{Handmade Business in 31 Days — Day 16, Work verses family time.}

Day 16// About this time four years ago I had just found Etsy and the idea of women my age knowing how to sew, run a handmade business AND make a living fascinated me. Like seriously, I was fascinated. Up until that moment I never considered myself an entrepreneur, but something happened during that first Etsy visit and before I knew it I was on my way to becoming one. A couple of months later I was gifted with my first sewing machine {from Zack’s grandma + mom}. My second “gift” came a couple of months later I suddenly lost my full-time job. It was early 2009 and the advertising industry I was working in was suffering big time. Within a few hours of losing my job I realized I could shift all this new-found free time and devote it towards continuing to learn the trade of sewing, which hopefully would allow me to become a handmade shop owner, too.

Within a couple of weeks I had listed a few items in my Etsy shop… but would it last? I wasn’t sure.

From the very beginning I spent a lot of time learning, practicing, sewing + selling my handmade items. Then the process would start all over again once we were sold-out, and this was especially true if I was asked about custom work. I was constantly learning, then implementing what I learned.

Every item I made I had to learn how to make just a few weeks {or days} prior. It was a bit crazy, to say the least…

Looking back at this precious time of Gussy Sews beginning I see a pattern: having a supportive husband/family truly allowed my business to flourish. I worked very hard during the morning + afternoon, would stop for a bit for a long dinner, and then was usually back at my computer or sewing machine for a couple of hours in the evening. And my life looked like that for a long time. In fact, four years later it still looks like that {although not as often}, and I’m 20 weeks pregnant!

When you work so incredibly hard to succeed at something you LOVE, time doesn’t have the same meaning as it does when working on something you don’t care about, because…

…When you’re driven, you value your time. When you’re bored, you are irresponsible with it.

I realize not everyone wanting to start a handmade shop has the same family/home situation as others. Some of you have children, others do not. Some of you have support at home, others do not. Some of you are ambitious + bold, others are timid + uncertain. Regardless of which situation you most relate with, accept your situation and make it work FOR you instead of AGAINST you.

To address this in a different way:

Setting crystal clear goals of what your business means to you, what your family means to you, and including both when deciding how to spend your time each day will allow you to stop struggling over work verses family.

You must take the emotion out of it.

One month prior to losing my job in February 2009 Zack lost his job. Oh yes he did. So that meant we were:

• newlyweds {married only 8 months}
• recent college graduates
• living in a city far from family {hello, Detroit}
• unemployed
• and we had to figure it out WITHOUT giving up + moving back home with family

Those were some rough months of unemployment but they taught Zack + I so much about the importance of separating work time verses family time. We needed to come together as a team if we wanted this to work, and truthfully that meant no negativity when separating work from family time. We choose to be 100% invested in whatever slotted schedule // time frame // season we were in.

If Zack needs to offer extra support during a busy or stressful season, he does. If I need to put the focus on the family and slow down a little bit, I do.

I’m not here to tell you what your work time verses family time plan needs to look like, but I am here to encourage you + push you to work your best at finding balance. Some seasons you’ll feeling like you’re juggling — Lindsey likes to use the word “juggle” and I can’t disagree with her ;) But you have to {!!!} be good at separating work from family time.

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” – Sally Berger

Don’t you just love that?

Need even more encouragement to be a rockstar at separating the two?:

• Be able to address your biggest issue
• Know when to say “no”
• Gain support from your spouse/partner
• Create goals
• Making mistakes? At least you’re doing something :)

The bottom line is you must be realistic with work verses family time. I can’t make it easy for you. I can’t tell you how to make it work. But I can encourage you to pedal fast when necessary so you have the momentum you need to make the uphill climb of handmade business.

Homework// Whew. That was a tough one to write. Hope it wasn’t too hard to read ;) Now is the time to evaluate how you separate work from family time, if you even separate it, and/or getting creative with the beautiful life you’ve been given and allowing it to work with you instead of against you.

So tell me below in the comments, which of the three areas from the Homework section will you be working on?

wanna make some changes to your handmade biz?