Unfortunately, there is a no one-size fits all answer to that question. It really depends on your personal situation.

I’m a member of 3 very different craft business development groups (ICAP, Craft Industry Alliance and Make Sell Grow).  The leaders are quite knowledgable and while yes, they do want to sell you their services, they really want to see your business grow and succeed. Quite often, you are encouraged to take your business full-time and the group leaders introduce you to individuals or provide case studies of those who have done exactly that. Always keep in mind, however, that these examples are the exception, rather than the rule. 

Most people with a craft business have a day job or another source of income – savings, retirement income or spouse/partner. I found this article mentioned on the Fractured Atlas blog to be quite enlightening, even if it discusses theater rather than the craft industry.

Examples just from my local quilt/craft community:

• A former teacher colleague bought a well-known LQS 5 years ago. She has several p/t employees and she works f/t; yet her husband is still working f/t a large company because they count on the income and benefits from his job.
• One of the t-shirt quilt companies (the competition) has p/t employees, but she still works f/t as a nurse.
• Another quilt shop owner worked f/t as a nurse until recently. She has several part-time employees and a now retired husband.
• A pair of fellow quilters recently started an online quilting show. One works f/t as a manager for a large IT company and the other is between jobs (but her hubby works f/t).

  There are several other examples I could give, but the common thread is they don’t rely on their craft businesses as their sole source of income.

According to this article that appeared in Forbes, two-thirds of all small non-employer businesses (sole proprietor or single member LLC with $1k or more in annual revenues) reported less than $25k in revenues in 2011. That’s revenue, NOT profit. The average revenue for all companies in the non-employer category was $44,000.  Chances are your “take home” portion of that will be about half. Will $22,000 provide you with enough income?  Only you can decide that.

Perhaps you are in a situation where the day job disappeared and you don’t have a choice but to take your craft biz full-time. Another LQS owner did just that – complete with SBA loans, biz plan like no other craft biz I’ve ever seen and knows exactly how much revenue per square foot she needs to be profitable.  She started her biz from scratch four years ago and I have a feeling it will still be in biz a decade from now.  Her husband recently retired and she has stepped back some and turned over the day-to-day running of the shop to someone else, yet she remains on top of things.

This time last year, I seriously considered leaving teaching to roll out my after school craft clubs 3x a week with a day spent teaching at a homeschool co-op. I would make up the rest of the needed income by doing loose-leaf filing at downtown law firms 2 mornings a week. This would wouldn’t replace my teacher salary, but it would keep me busy, which was hubby’s primary concern. Fortunately, a job transfer came through at a site closer to home. I haven’t hung up my school librarian hat just yet, but it is definitely getting closer!

So, if you want to run your craft biz full-time – get out there an do it! But don’t feel like a failure because you choose to run your biz on a smaller part-time scale. Relax, you’re in good company.

Sometimes the only thing that keeps you going are those small victories – professional and personal.  My school district participates in a summer reading program where kids log their reading minutes in an online program. When school resumes (5 weeks from now if you can believe it!), I am going to make the BIGGEST.DEAL.EVER. about any kid who chose to participate.

Why? So far, only 10 kids (out of 1260) have logged minutes. Three kids have logged the lion’s share of total minutes recorded. It doesn’t seem like much when compared to some of the other schools in our district.

However – that’s okay!

1. We are second in number of minutes recorded of the 8-10 surrounding schools.
2. We are in the top 1000 schools nationwide for total minutes recorded.
3. We’ve already surpassed last year’s record and the contest is isn’t 1/2 way through.

Of course, I want to see more participants and minutes on the scoreboard! 

BUT – I’m a realist.

A number of my students don’t have books at home.  A well-stocked, large public library is nearby, but many have transportation issues.  There are language barriers. High transience rates. Then there’s always the digital divide that means some students can’t read the thousands of free e-books available to them.

So every kid who participated will get something – a popsicle party once the contest is over. But my top 3 readers will get something extra, extra special – lunch with me and a book/magazine of their choice from Boomer.   Perhaps this will encourage even more kids to read next summer!

But one thing is for sure – we need to really ramp up the reading promotion this year.

Normally, I conduct a major studio purge every June. I tidy up in between projects, but leave the major weeding (the official library term for culling old and no longer needed items) and reorganizing until I am off for summer break. I skipped last summer because I was in the process of changing jobs and needed to devote my energies to making that a successful transition.

Which is why I’ve found myself with about 18 months worth of old magazines to sort through this week. In the sorting process, I noticed a few titles missing – Cloth Paper Scissors Studio, Quilt Magazine, Sew Beautiful, KiKi Magazine, Quilty, Quilt It Today – and was surprised by the number of magazines originating from the UK in the pile. Curiosity got the better of me so, I donned my librarian hat and logged into to our school’s periodical subscription service to check the status of the magazines.

Industry consolidation and a shift from print to digital media are the two main reasons why you see fewer craft related titles at the newsstand.
Industry consolidation within the past 2 years:
F + W bought New Track Media.
Harris Publishing filed for bankruptcy. (Quilt Magazine)
American Crafts Group filed for bankruptcy. (The Quilter Magazine, Quilt It Today)

F + W’s portfolio includes the following quilting/sewing related businesses:

1. Fons & Porter
2. Keepsake Quilting
3. QNNtv
4. Martha Pullen
5. Creative Crafts Group (McCall’s Quilting, etc.)
6. Stitch Craft Create
7. Interweave (Quilting Arts, Stitch, etc.)
8. Sew News
9. Sewing Expo consumer sewing shows

Probably not a complete list because I didn’t have a lot of time to search!

Basically, this leaves Meredith (BHG, American Patchwork & Quilting), Stampington (Where Women Create), Hoffman Media (Classic Sewing – sort of like the old Sew Beautiful), Taunton (Threads) and the British publishers as the competition to F+W.  There are a handful of small, specialty publishers such as Homespun (Primitive Quilts), but they serve highly specialized niche in the magazine marketplace.

It also makes me wonder how many additional titles in the F + W portfolio will eventually disappear as the editorial groups consolidate further inside of F + W (Interweave & Creative Crafts Group, especially).

So here ends your magazine publishing lesson for the day.  I am removing my librarian hat and donning my stitcher hat.  Needless to say, I will take a closer look at the magazines in the pile. Specifically, I’m hanging onto Quilt It Today, Sew It Today and Quilty (when Mary Fons was editor).