Hello everyone!
I got some wonderful comments from Tizzit HQ members telling me how much you enjoyed my interviews of three of our Tizzit HQ members – Wendy, Gwen, and Milena.
I decided to ask them an additional question that is one I get asked a lot on Tizzit HQ:
Tell me what a “day in the life” looks like for your handmade business!
I reached out to each of them, and their answers are wonderful because as you would guess, a day in the life in each of their handmade businesses is totally different— because every handmade shop develops systems that work for that shop and that person.
In today’s article we are going to talk about what a day in the life is like for Gwen, creator/owner of the Cut To You Etsy shop and CreatedByGwen.com.au, a fabulous handmade business that makes beautiful hand-drawn scrapbooking layouts that she then transforms into digital layouts and ships as digital files to scrapbooking customers.
So, ready? Let’s dive in.
So, the first thing I want to cover before we hear about Gwen’s day is a very important point, and that is that a day in the life of one handmade shop owner will not look like a day in the life of your shop!
Some makers work full-time on their shop, some work part time . . . every situation is different!
Business goals can be different too: some shop owners have a business goal that is very profit oriented, others focus on enjoyment of the creation process.
And those differences are the beauty of it — that is why people own their own businesses, because they can create a business model that matches their life goals!
So when you listen to each of these day in life stories, you can pick and choose ideas that will work for your shop and not feel the need to do everything just the same as that business owner.
So let’s hear what a day in the life is like for Gwen, and I will interject my thoughts as we go through her response.
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When I asked Gwen what a day in the life is like for her, here is the first thing she said:
A regular day? . . . I’m a mum, so obviously it’s different every day— that was part of wanting to do my own business. I wanted something that would fit in with my daughter.
I think it is so lovely to see the flexibility Gwen has created within her business so she can be present for her daughter!
Time flexibility is just one of many reasons you might decide to start (or decided to start!) your handmade shop. It’s a perfect example of what we talk about in my How to decide what to make and sell for a handmade business article: when choosing what to make and sell for your business, time flexibility can be one of your goals that you use to evaluate different business ideas, and we see today how Gwen did just that!
Gwen described how looking ahead and setting family responsibilities as a priority for her business model is paying off:
I find that as she gets older, she’s at this time where she’s becoming an adult but she still needs the support of a mother figure. And I also have time to do all the housey stuff— cook dinner and all of that.”
Another goal that Gwen set when planning her handmade business was to create a business model that allows her to pursue her hobbies, such as ballet dancing!
So I love that I can do these little hobby things, which you couldn’t normally do. In the normal world, I couldn’t do a 10:30 ballet class on a Tuesday. I can do that because I know that when everyone goes to bed, I’m going to do another couple of hours. So that flexibility is beautiful — and everything’s online in Tizzit, so it doesn’t matter if it’s midnight, I can do the SEO for Etsy at 11 o’clock, I’m not having to log on at a particular time. Yeah, it just really fits with me.
So each “day in the life of Gwen” will be a totally different day! In fact, for her business, sometimes it’s more of a “night in the life of Gwen!”, let’s read more of her response:
I’m also a night owl, so it’s quite often that I will have everybody go to bed and then do a couple of hours. It’s nothing for me to be up till 11 o’clock at night and just potter along and do little bits and pieces here and there.
Gwen’s nighttime sessions are a perfect example of the need to break down your “to-do’s” and bigger projects into smaller tasks— doing this means you won’t lose time working out what to do when you can finally sit down to get some work done.
When Gwen talks about doing little bits and pieces here and there, she is able to take those precious quiet nighttime hours, look at her task list that she has put together, and work efficiently to get them checked off her list.
I think that working part-time, and establishing goals that fit with her working part time, are one big reason for Gwen’s success.
As Gwen said in her interview:
I can’t expect results tomorrow, grand results from something I’m doing today.
I know that what I’m doing today is going to see me well in the future.
An important takeaway to Gwen’s “day in the life” is to remember that even if you only work part-time on your business, if you work efficiently and in a way that fits with your schedule, the work you do will build consistently over time— it’s that compound effect I love to talk about.
Set the time aside each day that works for your lifestyle and other life commitments. Your “life in the day” will be different from everyone else’s, and that is OK!
Gwen did this and has built a very successful handmade shop by looking at her business goals and her lifestyle goals and needs.
If you are running a handmade shop but don’t have full time availability, I have some specific advice for you:
2. Focus on saying NO more than you say YES.
What this means is learning to prioritize heavily so that you say “yes” to the high-priority project, and you learn to say NO to less-important to-do’s that don’t need to be done quite yet.
A great tip that I show handmade shop owners to help them prioritize quickly and effectively is the matrix/post-it tip: you will want to learn this great trick that helps you sort out and prioritize the many to-do’s that are spinning around in your head!
I find that actually a lot of sellers who are full time will work on too many things and lose efficiency whereas a well organized part-time seller can get as much done just because the pressure for them to prioritize makes them more efficient and results in them making good decisions on where to spend their limited time.
3. And finally, remember that everyone will run their handmade shop at their own pace— this is your journey, not someone else’s. 🙂
Because as Gwen put it so beautifully in her interview:
I don’t know why I didn’t do this sooner. I love that I can work the hours that I want to work . . . when you’re working on your own business, that reward to work ratio is a little sweeter because it’s like, I know that if I hustle and really get this set up now, today, I’m going to see the benefit of it into the future. I get a lot of joy from just doing it for me.
I think that hearing about how other handmade shop owners organize and run their business is such a great way to learn, and it’s one of the reasons that I started Tizzit HQ!
In addition to developing courses that walk you through each part of setting up, running, and improving your handmade shop to help set you up for success. . .
I also wanted to create a community of handmade shop owners that can encourage and support one another by sharing tips and tidbits of wisdom just like Gwen did today.
Click the link to learn more about Tizzit HQ, we would love to have you join us!
Thanks for reading, and until next time, aurevoir!
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