How's your business going?

I make handmade jewelry and sell it online at a few online sites that cater to the handmade community (there are many photographers that sell prints at a couple of them)and I also sell at craft and art fairs. I still work my full-time J-O-B, so this is just a small part-time business, but it's mine. I have to make the jewelry, promote my shops, deal with the customers, the craft show promoters, create displays, ship my sold items, etc, etc My husband helps me a lot and my young sons have been very supportive. The money hasn't been bad and every once in awhile, it's been pretty good. It does become a grind when things are going well because there is pressure to keep momentum going, which means more time spent creating and more time spent promoting. 2008 was a better year than 2007 and hopefully, 2009 can be about the same. If your serious about the commitment, go for it. Remember though, it is a commitment. Promoting your work is very important and success doesn't happen over night. It becomes very tedious and also can take awhile before you see positive results (there are many people that are thinking about selling what they create-photos, art, jewelry, crafts, etc- the economy isn't great & people are only looking for ways to make a little extra cash) Creating new pieces is the best part of my business, dealing with customers and promoting is rarely fun...but it is a necessary evil. Good luck if you go for it!

My husband and I started making and selling our own candles about 3 months ago. We haven't made our initial investment back nor have we been able to do it full time, but we are starting to sell our candles and we are enjoying it. We opened our webstore about 1 month ago. It's www.cedarcreekcandles.net. I built the webstore myself and it was an experience to say the least. We have gone to a few craft shows and had decent reponse. Our biggest sells have been local and by word of mouth, but we have had several repeat customers. The best advice I can give you right now is just work hard and be honest. It just takes a lot of time to build your clientele. A friend of mine has an online business that has taken about 2 years to build, but now she has over 10,000 customers and she is very busy. She has to bring in part time help especially during the holiday. So just hang in there and good luck...also check out our candle shop!