Crochet For Profit

Any crafty ladies out there? I know I'm one! Well, here's an idea for those are just tying to tie up a few ends each month or maybe even run a full time business from your rocking chair. A crochet business!!!

Of course, the first question that you have is, “How much can I get paid selling crochet?” It's always important to ensure your time isn't wasted, but if this is a hobby for you, then you can easily profit from your hobby. So, the big question is, “How much do you want to make?” Thank goodness this is YOUR business so you can pay yourself what you feel you are worth. What do you feel you are worth? Let’s say you want to make $15/hour and only have 20 hours a week to work your business, you've just brought in $300/week. 

Let's break this down though to ensure you make $300 in profit, not just $300 in sales. Let's price out materials; yarn, fabric labels, shipping, fees, insurance, or whatever. Once we have this priced out for each item you create, we can use a simple formula to get your selling price. In retail, there is a the standard, (materials x3) + cost of labor = price. So, if you want to make $15/hour and we know that the materials for one granny square baby blanket costs $7.50, then here is your equation, ($7.50 x 3 = $22.50) + $15.00 {x 3 hours labor} = $67.50.

Some may think this is pretty high so the next thing to do would be to research and find out what products actually sell at that price. If that works for you, then great, we have found the best way to work, make profit and we can move to the next step. But before we do, let's not forget to consider state taxes and business expenses like Internet access, web hosting, printing invoices, etc. This comes out of your labor costs ($15/hour). Also, it's important to stop and remember that most businesses don't profit in the first year and sometimes don’t profit until the third. 

Now, back to figuring out how much can you make selling crochet if your goal is to make $15/hour for 20 hours of labor? So, in order to meet that $300/week goal, you will need to create between 4 and 5 items to sell. Let's stop a moment to note that there are some unpaid hours going into your business here. There is bookkeeping, customer service, shipping, designing, listing items in your shop, etc. All your behind the scenes work is unpaid labor unless you figure out a sum to add-on to the total price of your product. Which will make it even pricier than it already is. 

But, we still have not answered our question. Go back through how you would be getting paid and remember to consider all that goes into producing and selling your product. Unfortunately, I cannot give you an easy answer, but I can say that there is nothing that beats a failure but a try. If you are already doing this as a hobby, then what are you losing by putting your items onto seller sites such as Etsy or eBay? Nothing at all, right? Trust me, if you go beyond expectations and develop a loyal following, you will see the fruits of your labor.