it’s time to bust our first ‘maker myth’ – and today’s a doozy!
If you’re like most of us, you got into handmade business because there was something you loved making, and at some point, you thought – ‘maybe I could sell this?’.
What you might not have realised, at first, is that when you take your hobby, and turn it into a business, the time you spend actually making is going to be severely curtailed.
We’ve worked with thousands of makers, and we see this misconception crop up ALL the time.
In this episode, we explain exactly why this is the case – and why you need to not only love making, but also discover a love of business if you are going to succeed.
~ Jess, Mik & Deb
listen now
shownotes
today we will be talking about maker myths.
- Myth: “When I become a full time maker, I’m just going to make things all day!”
- So many people seem surprised by this. Making as a hobby and making as a business are so incredibly different.
- The product is just a small facet of running a business.
- Handmade shops usually start a business out of their passion, and don’t expect the amount of work it takes to make a living.
- The beginning is always the hardest part. It’s where you spend most of the time on non-making stuff because you still need to establish yourself.
- You have to enjoy the journey as much as the end result.
- It takes time to build a profitable business. It’s a marathon and not a sprint.
- You’ll spend about 80% of your time all the other stuff and 20% of it making.
- You need to make enough profit in order to continue your business.
- You need to have time to do your marketing or else the business won’t go anywhere.
- If you have so many orders that you’re turning yourself into a slave by spending most of your hours making your products, put your prices up!
- Put boundaries on your work hours.
- We don’t get to make things all day. We’ve established that. So what else should be done?
- You need to focus on your marketing as well. SEO, social media, photography (this really helps you sell your product), newsletters, email marketing, tracking orders, managing your communication, having systems and processes in place, bookkeeping, managing your money, and other things that actually takes up much of your time.
- Invest in software, applications, or outsourcing to get things in place and save you time in areas that takes you away from things that need attending to.
- This is where freedom starts to set in.
- When things start to pick up, these processes and systems help you especially during the end of the year when it comes to settling your taxes.
- DO your research.
- Your branding should be cohesive and you should know what it is you want to tell your audience.This allows you to price your product a bit higher.
- Treat the business side of things as an experiment and look for things that you enjoy. If you don’t enjoy it, then going into business is probably not the right choice.
- That’s okay. There is no shame in that.
- The business and the making work with each other and each affects the other. Sales can dictate your creative practice and so it is important to know about the business side of things.
- You can make something for fun and not sell it and it’s really up to you. But when you do decide to sell your items and before you start thinking of outsourcing and letting other people run a part of your business for you, you have to know everything that’s happening in your business. It’s just the smart thing to do.