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Jan 5, 2022

BEAM – 5 ways to grow your lampshade making business

Updated: Oct 10, 2023

Happy 2022! With a new year ahead and after a couple of weeks of essential rest and relaxation, now is a great time to reassess where you are in relation to your goals for 2022 and your lampshade making business.


If you’re ready to take the next step, we’ve got five exciting ways in which you can get to the top of your lampshade making game and add new services, breath new creative life into your products and expand your selling reach. Read on to find out how you can make 2022 your lampshade making year.



The Complete Package

A simple trick to expanding your lampshade making business is to offer bespoke shaped shades. Often a customer wants to replicate exactly what they have, but there may not be a kit to suit.


For those out of the ordinary shaped commissions, look no further than our Lampshade Designer and Pattern tool, which allows you to design a template for any size or shape of lampshade that uses circular rings. Already a game-changing tool for many of our lampshade makers, just offering this extension of your current service could really bring in business.


If you make pendant shades a great way to add extra value is to offer bespoke cabling and ceiling roses to fit with the interiors of your client’s home. New to our range in 2021, we now stock a range of 35 coloured cotton cables and ceiling roses in metallic, wooden, brass, leather finishes, even including multi-hole roses.



Step out of your creative comfort zone

Although our kits are a simple and effective way of creating bespoke lampshades, there are plenty of other products and methods to achieve a lampshade with a difference. Our Self-Adhesive Textile Tape combined with our range of lampshade making parchments make stunning contemporary shades, and are as easy to make as our Lampshade Making kits. Check out our tutorial on how to bring the two together here.


Or why not try lending your fabric choices and style to a different shaped shade? Our recent post 'Lampshade Inspiration - Different Shaped Shades' highlights the shapes you may have forgotten about and handily, these use all the same skills as any regular drum shade, so why not give them a try?


If you're looking for a simple way to elevate a plain or patterned fabric shade, our metallic trims come in matt and shiny finishes. Our hockey stick trim is designed especially to slot onto the edge of your shade, giving a clean professional finish, whereas our 3mm wide metallic contoured profile trim can be used anywhere on a shade and will totally change the look or feel.



Share Your Shade Making Skills

If you’re feeling confident in your lampshade skills, now is a great time to share your passion and make some extra income too, by teaching a lampshade making workshop either online or in person.


2020 was definitely the year of the virtual workshop and we even hosted a few of our own! You can read our post here, which includes helpful tips on how to choose a virtual platform, promote your workshop, plan your kit, get your set up right and much, much more.


If you’d prefer to teach in person, then take a look at our post on How to Promote and Set Up a Lampshade Making Workshop. We’ve even provided teaching notes to help you plan what to do and say!


Broaden your selling power

Wherever you’re already selling your shades there’s always a chance you can sell them somewhere else! From online selling platforms to small or even larger retailers, it’s worth evaluating regularly how you are making sales and the costs of using other or alternative platforms.


Luckily we’ve done all of the hard work for you and by reading our BEAM (Business Expertise and Advice for Makers) posts, you’ll have everything your need to know at your fingertips, to help you make future decisions on the best way to increase your sales.



Extend your range

Whether you’re designing, printing, making or carefully selecting fabrics for your lampshade range, have your thought about adding your signature style to other homewares products?

Our Needcraft Craft Kits range is a fabulous way to create interesting secondary products, that use your existing lampshade making skills. From waste paper bins to clocks, these complementary items are not only quick and easy to make but can be made to match your bespoke lampshade range too!



Super- support

However you are planning to expand your business in 2022, don't forget we have plenty of ways to support you, from our extensive blog posts, to our social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest) and for each of products, either Lampshade Making Kits or Needcraft kits we have our handy YouTube videos to help you make them up with ease.


We're also available to answer your questions, so feel free to email us at info@dannells.com

or give us a call on 01992 700311. We'd be only too happy to help!




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