Crafty Business :: The Start of a New Series

Lately, since February really, I’ve been unofficially, officially self employed. It happened so gradually. I just kind of phased out anything that wasn’t “my own project” and now, I’m sitting here and I realize, it’s just my projects on my plate now. It’s so exhilarating. And, honestly, a little scary. I mean, if something happens, or doesn’t happen, it’s all on me. So I did what I do and I started researching like crazy how to fortify myself against the unknown (like what happened with my finger or the economy or unexpected randomness that can happen in like) and health insurance was high on the list of something that needs to be taken care of.


Then there is the day to day issues. Without any kind of structure – even just working at the chocolate shop was its own kind of imposed structure on my day – I’m having a hard time getting my daily things done, not because of lack of time, but because of lack of time constraints. That mythical “well I have ALL day to get it done, surely it will be fine if I work on laundry for the next 3 hours”. Well, it’s not fine and more than likely 3 hours stretches out and just doing the laundry turns into cleaning the ferret cage and the kitchen and the bathroom and petting the cat and watching “my favorite” show – which is funny because I really don’t even care for TV. So scheduling is another big topic. How do I set up my day so I feel free to be creative and exploratory but at the same time get everything done I need to so I meet all my deadlines. That can be a huge dilemma.

And what happens if you get sick, like I did last week, or even with something like the flu. It’s so hard to “call in sick” when you are working from home, even if you say you are taking the day off, you generally work on things anyway. And the larger issue there is keeping Home and Work separate when they share the same physical space. Not to mention the issue of always feeling like there is more work always needing to be done.

Keeping on top of the books is a hard issue for me and facing paying taxes in just 3 weeks (less than 3 weeks) is horribly overwhelming at this point. So some great ways to keep on top of the books and taxes in order.

In general making the transition from “hobbiest” to “craft business” is a hard one because it can sometimes be so easy you don’t notice the change was made until it’s made. When you buy a business or start a retail store you have to make a business plan, you have to get your ducks in a row. And thankfully in some ways and unfortuntately in others, that is not the case when declaring yourself a business. I think a great topic for me personally to cover would be to write up a business plan and how to set some long term goals for myself and my crafty business when everything is so undefined and up to me.

These are just some of the topics I want to cover right now today, but I’m sure as I look more into the specifics of each topic I will discover more issues worth exploring with you. And then there are also topics that you are interested. What craft business topic are you most interested in? What dilemma are you facing while being self employed or thinking about being self employed?

So to recap the articles to come:
Health Insurance – navigating the paper trail to find what you need to keep you from going bankrupt
Scheduling – Setting up Your Workday so you work Every Day
Home Sweet Home – Keeping Home and Work Separate when they share the same space
Keeping the Books – Not having a melt down when tax time comes around
Transitions – From Hobbiest to Business and all the transitions inbetween that throw a curve in the road
Planning – Looking to the future – business plans, goals, projections, and dreams

Dilemmas – Tell me what issues you are struggling with and let me see if I can dig up some solutions for you – email me at kristin@craftleftovers.com

I won’t be posting about this every day, or even every week, but I’m going to keep links to all the parts of the series in the Resources and Links section for you (and me) to look back to. I’ll also be double posting this over on Kro Studio. I might end up posting shorter quick topic posts there only, but I want to keep CL focused on the Crafty Goodness.

I’ll be back to the craft tomorrow actually as I am just about finished with the mythical skirt I started a few weeks ago :)

See you all then!

Happy Crafting!
Kristin

Tags: article, business, business_plan, craft leftovers, health_insurance, keeping_home_and_work_separate, planning, scheduling, series, transitioning