Today’s blogpost is a little bit different! As I celebrate 6 years of my business, I naturally reflect back on the years and how much myself and my business has grown. So I thought it would be fun to share the biggest lesson I’ve learned and how it has allowed me to increase my profits while decreasing my stress and burn out.
6 years. That’s how many years I’ve had a business in the yarnie space. It feels like I’ve had this business forever while simultaneously just for a short time. In 6 years my business has grown, changed, and evolved so much. However, for the sake of time (and the length of this blogpost!), I’ll save my business story for another time. Instead, I want to share the biggest lesson I’ve learned since starting my crochet business, with the goal of being helpful for you with your own business!
This lesson positively impacted my business, and I feel like it could be valuable for other crochet designers or business owners in general. The two areas that this affected my business was improving my profits as well as decreasing my burnout and time I spent working.
Background
In the first 3ish years of my business, my primary focus was designing and releasing crochet patterns (and it is still one of my top priorities!). However, back then, I was putting pressure on myself to release a new pattern almost every week. I thought that the more content (ie: crochet patterns), the better. As you can imagine releasing a pattern almost every week takes a lot of time and effort. I was spending an endless amount of hours crocheting the samples, taking pictures, writing up the pattern, blogpost, Etsy listing, and posting on social media. After many months of this endless cycle I came to two conclusions:
- I was exhausted. This was not sustainable for my life.
- I wasn’t making really any significant return on my investment (monetary compensation) from my time that went into releasing each pattern.
When I looked at my Etsy sales, I was really only selling 2 patterns. I probably had around 30 patterns in my shop at that point, but only 2 of them where actually selling and making money. This made me think:
Why am I putting so much work into designing new patterns when I’m only selling two existing patterns that I designed a year ago?
It felt like I was wasting so much time and mental energy designing patterns that were receiving zero traction or monetary compensation. I knew that what I was currently doing was not working and I knew that something needed to change.
Changing My Strategy
I realized that it didn’t matter how many patterns I published, I was still only going to sell what my audience was interested in purchasing and crocheting (in this case the two patterns that were actually selling). So I decided to change my approach with something so simple, yet so vital to the growth of my business:
Quality Over Quantity
Instead of trying to release as many patterns as I possibly could, I was going to take my time and only release designs that I truly felt like were my best work and that I truly loved.
Naturally, as I took more time to design each pattern, the quality of the pattern increased as well. They had more photo tutorials, better instructions, and overall better construction and design elements.
Additionally, because I was designing less, this forced me to create a stricter “filter” of what ideas I had in my head that turned into actual designs that I published. This process allowed me to refine my style as a designer and establish my style and my patterns in the crochet space. I developed a better understanding of designs that I actually wanted to create, that both fit into my brand style and what my audience wanted to see.
The Result
What was the result of this shift in strategy? I started to sell a larger variety of my patterns! I saw a significant increase in my profits even though I was releasing fewer patterns. I was slightly shocked to see the shift in sales, but also looking back it makes so much sense.
When I was able to apply the energy that was going into designing an abundance of patterns towards creating stronger designs that were truly my style and my audiences’ style, it made all the difference! I made this change several years ago and it has been a game changer in my business and my life! Even now when I get overwhelmed with various assets of my business, I have to remind myself of the simple, yet powerful mindset of quality over quantity.
Applying the Rule of Quality over Quantity
I shared a very specific example of how I applied this rule to my business to grow and increase profits. Even if you don’t have a crochet business like mine, this mindset can apply to many different businesses! Take a step back and reviewing your business and areas that this rule could apply can be really beneficial and possible a game-changer for you as well!
I hope you find this blogpost helpful! Let me know your thoughts down below!
xo, Grace
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