According to Cricut (the crafting machine company in Salt Lake City, UT), close to 75 percent of households in the U.S. have someone who does crafting. This is why they make a variety of machines dedicated to helping crafters.
If you are looking for an area to expand your business (and bring in another revenue stream), you might want to look at ways that you can tap that market. I guarantee that they are still purchasing. (In fact, I expect that we will see an even greater resurgence of crafting due to the recession.)
What do I mean? Well, if you are a creative whose business is decorating cakes, can you expand your business to either teach or supply people who want to do their own decorating (and aren’t yet in the market for your high-end cakes)?
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Tags: addtional revenue stream, business ideas, crafters, creative business, expand your business
“80 percent of success is just showing up.” –Woody Allen
It is amazing how true the above quote is… and how often ignored… especially by Creatives. (I’m not talking out of turn here, because I am both a Creative AND an offender.)
To me, this ties in with Seth Godin’s 10,000 hours to mastery, Isaac Asimov’s “the first million words are for practice”, and Earl Nightengale’s (I think) “study a subject for an hour a day for 3 years and become an authority, for 5 years and become the world’s top expert”.
I think it also ties in with Edison’s “Genius is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration.”
Here’s why I think all those things are basically talking about the same thing. They are all about persisting when the going gets difficult… or boring… or time crunches come… or our attention wanders… or we would rather go play.
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If you are a “solopreneur” or solo entrepreneur, you may have challenges with keeping track of your expenses.
To take a lot of the pain out of it, you must have a system. Preferably one that automates things for you… or at least makes it easier to do and to track.
If you are just getting started, or don’t have a system other than the “piley system” (that’s where you just dump everything in a pile on your desk or in a drawer), then try this one.
The envelope system.
Take a folder or an envelope (either a business-sized one or a manila one) and start putting the receipt for every expense in the envelope. If it is something that you don’t have a receipt for (either you forgot to get one/keep it, or it doesn’t ordinarily have one (tips, mileage, etc.) then create the equivalent. Create the equivalent by writing the amount, date, and what it is for on a piece of paper and put it in the envelope.
At the end of the month, empty the envelope or folder and enter the information into a spreadsheet. (If you have a bookkeeper, give them to him/her to track instead.) Then, put all the receipts into a manila envelope, label it with “Receipts” along with the month and year. Now put this in your financial file drawer (the place where you will store it along with all the other months for the rest of the year.)
At the end of the year, provide a copy of the spreadsheet to your accountant/CPA/tax accountant. (You need one of these… don’t try to “save” money by doing your end of year and taxes yourself. You will eat up more time and risk your business much more than you will ever spend with professional help. And you will have a lot more fun in your business.)
