Resin Art Business Plan, With a 12-Month Projection

A resin art business plan sets out what you'll make and who buys it, what each piece costs and sells for, the studio and safety gear it needs, and the first year month by month. Resin looks like a materials business, because epoxy is expensive by the gallon, but it's really a time business: pouring, demolding, sanding, backing and packing a set of coasters takes longer than the resin costs. That's why the small pieces often carry the business and the big ones barely pay. In the example below, a resin artist in South Carolina sells coaster sets direct and wholesale, serving trays and earrings, makes a profit from month 3, and ends the year about $13,200 ahead on $39,600 of sales, after paying $20 an hour for the work. Earrings are about two-fifths of the sales and half of what's left after costs. Below is a description example, each part of the plan, safety and claims, the projection, the startup budget, and a free template.

The short version

• Describe the business in a paragraph: what you make, where you sell, the studio, the goals.
• Cost each piece with your time in it: resin is pennies an ounce, the hours aren't.
• Small pieces with little sanding often pay best; big trays take hours.
• Wholesale only works for pieces that are quick to finish.
• Budget for a respirator, gloves and ventilation before the first pour.
• Don't call a piece food safe unless the resin maker's own data supports it.
• TaroStack keeps resin, molds and finished pieces counted, with each pour a batch. More below.

Part 1: the business description

Tidewater Resin Studio, a made-up resin studio in Charleston, South Carolina, I use in these examples, writes:

Tidewater Resin Studio makes coasters, serving trays and earrings in ocean colors, sold at craft fairs, online, and wholesale to gift shops along the coast. In our first year we plan to sell 160 pieces a month and supply 6 shops.

Part 2: what a piece costs

Epoxy resin and hardener bought by the gallon kit come to about 45 cents an ounce mixed.

A coaster set takes about 40 minutes of work across a batch, a tray an hour and a quarter, a pair of earrings 15 minutes. The time is two-thirds of a coaster set's cost and almost half a tray's. Silicone molds wear out after a few dozen pours, so a share of each mold goes on every piece. How to put your own time into a price is in how to price handmade items.

Part 3: customers and prices

The earrings leave $20.63 on a $28 sale; a tray leaves $30.55 on $85, after more than an hour's work. A wholesale coaster set leaves $5.37, because a shop pays about half the retail price and the 40 minutes don't shrink. Wholesale works for the quick pieces, earrings and small coasters, and not for trays; how to set a wholesale price that still pays is in how to price handmade items for wholesale.

Part 4: safety and claims

Uncured epoxy can cause skin allergies with repeated contact, and sanding cured resin makes fine dust, so the plan budgets for nitrile gloves, a respirator, eye protection and ventilation, and follows the safety data sheet that comes with the resin. Serving trays and boards raise a second question: whether a cured resin surface can be called food safe depends on that resin's own documentation and how it's used, so don't put "food safe" on a label or listing unless the resin maker's data backs it, and say how the piece should be used and cleaned.

Part 5: the first year, month by month

Fixed costs are $685 a month: a studio share ($200), craft fair fees averaged over the year ($250), marketing ($100), the online shop and website ($60), insurance ($40), and software and card fees ($35). Sales start at 15% of full speed and reach it by month 11:

The year's sales are $39,567 and the profit $13,197, on top of $20 an hour for the work. At full speed, the 80 pairs of earrings bring in $2,240 of the month's $5,810 and leave $1,650 of contribution; the 12 trays bring in $1,020 and leave $367. Craft fairs are where most of the direct sales happen; how much stock to take to one is in how much inventory to bring to a craft fair.

Part 6: the startup budget

Get the template

Download the resin art business plan workbook. Four sheets: your products with price, variable cost and monthly volume at full speed; the 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

A studio with a dozen designs, three sizes of mold, twenty pigments and resin bought by the case loses track fast: which molds are near the end of their life, how much resin is left before a big wholesale order, which pours came out cloudy and why, and what a tray really costs now that resin has gone up. A shop asks for 24 coaster sets in a color that needs a pigment you're out of.

How TaroStack does it

TaroStack keeps materials, pours and finished pieces in one place.

Pours as batches. Each design is a recipe, resin and hardener by weight, pigments and inclusions, backing and box, with a scrap % for pieces that come out flawed, and units convert: resin bought by the gallon, poured by the ounce. Recording a pour takes the materials off stock from the lots used, at what you paid, and divides by the pieces that came out good.

Which resin went into it. Every resin lot used is noted on the batch automatically, so when a set of trays turns yellow or stays tacky, you can see which bottle it came from and what else was poured from it.

And the shops' orders. Wholesale orders are sales orders that show whether the pieces or materials to fill them are in the studio while you're still typing, the reorder list works in days of cover, and margins are reported by product and by customer.

Recipes, batches, lots and margins by product and customer 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 resin art profitable?

It can be. In the example, a studio selling coasters, trays and earrings ends its first year about $13,200 ahead on $39,600 of sales, with $20 an hour paid for the work. The small, quick pieces earn most of it.

How much does it cost to start a resin business?

In the example, about $3,610: $2,110 for resin, molds, pigments, tools, safety gear, sanding tools, packaging, a craft fair setup and a website, and $1,500 of working cash.

How do you price resin art?

Add the resin by the ounce, pigments, hardware, mold wear, packaging and your time, then price direct and wholesale separately. In the example, a coaster set costing $20.78 sells for $45 direct and $25 wholesale.

Is resin art food safe?

It depends on the resin. Only call a piece food safe if the resin maker's own documentation supports it for that use, and tell buyers how to use and clean it.