If you’re looking to start your own business, one avenue you can easily go down, with minimal upfront investment and training, is making personalised keepsakes for parties, weddings and events. All you need is a badge maker, some badge-making components and some artwork or pretty fabric or paper, and you can set up a profitable craft-based side hustle!

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Personalised party accessories are more popular than ever. From gender reveal celebrations to hen parties and weddings, customers are looking for unique, affordable keepsakes that feel thoughtful and personal. 

This makes badge-making a perfect low-cost side hustle. It’s easy to set up, quick to produce, and highly profitable. And with an eBadges Micro or Mini Badge Maker, you can create not just custom badges, but also mirrors and magnets. All to order, and all from home.

Why Personalised Party Items Sell So Well

Modern customers value personalisation. They want items that reflect names, dates, colours, and themes — not generic, mass-produced products.

Badges, mirrors and magnets are ideal because they are:

• Affordable for customers and makers
• Quick to personalise for each order
• Lightweight and easy to post
• Perfect as keepsakes and favours
• Suitable for all ages and occasions

They’re also impulse-buy-friendly products that sell well on platforms like Etsy, Instagram, TikTok Shop, and at local markets.

Gender reveal & baby shower badges

Gender reveal and baby shower parties are a growing market, with customers often buying in small personalised batches.

Popular ideas include:

• “Team Pink” / “Team Blue” badges
• “Big Sister” / “Big Brother”/”Grandma”, etc. badges
• Baby name reveal badges
• Date-of-event keepsake badges
• Fridge magnets announcing the new arrival

These items are cheap to make, quick to produce, and easy to customise with names, dates and colour schemes.

Custom hen party favours

Hen parties are one of the strongest markets for DIY personalised accessories.

Using mirror badge sets and standard badges, you can create:

• Compact mirrors with names or roles (Bride, Maid of Honour, Bridesmaid)
• Funny slogan badges
• Hen party date keepsakes
• Colour-matched accessories for outfits

Mirrors in particular have a high perceived value while remaining low-cost to produce, making them ideal for side-hustle pricing.

Personalised wedding favours & save the dates

Wedding favours don’t have to be expensive to feel meaningful.

Magnets and badges work beautifully as:

• Table favours
• Save-the-date magnets
• Thank-you-for-coming keepsakes
• Evening reception giveaways (such as bottle openers or magnets)

Personalised with names, dates, or simple illustrations, these items are practical, post-friendly and, thanks to the memories attached to them, often kept long after the wedding day!

Cheap to Make & Quick to Set Up

One of the biggest advantages of starting a badge-making side hustle is the low barrier to entry.

With an eBadges badge maker:

• there are no minimum order quantities
• it’s a low cost per item
• you don’t need any specialised skills or training
• production is fast and easy
• you can easily scale up as demand grows

You can also start with simple designs and expand your range as your confidence and customer base grow.

How to Sell Your Items on Etsy and TikTok

Etsy and TikTok are both fantastic ways to sell the items you produce. They’re highly visual and there’s a massive market for handmade, personalised products on both platforms. However, positioning and selling is different for each, so let’s take a look at some tips…

Launching & selling on Etsy

Etsy users are actively looking for specific items (or items for specific occasions). They’re ready with their money and will often type fairly precise queries into the search bar. This is where Etsy SEO comes in. It’s not enough to just list your item as “custom badge”; you need to be as specific as possible.

• Use long tail, descriptive product titles
• Populate all your tags with relevant terms
• Perform searches for similar items on Etsy. Look at what comes up in the Autocomplete – this is based on actual searches. Look at what similar shops are doing too
• Use high quality images
• Offer item bundles for parties
• Fill out as much information about your product as possible

Selling Items on TikTok

While Etsy relies on users searching for your products, TikTok is all about discovery. It’s much more geared toward impulse buys so make sure your content stops users in their scrolling tracks!

• Lean into the making angle – ASMR is huge on TikTok and showing how satisfying the process of using a badge maker really runs with that, from the smooth action of the machine to the reveal of the shiny new badge!
• Film yourself packing orders –  a timelapse video showing the care that goes into the process will win you fans
• Hop on trends – movies, pop stars, TV shows, memes… the possibilities are endless, and if you can get in early enough, you’ll be able to capitalise on the momentum

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Why Choose E-Badges For Your Side Hustle?

A Flexible Side Hustle that Fits Around You

Badge making works around family life, full-time jobs, and other commitments. You can make and pack orders during evenings or weekends, scale up production for busy seasons and adapt to trends quickly.

From baby showers to weddings, the demand for personalised party items isn’t going anywhere any time soon, so get in on the action!

With low setup costs, fast production, and endless creative options, badge making is a smart way to turn celebrations into a profitable business.