these two can be done using one website builder.
I hosted my first site on Squarespace. I am a huge fan of Squarespace for many reasons, which I talk about more in my in-depth training about how to make a website in 3 days in my free Facebook group–join here.
Once you’ve got your domain and hosting plan, I’d start out by making these pages:
About
Services
Workshops
Contact
Optional: Blog
Privacy Policy, Terms, and Conditions
Un-linked page: “Link in bio” for Instagram (instead of using Link Tree)
Remember, something is better than nothing. Don’t be a perfectionist and spend 6 months making your website.
I would say spend a maximum of one month working on your website.
You could totally make it in one week!
Conclusion
Once you’ve registered your business, set up your operational systems, created a business plan, and set up your portfolio, you’re good to go!
I do have to say that running a calligraphy business is incredibly rewarding, in many different ways. When I started my
calligraphy business selling greeting cards on the side in 2018, I didn’t know that eventually my little business would allow me to quit my job and be a full-time calligrapher.
It has given me freedom, flexibility, and the opportunity to meet a lot of cool people. Looking back, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
However, I did have a lot of headaches when I was just starting out. I had no idea where to start. I didn’t know how to register my business, or how to collect money from customers. I was so confused about sales tax and shipping.
If you’re just starting out and feeling the same way, I hope this blog post has helped you!
Starting a calligraphy business is hard work, but it is SO worth it. If you’re curious to hear more about my journey running my calligraphy business on the side and then quitting my job, read this blog post.
If you found this helpful, you’re going to find a lot more resources in my free Facebook group for calligraphers, where I’ve done more than 15 trainings on topics related to growing a calligraphy business.
I’d love to hear what you thought about this blog post in the comments! Was it helpful? Do you have any questions?