Will your handmade product be successful?

I can't answer that question. Sorry. But you can. In fact, you can even help ensure it. You can morph what would have been a miserable failure into a storming success story. How? Boring old research, I'm afraid.

Before starting your hand-making business, do yourself a favour: search the web. Spend days (or better still weeks) idly searching the web around your product idea. See what's already out there. Then ask yourself a honest question, can I do it better or differently. Don't bother with cheaper - you're a handmaker, so that would be a mug's way in, wouldn't it?!

Draw a blank with these questions and it's back to the drawing board. For your own sake, don't be tempted to join a growing throng. If you can't distinguish your idea (what you intend to make and how and where you intend to sell it), from what's out there, STOP. The world does not need another beaded jewellery maker - unless you're going to do it with a serious twist. Creativity in the product and the pitch will be required in excess.

Think of it this way. You can invest little or nothing in the idea and put a bucket load of effort into making it work. You can even start sooner. But that's like putting a year's wages on a horse in The Grand National. Better that you invest loads in the idea and then back it with a bucket load of effort. It's still a risk, but expect considerably shorter odds.