Robin from Messy Play Kits shares how Craftybase has saved her hours of time every week in making sure she knows where her stock is, and exactly how much to price her products.
Meet Robin.
Robin is the "sole entrepreneur and the maker and all the things in between" behind Messy Play Kits, a small business that specializes in creating amazing at-home sensory activities for kids.
From humble beginnings making activity kits for her family, Robin’s company now offers 24 Messy Play Kits, monthly subscriptions, sensory bins, stocking stuffers, color changing slime kits, and activities for a wide range of ages. Her monthly subscriptions bring fun, engaging activities into the hands of kids nationwide, providing easy projects for busy families to do together.
Way back in 2016, Robin had already been in business for a number of years and was using an excel spreadsheet to track her inventory. This became extremely difficult and time-consuming as her business started to grow, and she started to realize that Excel wasn't up to the job. She needed another solution for keeping tabs on her stock and manufacturing, asap.
Most of the inventory solutions she found in her initial search were several hundred dollars a month - while her business was already profitable, these price points were still well out of budget for this thriving but still small creative business. Her husband happened to find Craftybase via a google search, and the rest, as they say, was history.
Robin loved the multi-level component tracking aspect to Craftybase - this feature was incredibly hard to find in other similar software she trialled. This allows Robin to create and track sub-assemblies of her kits that can be made and included across many different products.
Creating recipes for products to see recommended pricing and also to track fractional amounts of materials was another drawcard.
She's now been using Craftybase for just over five years now to help manage her inventory and production process, and she's been thrilled with the results. She can now accurately track and plan her inventory needs, and better see the big picture on her order situation - all in a single location.
Really it’s about what I’m making next and what I’m low on; tracking what’s in stock right now and what’s getting used. I can now figure out how much of everything I’ll actually need"
Craftybase is an invaluable tool for Robin. It has allowed her to keep track of her inventory more effectively and has even helped her to save money on materials by planning her purchases in advance based on her manufacturing activities. She's also been able to use the platform to better plan her production process, which has helped her to be more efficient and productive.
Being able to accurately document the whole inventory management process is magical. It’s super helpful for me to know that it’s all tracking correctly, and I’m selling everything at the price they should be sold at.
If you run a maker business like Robin's, Craftybase can help you to better manage your inventory and production process. It's an affordable and easy-to-use platform that can make a big difference in the way you run your handmade business.