Macrame Business Plan, With a Projection

A macrame business plan is a plan for knots and hours. The cord in a plant hanger costs about $4; the 45 minutes of knotting cost $15 at a fair wage, and a large wall hanging takes three hours. So the plan has to pay those hours, make the small pieces in batches, and look for products that sell the knots without tying them: a kit, with the cord, the ring and the instructions, takes ten minutes to pack. In the example below, a macrame maker in Pennsylvania sells plant hangers, wall hangings, keychains and DIY kits at markets and online, and ends the first year about $13,900 ahead on $35,900 of sales, after paying $20 an hour for about 550 hours. Below is a description example, each part of the plan, the first year month by month, the startup budget, and a free template.

The short version

• Describe the business in a paragraph: the pieces, the kits, where you sell, the goals.
• Cost each piece from the cord up: cord with trimming, rings and beads, tags, your minutes, the fees.
• Make small pieces in batches: ten keychains cut and knotted together take half the time each.
• Kits sell the design without the hours; they leave the most for each hour by far.
• Large wall hangings sell for the most and take the longest.
• TaroStack keeps cord by the meter, rings and dowels by the each, and every piece costed from what it used. More below.

Part 1: the business description

Conestoga Knot Co., a made-up macrame maker in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, I use in these examples, writes:

Conestoga Knot Co. knots cotton plant hangers, wall hangings and keychains in a home studio, and sells DIY plant hanger kits, at two markets a month, at craft fairs and online.

Part 2: what each piece costs

A keychain knotted on its own takes ten minutes; ten cut and knotted together take about five each. A kit's ten minutes are measuring and bagging the cord; the customer ties the knots. How each piece was priced is in how to price handmade items.

Part 3: customers and prices

On top of the $20 an hour already paid, a kit leaves about $99 an hour, since it takes ten minutes to pack, a keychain about $28, a plant hanger about $26 and a wall hanging about $24. At full speed the plant hangers bring about $990 of the month's $2,570 of contribution, the kits about $660, the wall hangings about $570 and the keychains about $350. The kits are the product that grows without more knotting; shops that resell can take them too, priced as in how to price handmade items for wholesale.

Part 4: the first year, month by month

Fixed costs are $300 a month: market fees ($150), the online shop and website ($40), insurance ($25), marketing ($50), and software and card fees ($35). Sales start at 15% of full speed and reach it in month 11:

The year's sales are $35,916 and the profit $13,854, on top of about 80 hours a month at full speed paid at $20, about 550 hours and $11,000 in the year. Profit from the first month, because a home studio's fixed costs are small.

Part 5: the startup budget

At $13,900 a year, the $1,670 spent before working cash is earned back by month 5. How many pieces to bring to a craft fair is in how much inventory for a craft fair.

Get the template

Download the macrame business plan workbook. Four sheets: your pieces and kits with price, variable cost and a month's volume at full speed; the first year, month by month, with sales, profit and cash; your fixed costs; and your startup budget with working cash. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.

Where this stops working

Cord in four thicknesses and six colors, bought by the roll and used by the meter, rings, dowels and beads, kits that each take 30 meters of 3 mm cord, a wall hanging commission that needs 60 meters of 5 mm, and finished pieces at home, at a fair and online. A notebook can't say how many meters of the natural 5 mm are left, whether there's enough cord for the kits and the commission both, or what a plant hanger costs now that cord went up.

How TaroStack does it

TaroStack keeps cord by the meter, rings and dowels by the each, and every piece costed from what it used.

Cord as stock. Cord is bought by the roll and used by the meter; TaroStack does the unit math, and counts are done on a phone, so the natural 5 mm left is a number, and cord comes up on a reorder list in days of cover.

Pieces and kits as recipes. A plant hanger is a recipe of its cord, ring, beads and tag, and a kit of its cord, ring, bag and instructions, so each batch takes them off stock at what they cost, with the minutes it took.

Orders against stock. A commission is a sales order that shows whether there's enough cord while you're typing it, so the kits and the commission don't both count on the same roll.

Counting, recipes, batches and sales orders are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.

Questions people also ask

Is macrame a profitable business?

It can be. In the example, a macrame maker ends the first year about $13,900 ahead on $35,900 of sales, after paying $20 an hour for about 550 hours, with DIY kits the best sale for each hour.

How much does it cost to start a macrame business?

In the example, $2,170: a first order of cord, rings and beads, a hanging rack and tools, kit packaging, a market tent and display, a website, and $500 of working cash.

How much should I charge for a macrame plant hanger?

From the cord, ring, beads, tag and your minutes, then a margin after fees. In the example, a plant hanger with 45 minutes of knotting costs $20.66 and sells for $43.

Do macrame kits sell?

In the example, a $28 kit takes ten minutes to pack and leaves $16.53, more for each hour than any piece the maker knots.