Stop working for the man!-Part I

This is a first in a series of articles on how to move your craft business to full time. Today mainly want to talk about what you need to do this. In future articles, we will tackle everything you need to prepare for and succeed in this profession!

If you don't think you have these qualities, don't give up. If you are even thinking of working for yourself seriously, you have enough of them to learn the rest. Think of this as a guideline of what you need to work on to move up to the next level.

1. Drive and perseverance . You must have the drive to succeed and the perseverance to keep trying when everything seems stacked against you.

2. Ability to avoid procrastination. We all procrastinate. For artists, it's easy to put off the things we don't like to do, such as the bookkeeping. Remember, if you can avoid procrastination now, the sooner you will be able to get your income up so you can afford to outsource the things you hate to do.

3. Outgoing. You must be able to greet the public in show settings or approach potential wholesale buyers. There are many ways to foster this that I will cover in upcoming articles.

4. Organization. Very few of us are born organized. This is a learned skill that everyone is capable of.

5. Courage. You will be working harder than you have ever worked when you were an employee instead of a business owner. The good news is, you make most of the rules.

6. Willingness to make sacrifices. This covers everything from giving up eating out to giving in on design decisions to please a customer.

7. A support network. You will be putting in long hours often by yourself. There is no water cooler to joke with coworkers around when a day goes from bad to worse. Make sure you have a support network in place, we'll cover this in more depth later.

8. Risk taker. There are risks in any business. The trick here is to prepare for and minimize every risk then don't look back.

9. Financially prepared. If you are three months behind on your mortgage, it may be wise to hold off taking the leap to full time self employment. Don't give up, think of it as the planning stage, then actually get a plan in place.


10. Confidence. This can be faked, but until you actually feel it, you will not be living up to your full potential. Confidence comes from the knowledge you are doing the right thing and the right moment, and educating yourself will help give you the confidence you need. I'll cover this more in later articles.

With these ten things you have the foundation you need to get ready to take that leap into full time self employment. I hope you continue reading in the coming months the rest of this series and it helps you take the leap as well.