This is called active income because you have to be active (do work) to earn an income. Further, it meant that I would spend all my time crocheting amigurumi to sell, and if I didn’t work, I wouldn’t make any money. This meant that assuming I didn’t keep raising my prices, I would always have a cap on how much I could make. To make any amount of money, I had to put in a fixed amount of time. The other thing that turned me off from trying to start a business based in selling physical products is that I didn’t like how my time was inextricably linked to money. ![]() I even wrote up a detailed breakdown in this blog post of real life examples of people selling their wares on Etsy, and how they made sweatshop wages and didn’t even clear any profit. In fact, it didn’t look as if I would ever be able to pay myself even minimum wage for the amount of time I spent making each amigurumi, and I knew for a fact that I found making the same pattern over and over again quite repetitive. However, after doing a little bit more research into how much I might be able to make with selling finished products, I realized the answer was not much. There seemed to be a lot of people doing so on Etsy and occasionally people would also comment on my Instagram account asking if I sold my creations. The first thought that I had - and maybe you’ve had - is that I would sell finished amigurumi that I had made. When I first started trying to make money from crocheting, I took a look around on Instagram and Google to see how people were already doing it. Focus on passive income instead of active income Starting this business is incredibly empowering and it is so, so worth itġ. Those who don’t respect you don’t deserve respect Remember why you started and use your north star to guide your strategy It’s okay to take a break from social media Most people won’t understand your business, and that’s okay Most of your time is spent on the business part, not crocheting Build a stable business by diversifying revenue streams Now that you have some backstory, let’s jump in and I’m going to tell you about nine hard won lessons I learned from starting my crochet business, as well as a few tips along the way. The first few months were so tough on me psychologically (when I was working near non-stop with nothing to show) that as each week crawled by and I got a tiny bit better at designing or I hit the smallest milestones, I would think to myself “thank god I never have to do the 3rd month of a new business again,” or “thank god I never have to learn how to do xxx again.” It’s the little things, right? Compared to now, almost two years later, I’ve built so many systems for myself that I work much less hard, and in exchange I not only make profit but also get kind messages from people who enjoy my work and support from fellow artists. It’s the time when you’re probably working the most, while also making no money and getting no recognition. ![]() When it was time for me to reevaluate, I was making enough money for me to feel confident about “renewing my contract” with myself and continuing to work on my business.Įveryone says that the first year of working on a business is the hardest, and in my experience that’s extremely true. Not bad for a venture that I thought would be surefire failure! It took me six months to see any money, but by the one year mark, I was averaging about $1,000/month. In the beginning, I had no idea how I would make any money, so focusing on building an audience and developing my design skills helped lay the groundwork without stressing too much about the monetization aspect. This was really effective for me because it helped me not focus on the immediate results, especially in those early months that were the absolute hardest to get through. I knew that starting a business would be a lot of work up front and that I would be unlikely to see any results for a long time, but I decided that if after a year I still didn’t have anything to show for it, I would let myself move on. I began this journey with a simple goal: make money from crocheting through any means possible.Īt the very beginning, I told myself that I would try to make money from crocheting for one year. ![]() It’s had some crazy highs, periods of burnout, feeling lost, inadequate, and overwhelmed, but also feeling completely fulfilled beyond what I could have ever imagined. I’ve been on the craziest roller coaster ride in the last two years since I started my crochet business in the summer of 2020.
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