Could you and should you transform your craft hobby into a thriving business? This episode of The Thriving Maker podcast promises to provide you with the insights needed to make this crucial decision. I'll break down the allure and practicalities of monetising your passion, from setting achievable goals to developing essential business skills. Whether you're a craft enthusiast or already running a side hustle, you'll find actionable advice on aligning your business direction with your personal goals and planning for sustainable growth.

Trying to balance creativity with business demands is no small feat I discuss the importance of knowing when to keep your craft as a hobby versus scaling it into a full-time venture. Plus, get a sneak peek into upcoming courses from Designer Maker Coach, aimed at helping you transition smoothly. Tune in for valuable advice and encouragement to support your crafting journey, whether you're ready to take the plunge or just exploring your options.

Follow along and join our community as we build thriving creative businesses together.

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➡ AUGUST DESIGN CHALLENGE

Transcript:

Sarah Kavanagh: 0:00

Hello. In today's episode of the Thriving Maker podcast, I'm talking all about turning your craft hobby into a business and how do you know if it's the right thing for you. So, wherever and however you're listening, I hope you enjoy. Hello and welcome to the Thriving Maker podcast. This is a podcast to support makers, crafters and artists to start and grow their creative passions into thriving, profitable businesses. I'm Sarah Kavanagh, your host, and I'm passionate about all things creative and how to turn your unique talents into a thriving business, giving you the lifestyle that you want. I started my own handmade fine jewellery business over 15 years ago and now also help other artisans and makers build their own creative businesses through marketing and branding and techniques and strategies I've studied, learned and put into practice along my journey. Today I want to help you to establish and grow your own design-led business so that it can help support the lifestyle that you want. Think of this as your go-to resource and check in for all things strategy and marketing for your business, along with stories and anecdotes from my life as a creative entrepreneur. Thank you for tuning in and welcome to the Thriving Maker podcast, hello. So today's episode is all about turning your craft hobby into a business and how do you know if it's the right thing for you? How do you know if it's the right craft for you to make into a business? And these are all questions that you might be asking yourself, and so I wanted to address some of this. Quite often, the idea of making money from your craft can be very alluring and you'll be like, and you're thinking brilliant, I'm going to, I love doing this, I'm going to make some money from it, my family love it, my friends love it, this is going to be amazing. So you may love your craft. It may be something that is an outlet for you, that you do on at the weekends, on the at the side. It might be a side hustle that you want to grow. But the reality is that when you're trying to build into a business, you do have to be business minded and you do have to put the work in to build that business. You need to have goals and plans in place. You need to know the direction that you want to take your work. If the thought of that fills you with anxiety and dread, then maybe turning your hobby and your craft hobby into a business is possibly not the right thing for you at the moment, but hopefully one day it will be, and hopefully it may not be this particular craft, but it may be another craft that you enjoy doing. It may be a craft that you have decided is more lucrative and you'll turn that into a business. So I just wanted to go through how you might determine whether it's the right thing for you or not. So you have your.

Sarah Kavanagh: 3:12

So, if we start at the beginning, you have your craft hobby that you love doing and you make it weekends, you go to the occasional market and you maybe sell there. This is what I would call a side hustle, and it's great for testing the water and to find out if this is what you want to do. It doesn't. It can remain a side hustle. It doesn't have to be turned into your full-time job. However, if you do want to turn it full-time, it needs to make money and for it to do that you need to have a plan of action and you need to know that you're from the outset that you're going to be spending probably more time working on your business and growing it than you are actually making the pieces that you potentially want to make. But but if you have a plan, it's entirely possible and it can be the most fulfilling thing to do to do something you love and also to be able to bring in an income with it and to provide you with the income that you want as well.

Sarah Kavanagh: 4:19

So there's a few questions that you might want to ask yourself when you're doing this. How would you describe your current crafting activity? Is it a hobby that you do in your free time? Is it that you sell on the sidelines you maybe sell to friends or family or is it your full-time passion? Is it something that you love doing and you want to grow a business out of it? And you go in understanding that you you may be working on your business more than you end up doing your craft, especially to start with, in the early days of your growing your business. Another thing you need to take into account is how you feel about marketing and selling your craft.

Sarah Kavanagh: 5:01

So if you've decided that turning your craft into a business is right for you and it is what you want to do and you've decided on what type of craft you're going to turn into a business, then I would suggest that the first steps are to learn the basics of business. Learn about getting your products together, getting your pieces together, your marketing skills and your selling skills, and this is something that I cover in the flagship course, the Handmade Business Academy. In the early days, you can start investigating into putting some pieces together and look at the local markets near you and sell your pieces. Talk to friends and family and sell your pieces. Start selling your pieces to get a good grasp of whether it is something that you want to do and then learn the skills needed to develop your business in the right way.

Sarah Kavanagh: 5:58

If you're already selling your work, if you already have a side hustle and you maybe want to grow it a bit further, or you want to put in place systems and strategies to make it more streamlined so that your processes are more defined and you're not repeating yourself over and over again, then again the the learning, developing your business skills is something that you want to work on, but, more importantly, putting a plan together of how you're going to grow your business. What are your goals? What steps do you want to take? Where do you want to be this time next year? And so it's really, if you already have your business, it's really about planning for the future and making sure that it grows the way you want it to grow and in the direction you want it to grow, and evaluate how much time you want to put towards it if you want to keep it as a side hustle, or whether you want to grow and evaluate how much time you want to put towards it if you want to keep it as a side hustle, or whether you want to work towards your craft bringing you more income and developing your side hustle into a larger portion of your overall income.

Sarah Kavanagh: 7:07

If you're already a full-time maker and you have your business set up, then I would suggest that your main focus should be on growing your business and moving it forward in the direction that you want it to go. Now. This could be looking back at your marketing and sales and your business skills and putting in place strategies and systems that will help you with that. Evaluating where your business is at at the moment Is it taking you in the right direction or would you like it to develop in a slightly different way? Are you finding it's giving you the life that you want? And so, again, look at your goals for the future. Look at your overall plan. Is your business taking you where you want it to go?

Sarah Kavanagh: 8:02

So this comes back again to really solidifying your business skills, and I talked at the beginning about when you're turning your craft hobby into a business. You really are having to spend a lot of time working on the business side of your craft and perhaps spending less time actually making your work and actually practicing the craft that you loved so much in the first place. So it's important to go in with your eyes open and realize this from the outset, and if you are already a full-time maker and crafter, then your focus should be on optimising your production, your marketing, your sales and looking at new ways of selling. If you sell just at markets and shows, have you developed your online sales? And vice versa, if you're just selling online, perhaps once in a while you need to get back into selling face-to-face, whether that's a show or a craft market or looking at going into galleries and selling wholesale. So there's lots of different ways that you can continually build your business and get it to work for you and maintain the passion and the love that you have for your craft.

Sarah Kavanagh: 9:16

It does take time, and it takes a lot of learning and skills and discipline to turn your craft hobby into a business that can provide you with an income that supports what you want and gives you the life that you want as well. There are many reasons why you might want to turn your craft hobby into a business. Perhaps you've suddenly found yourself with more time on your hands, especially if you have children that are now at school. You may have decided that you no longer want to work in an office because you have, because of family, and, but you still want to bring in an income, and setting up a craft business with something that you love could be your answer, could be the answer there. Perhaps you've left your work and retired and you're looking at the skills and craft that you once loved and you want to get back into and and you now want to bring in some extra income to have that challenge of selling your work, because it is. It is also really enjoyable to be able to sell your work, to have the satisfaction that something you've made somebody loves enough to to buy from you, and that's a really nice feeling. It can be hard work, but very satisfying as well, and I think you will know you will feel the right time to turn your craft hobby into a business.

Sarah Kavanagh: 10:48

You may go through all the steps of learning about developing your business skills and learning about what it takes to turn your craft into a business. Once you know it's something you want to do, make sure that you have the legal side set up. In the UK, that would mean registering to be self-employed, and it varies from country to country. So, obviously, whatever your local legal status needs to be for setting up your own business, have you got space to work? What time commitments do you have already? So I do hope that this has helped to give you some pointers as to whether turning your craft hobby into a business is right for you.

Sarah Kavanagh: 11:21

There is no right or wrong, and there's no. You have to be a full-time maker or you have to have a job and have it as a side hustle. It has to feel right for you, and whatever decision you make has to be right for you. So whether you're ready to start your craft business or you enjoy your hobby so much and you're fearful about taking on the business challenge, that's okay. It has to be right for you, and so if you want advice on moving your craft hobby to a business, please do continue to listen to the podcast. Have a look at some of the courses that I run through the Designer Maker Coach. The flagship course is coming up in the autumn, but do get in touch, leave me a comment and I will try and get back to you as best I can. So that's it for today. Um, I do hope this has been useful. Um, I'll speak to you again soon. Bye.