Could Crafting Become Your Career?

When it comes to all the things that you love in life, you may find that you are keen to do them as much as you can. No matter what your passion is, you may find that you really want to be able to spend all of your free time doing the things that you love. But what happens when your joy takes over and you start to resent your day job? While you definitely shouldn’t quit your day job without a backup plan (or savings behind you), it really could be the case that crating could be your future.

We live in a society where we really can do anything that we want to be able to do. We don’t have to box ourselves in or feel stuck in a dead-end job that doesn’t serve us. If there are skills or talents or interests that we have, we can absolutely explore them – but we really need to be able to give ourselves the time and chances to do that.

So if you’re someone that has always loved crafting and you wonder whether you can turn it into a full-time career or business, you’ve come to the right place. In this blog post, we’re going to take a look at exactly how you can do that.

Why Crafting?

Whether you’re a seasoned crafter or you’re thinking about something that you can turn to in order to shake up your career, you might be wondering – why crafting? If you’re creative and love to create things, it really could be for you. Maybe you spend a ton of time learning about the difference between macrame string, cord, and rope, learning a new type of stitch, or exploring new painting styles. When that’s the case, you may find that you’re a creative person and your passions really do set you alight. This just means that crafting really is for you. Plus, if you’re good at it as well as find it enjoyable, this really could become something for you.

What Career Options Do You Have?

But the next thing for you could be that you’re not really sure what your career options are. Maybe you’re used to being in the same job for a long time, so you’re not sure what the possibilities are for you. But you could think about getting a job as a designer or going into a specific crafting industry. Looking for different job opportunities for print designers or jewelry makers, for example, could be for you.

Could Business Be for You?

But at the same time, you may find that what you really want to be able to do is create your own designs and sell them. It might be that the career you’re really looking for, is actually the idea of being in business. For this, you’ll want to think about what the process would look like (again, we will go over this in a second) and whether that looks like something that you might want to do.

From setting up a shop on Etsy to being at craft fares, there could be plenty of ways for you to make money doing what you love. But you will want to make sure that it feels like the right path for you and whether you’d be able to make money that way.

What if You’re Afraid of Sales?

For many of us, particularly those of us that are more creative and perhaps more introverted, the idea of sales and selling can be scary. But it doesn’t have to be. Sales can get a bit of a stigma, but that doesn’t have to be the reality. You may find that actually, it’s a lot easier than you think. Ultimately, you’re not here to sell people things that they don’t want. You’re here to create the things that you really love and get them into the hands of people that love them.

It’s not about cold-calling and forcing people to purchase things. It’s simply about creating things that you enjoy and feel passionate about and sharing them online or in person. The more you can get the word about what you’re doing out there, the easier people can find what you’ve created and purchase it as a gift or for themselves.

8 Steps for Turning Crating into Your Career

So now that we’ve considered some of the key areas here, we’re also going to think about what it actually takes to turn your passion into your career and the steps you need to take to make it happen. Let’s get into it.

1. Decide What You Want

First of all, you’re going to want to think about what it is that you want out of your career. Do you want to spend your time doing something that you love? Do you want to create something that adds joy to people’s lives? Do you want to be famous for your craft? Do you want to make a lot of money? By working out what your motivation is here, it’s going to help you to work out what steps you need to take next.

2. Come Up With a Plan

As you’ve started to think more about those ideas, you’re then going to want to think about how you can get your new career path underway. This is always going to require a plan. Now, this doesn’t mean that it has to be incredibly detailed or set in stone, but it does mean that you need to think of it as something that can guide you. Creating a plan encourages you to think about what you want to create, how, and what the path looks like.

3. Business or Career?

This is the point where you’ll want to think about whether you want to embark on a new career path with your crafts or you want to start a business. Either way, you’re going to find that it’s a good idea to weigh up the pros and cons of both and to see which seems more aligned with your personality and your goals.

4. Finding Work

If you do decide that it’s a career you want to go with and you’d really like the idea of working for a company, then it’s time to do your research. Be sure to pull together a portfolio of your arts and crafts work and start seeing what companies are hiring and what you might be able to do for them. It’s all about networking here too – because you never know what doors might open for you.

5. Setting Up a Store

However, if it’s a business that you’d like to start, then you’re going to need to make sure that you think about setting up a store online. It could be on a social media platform, on Etsy, or even with your own website (or all three). It could be that you want to be able to build your own brand up and get noticed, so you’re going to want to work on a promotional marketing strategy to build up business too.

6. Creating Your Designs

Whether you’re working for a company or yourself, you ultimately need to be able to create your designs. This means sourcing the materials that you want to work with, finding suppliers, and getting your designs underway. It’s important to perfect your process and decide what you want to sell and market, so spend some time getting this right.

7. Selling Your Designs

Then we have the idea of actually selling your designs. Again, your marketing strategy is going to be key here, but so will your pricing and getting the designs right. Be sure to ask your target audience for feedback on what they think or if there is anything that they would like to see from you. Custom orders could really work for you here too!

8. Building a Name for Yourself

At the end of the day, what will really matter to you is the idea of you being able to build a name for yourself. If you want to build a loyal following and audience, you’ll find that you want to be known for your designs. This can take time and consistency, but it will work over time. So just think about building up your profile consistently and getting creative with your designs.

Turning Your Passion into a Full-Time Income

In conclusion, it’s absolutely possible for you to turn your passion for, and love of, crafting into your full-time career path and income source. As we have seen, there are various ways for you to do this. All you need to do is focus on what avenue feels best to you. Ultimately, you need to be able to believe in yourself and you should find that it all works out.

By being passionate, giving it your all, and pursuing your dreams with purpose and drive, you’ll get there. So enjoy living out your crafting dreams and see where they take you.