The Life of a Professional Crafter: A Case Study, is available for free!
I am wrapping up my 17th year as a professional crafter.
Reading that makes me blink. It's hard for me to believe, because I remember nearly every decision, every packaging attempt, every stupid label that jammed my computer. I remember my first day at the farmers market.
The first day!
I had a cheap tent, a camp table (you know those? They have aluminum edges and a thick type of cardboard for the top), and a big piece of denim for a tablecloth. I had five piles of soap across this one table, with a label tucked into a wire stand I made for each.
Five piles of soap. They didn't have a swirl in them. A couple of them had no color in them at all. They were on top of paper bags, presumably to protect the tablecloth. INSERT EYEROLL HERE.
Before I left for this first farmers market, my husband was not very optimistic. He wished me luck, however, and supported me "trying it out." I will always remember how triumphant I was when I came home.
"Guess how much money I made!" I said.
"$50," he guessed.
"$187! Ha!"
He was impressed. After that, he encouraged me to do the farmers markets, and about 9 years in, I hired him to be my full-time soap maker. I taught him everything I know how to make and now he makes the soap. I make other products, and do most of the vending and the back end of the business, and he makes soap and does grunt work and runs errands.
We make it work.
I'm amazed, though, that we are starting our 17th year of this business. Having a handmade business is hard work, particularly when you have a full-time job on top of it. Most people are amazed when I tell them, and I have to chime in that I have help, but they are still impressed that I have a business at all.
I usually don't tell them that I really have two.
Writing has been my life for nearly my whole life; I wrote my first book when I was six years old. The Book About Some, Teeth had several riveting chapters about cow and horse teeth (I grew up in Iowa, leave it), and going to the dentist. Every picture of a mouth had about a million and three teeth in it. Best-seller, that one.
After making soap for a bit, I decided I should write a soap making book. And then I wrote another, and another. I just published my fourth how-to book about making balms and butters. Moving forward, I'm going to be writing more online courses, teaching folks like you how to make your own handmade business work for you. That link will take you to my first online course, Your Legit Biz.
Being an entrepreneur can be a crazy, disjointed ride. I started out making soap, and now the whole thing is morphing into teaching others how to have a company, and selling what you make. I'm feeling nostalgic about it, as I write this, and then I laugh, because there is NOTHING nostalgic about tearing down a tent in the middle of a pelting hailstorm, freezing my ass off.
Perspective.
If you would like to learn what a year in the life of a lunatic like me is like, then I'm happy to share it with you. I feel like, if people read about what one year is like, then they will know. You will really know what it takes, what kind of planning happens, what sort of decisions need to be made, what kind of pressure there is with time and finances and family. Learning about what it's like before you jump into it is actually pretty smart, I think. I didn't have that opportunity--I just jumped in.
Ready to jump? Fill out the form below and you can read all about it in my ebook, The Life of a Professional Crafter: A Case Study.