When your crochet business isn’t working for you it’s hard. You’ve put all this work in, you have all the pieces in place and yet you’re not making the profit you need and there’s never enough time. I’ve been there and it took a husky to get me out of it.
If you prefer to listen, you can find the podcast here
Where It All Started
I started my crochet business the same way as most crocheters do, by selling the crochet that I made. I never intended to have a business, I just wanted to make a bit of extra cash to help out the family finances. Yet 3 years in and there I was, neck deep in information about how to make sales, how to take clickable photos, what to post on social media and all the rest of the exhausting non stop merry go round of advice and tips to try and get my crochet to sell.
My crochet did sell. I focused on selling eco-friendly household items like shower puffs, hot pads and reusable cotton pads. I was getting enough sales that I felt like I didn’t have enough time but not enough that I was making any real money.
I was stuck in the time vs profit trap that so many crochet sellers fall into.
I thought that if I could just tough out this battle for a bit, I would get enough sales to make the money I needed to drop my hours at the day job. But that just never happened. No amount of sales ever got me to a point that I could replace my salary. It was never going to unless I rebranded to a luxury brand or collectibles or went down the artistic route. I didn’t want to do any of these.
So what then?
I was essentially in limbo. Stuck until I admitted the truth to myself – or until a husky arrived, which is what eventually forced me to totally change things up.
The Signs Were Already There
There were 3 main events that really made me see the truth of the problem, but it took Beau the husky to make any change a reality.
The Shawl
First there was the shawl. While scrolling through Facebook one day I saw a request posted for someone to make a shawl. Their wedding anniversary was coming up and the husband wanted someone to make a custom shawl for his wife. I jumped at it and got the commission. I was so excited, it would be the largest paid order I’d ever had. It was outside my niche, but shawls are fairly simple to make so I didn’t think it would be a problem.
But when you are tired, desperate and stubbornly determined to make your dream come true, you don’t always see things clearly. And I didn’t ask enough questions. I was afraid that the questions would make me look like I didn’t know what I was doing, so I made the shawl I thought the wife would want instead of what she actually wanted.
In the end that shawl was sent back and I had to refund. It was devastating and so embarrassing. The shawl got thrown into the back of a wardrobe, and it’s still there now. I never did manage to sell it.
The Craft Fair
The next event was a craft fair. I’d moved house just 3 days before and I was surrounded by moving boxes while trying to prep for the fair. I’d chosen the event carefully, it was a small business and crafters fair, it was well advertised and seemed perfect for me.
I had stayed up so late the night before making sure all my stock was packed up, that I had my business cards, table top displays and everything else I would need. I was so full of hope as I packed the car that morning, I was looking forward to a successful day ahead.
But it didn’t turn out that way.
The other crafters seemed so much more prepared and professional than me. You could tell many of them toured the craft event circuit on a regular basis and had some amazing printed graphics and banners up. The event was a success for them. Plenty of customers coming through, plenty of sales being made – by everyone but me. People would come and browse my stall, but quickly moved on and bought at someone else’s.
I barely covered my table fee that day. Most of my stock came home with me. I felt such a failure driving home. What was it going to take to make my crochet sell? Was it even worth it anymore?
Although I was finally asking the right question, I wasn’t yet willing to admit defeat. That would come not long after.
The Returned Parcel
The final event that made me really question everything was a returned package. It was the run up to Christmas and I’d had a large order of reusable cotton wool pads come in. Brilliant, a large commission within my niche and it was something I’d made dozens of times before. It just needed the time to make them. And time they took. I was crocheting every spare moment, when my son was napping, once he was in bed and any other chance I got. But finally the order was complete and off I sent it – recorded delivery because there was no way that parcel was getting lost after all that time I’d spent.
I heard nothing from the customer, which is usually a good sign, so I pushed it to the back of my mind. But a couple of weeks later, a big parcel arrived at my house. It was the order I’d spent so much time on. The label said returned to sender, uncollected. The customer hadn’t been home when the parcel got delivered, so it had gone back to the post office and was waiting for the customer to arrange a new delivery day – they never made arrangements. So after 2 weeks, it was automatically sent back to me.
It was just another online purchase to them, no different from the cheap made in China stuff you can buy from Amazon. Not even worth bothering about to arrange a pick up from the post office. The customer did eventually get in contact with me – to demand a refund. They didn’t want the items after all.
I was devastated that my crochet meant so little. After all that time and effort wasted, how could I possibly keep going when it felt like nothing but failure and rejection?
The Moment Everything Changed
But everything was about to change. After Christmas we had got a new dog. I’ve always had dogs and my sweet little border collie had passed away a few months before and we decided it was time to get another.
My yarn and dog fur had never been an issue before, so I didn’t think anything of it. But my then husband decided to pick a husky. Beau was in need of a new home and that home ended up being mine. Don’t get me wrong he’s very lovable and cuddly, but THE FUR! I’d never seen anything like it. It got everywhere. It didn’t matter that my yarn was shut away in drawers, as soon as you opened the drawer to take a ball of yarn out, it was like the fur just leapt inside. The stuff was like glitter, it just got everywhere and no lint brush on this earth could get rid of it.
I had to stop selling my crochet. I couldn’t sell anything with dog fur trapped in the fibre. It put a hard stop to me selling my crochet at all.
But I was still stubbornly determined to make my crochet business dream a reality. So although defeat at trying to make a living from selling the crochet that I made was at hand, I asked the question: Now what.
And through that question a brand new chapter was born. A successful and profitable chapter that saw me triple my profits in just 6 months while working fewer hours on my business. That husky glitter turned into a blessing and I’ve never looked back.
What The Husky Actually Gave Me
I had been so focused on selling what I made, that I never asked the question “what other ways can I make money from my crochet”. It had never occurred to me to try something different. But Beau’s flying fur was forcing me to ask that question now.
And when I really looked into it, I discovered that there were so many other ways to run a crochet business and that actually selling what I made was the hardest and least profitable one.
I set out to explore all of my options – not because I wanted to try them all, but because if I was going to try something different, then I wanted to choose the right path for me and not have to go through all of this hard work and heartache again.
I chose the option that suited me and my crochet, that I thought I would love doing and that could earn me a living and eventually allow me to work flexible hours and be able to take time off without losing money too.
There Is Another Way
If you are feeling stuck and exhausted in your crochet business then there is another way. It’s not easy, it is going to feel like a dramatic decision, but it’s going to get you out of the time vs profit trap that you’re in right now. If you truly want your crochet to become your full time salary then a change is needed. Not a little tweak, not a new marketing hack, but real, honest change that can get you onto the right path.
If you’re thinking that you’re not quite at the stage where big changes are needed, maybe the signs are already there but you haven’t acknowledged them yet. What has happened in the last few months that have felt like setbacks or mistakes? How did they make you feel and are you carrying on regardless or have you made changes so they don’t happen again.
Make a list of them. Your signs that big changes are needed could be hiding in those moments.
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 guide that you can download which walks you through 12 ways that you can make money from your crochet.
