What does a successful crochet business look like, how does it feel? When you’re selling what you make and working all hours and constantly hustling for your next sale, it’s exhausting and stressful. When and how does that feeling change?
If you prefer to listen, you can find the podcast here
Profitable Isn’t Enough. It Needs To Be Sustainable Too
There is a difference between having a crochet business that’s profitable and having one that’s sustainable and profitable. You can make enough money to live off by working 70 hour weeks and never having the time to do anything or be able to take time off. But is that what you want, or sustainable over the long term? I’d argue it’s not.
However a sustainable and profitable business is one where you have the flexibility to work the hours that you want, even part time hours if you choose, and that still earns you money while you take time off. You can keep this model going for years without burning out.
Work To Live, Not Live To Work
We want to build a crochet business that works around our lives, our family, our ambitions to explore the world around us. Work to live not live to work. So let’s start how you mean to go on and build the crochet business that works the way you want it to and not how tradition tells you to.
Most crocheters start selling their crochet as a way to make some extra cash and then come to the idea that they’d love to make a living from it. That comes with the idea that they just need to make more sales and they can make the money they need from selling what they make. But this doesn’t work in practice because that’s what leads you to the exhausting 70 hour weeks with no time off ever.
What works as a side hustle doesn’t convert to a career.
So what does work?
The Recurring Income Model
To be able to take time off and still make money without coming back to a massive to do list and a bunch of angry customers demanding to know where the products they ordered are, we need to take away the physical product element. If you don’t have anything to make or ship, this removes the biggest hurdle.
But what do you replace it with?
Digital products. Things that you create once and then sell the same digital file over and over again. This is called recurring income and it’s the secret to a sustainable and successful crochet business. There are at least 7 different ways that you can turn your crochet into recurring income. You can read my post about it here.
Every crochet business that keeps going for years and has an owner who doesn’t look permanently stressed out has recurring income at its core. Not as a side arm to their physical products, but front and centre as the main way to bring in the cash. That’s because once you start down the road of recurring income you will quickly realise that it is far more profitable and far more time effective than selling the crochet that you make.
So no matter what your original intention, your crochet business will lean more and more towards the recurring income because it becomes the path of least resistance and the easiest way to bring money in.
A sustainable crochet business isn’t about making as much money as possible. It’s about getting the right balance between profit and the hours that your working. After all what’s the point in making the money if you don’t have the time to enjoy the fruits of your labour?
My Own Story
This is a similar pattern to my own story. The difference is that I wasn’t trying to add recurring income as a side arm to my business, I deliberately switched from selling what I made to writing crochet patterns with no cross over because I had to – you can read that story here.
For me it was a case of I couldn’t sell what I made any more so I needed an alternative, but the end result was the same. My income from my patterns made me triple the profit of selling what I made within 6 months and I never looked back. I had created a sustainable and profitable business far quicker than I ever thought possible and the exhaustion and stress I’d been constantly under trying to sell what I made was gone.
I hadn’t even realised how exhausted my crochet business had been making me until the pressure was gone. I could finally breathe again – no more making orders at midnight, no more stressing about lost parcels. It was utterly freeing and I was making more money than ever with far less effort.
The Full Series And What Comes Next
This article is the final step of a series I’ve been writing about how you go from searching for the missing piece of your crochet business to make selling what you make work, to how recurring income is the key, to this post. You can follow the entire series here.
It takes you through all the steps both practical and the mindset changes which are so important too — and from someone who used to be so sceptical about the importance of dealing with the mental aspects, that’s saying something!
This is a process that you can go through on your own, but as with most things, knowing what to do and actually doing it are two different things. That’s why I’ve created my Blueprint Programme. A 90 day supported journey that takes you from overwhelmed on how to make your crochet business finally work for you to having a solid plan and a clear path about what you are going to do and achieve.
We will do the work together. I will show you all your options and what each entails and you will select the path that is right for you. We will have live calls so you can ask all of your questions and talk through those anxieties that are stopping you from doing what you know needs to be done. Then at the end of the 90 days you will leave with a roadmap for your next 90 days so you know exactly what the plan is and where you’re aiming to end up.
You can read more about the Blueprint Programme and how to join here.
Your Next Step
Whether you choose to go through this process alone or you choose to be supported through the transition, I wish you all the best of luck in taking this leap. Your crochet holds the power to transform your life and finally take control of your finances and your time so that you are no longer beholden to someone else in a crushing and soulless 9-5 corporate office.
Never let anyone tell you you’re dreaming too big, it’s just that they are dreaming too small or are too jealous of your courage.
Take the first step today and it will be the best thing you ever did.
I’m Kelly Thomas, crochet business owner, pattern writer, blogger and coach. I started my crochet business selling what I make and made all the mistakes along the way. Let me show you what I learned so you don’t make the same errors.
You can listen to the podcast episode that goes with this article here. It is a bit different to what you’ve just read, but the message is the same.
You can check out the rest of my podcast here to discover more about how to turn your crochet into a successful business.
I also have this free workbook that you can download to Map Your Path and work out what your next step in your crochet business is.
