The Story of a Full-Time Crochet Business Owner | Podcast Episode #114

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Have you ever wondered what it would be like to earn a living with crochet?

It seems crazy, I know, but you can make a supplemental income with crochet. Whether your goal is to make yarn money, family vacation funds, or a full-time living, it’s possible. There are hundreds (dare I say thousands?) of people out there who are making a full or part-time income with their crochet skills.

Special Guest

In this episode of The BHooked Podcast, you’ll hear from one of those people. Meghan from the blog, Meghan Makes Do, shares her startup story and we chat all things crochet businesses.

Episode Transcript

Brittany:
Well, hey there. Welcome to episode 114 of the BeHooked podcast. Thank you so much for joining me today. If you’re brand new to the show, first of all, welcome. My name is Brittany and I am here to be your guide to better crochet and knitting. That’s my sole passion and purpose in life and for this show.

And today we’ll focus a little bit on the designer, blogger, business aspect of things. So if you are any of those things, I think you’re really going to love today’s show. So today I’m joined by Megan from Meghan Makes Do, a blogger, a designer. She’s dabbled in quite a bit of things, pretty much anything that you can do within the maker community and having a small business, she’s done it. And that’s what we’re going to talk about today.

We talk a lot about her story and how she got started, and she shares a lot of things that she learned along the way. But she brought another element to it that I couldn’t do at this point, and that is share how she juggles being a work-at-home mom and how she maintains her business, her lifestyle, her relationships. She covers all of those things.

It’s just a very realistic conversation. We love our hooks and needles here, but every now and then we just have to get into the nitty gritty details of what it means to be a business owner. And that’s why I got to geek out just a little bit. It’s really great to be able to share with somebody who’s in a similar situation as you, or to be able to listen to somebody who’s going through something similar. And I hope that’s what you’ll get from today’s episode.

Now, before we get to that, the show notes page can be found at bhooked.com/114. And there are a few resources that Megan mentions that you might find beneficial to check out. So you’ll find all of that information on the show notes page. And of course, you can always leave your questions or comments at the bottom of that page.

All right, now let’s get to it, shall we? Here is Meghan from Meghan Makes Do. Meghan, hi, welcome to the show. Thank you for joining me today.

Meghan: 3:07
Thanks for having me. The pleasure is all mine. I am just really excited to dive into your story a little bit and learn how it has grown and continued to grow, but then also how you maintain that balance between being a mom and being a blogger and being a business owner and all of those things.

Brittany: 3:10
Well, I think the place to start that makes the most sense is how did you learn how to crochet? Like tell me the story of just where it all began. So

Meghan: 3:20
I learned when I was 12 and I don’t exactly remember like what it was that kind of piqued my interest. I’ve always been drawn to the arts. You know, I could spend hours as a little girl just like drawing and coloring by myself. And when I was 12, my aunt was expecting her first baby. And I really wanted to make her a baby blanket.

And so my mom and I went to the store and we got like a teach yourself to crochet book. And I’ve got like… the typical baby yarn that was like a variegated, like pastel-y colors. And I remember we were on a road trip going somewhere, probably to visit relatives. And I was like trying to use the book to figure it out. And eventually my mom had to like basically teach herself from the book so that she could teach me.

And so I ended up making this just, it’s a single crochet baby blanket and the edges were like super wonky. It looks crazy, but it was like, I don’t know, like something about crochet and like the repetition of it and making the stitches and just it like resonated with me. And I kind of fell in love with it then.

But you know, being 12, it’s just a hobby kind of thing. So I kind of put it down for a while and then picked it back up again in college when I found out other friends knew how to do it. And I learned a lot from my friends in college. So instead of studying in the dorms, we would be crocheting and watching movies. And so that was kind of how I learned it.

And then I’ve I feel like I’m continuing to learn even now having been doing it for 20 plus years. I’m still learning new stitches and new techniques and kind of like falling in love with it like every day.

Brittany: 5:02
I think that’s one of the really great things about our craft. Me, I am a serial learner. Like that is my true passion. I live to learn and this hobby allows me to do that. I feel like I know nothing compared to what there is out there to know about the craft.

Meghan: 5:21
Right. Exactly. It’s like I feel like I think I know everything. And then I’ll see a video on Instagram or YouTube and I’m like, wait, what? Like, I didn’t know you could do that.

So just like, yeah, all of these new techniques, like things like tapestry crochet and even like corner to corner crochet. I’m just like, what? I had like, you know, for me, it was just it started as simple little single crochets. And now I’m like discovering so much that you can do with it. And it’s it’s so exciting that it never gets old. It always feels fresh to me because there’s always something new to learn.

Brittany: 5:54
Yeah. What’s your favorite thing to make?

Meghan: 5:58
So I love making hats because they’re like super quick and easy, but I have a bit of an obsession with blankets. Maybe that’s because that’s how I started. But last year, just before the holidays, I did four large corner to corner graph cans and they all had a different saying on them. And it took me forever. I don’t know why I thought four was a good number because these things are huge. Like they fit like all across like my queen size bed.

Brittany: 6:27
Oh, wow.

Meghan: 6:28
But yeah, it was like my little passion project. And I like even now I’m getting ready to start another blanket project. So blankets are always near and dear to my heart.

Brittany: 6:38
Yeah. I have to ask, how long does it take you typically?

Meghan: 6:43
It kind of depends on the blanket. So the corner to corners probably took, if that was like, I try to make that like my sole focus for like the time being. So each one took typically two to three weeks. You know, I had to do other things in between then, but most of what I was doing was just working on that.

But because it was like so many different color changes, you know, just having to focus and concentrate on that and all the ends at the end to weave into. So yeah. It took a while, a couple weeks.

Brittany: 7:15
Oh, I bet. That’s really not that bad, though. When I hear two weeks to do like a queen-size afghan, that seems pretty quick. Really?

Meghan: 7:24
It does. I was like determined. I’m like, I got to get these all out before Christmas. And it took way longer than I had expected, but it was still really fun.

Brittany: 7:33
That’s cool. I think I’ve seen a couple of those on your Instagram, so I would definitely encourage someone listening to go check those out because they’re really pretty. Thanks. So at some point, this hobby spiraled into something else. What did that journey look like?

Meghan: 7:48
So I actually, I’ve been kind of on this business journey with my craft, gosh, for going on seven years. But I started under a different name.

So when I first started, I, so I sew as well. And I’d always kind of been interested in doing like a craft fair, like, oh, it’d be cute just to like, I make all this stuff, but I never do anything with it. Maybe I should start selling it.

And so I started a business called Simple Little Stitches and I started out selling at my local farmer’s market. At the time, we were living in central Illinois and there was just like this giant farmer’s market every Saturday, basically for almost the whole entire year. So it kind of became my husband and I’s routine. Like I was working full time, he was working full time. And every Saturday, we’d get up at like six o’clock and go set up my boots.

And I didn’t really have a rhyme or reason to it. I was just… In my spare time making whatever I found on Pinterest, it was like, okay, I’ll crochet some hats and I’ll sew up some bags. And it was kind of like a Mod Podge group of items. But I did that for the first three years.

And then we ended up moving to California. And it was kind of this weird transition for me because I went from selling every weekend and working a full-time job to being a stay-at-home mom and having no idea where my business was going to go.

So it was around that time, I kind of had one of those identity crises, like, who am I now? Who am I if I don’t have a full-time job? Can I really do this craft business thing as a full-time thing? Do I just want to focus on being a mom right now?

So I had one child at the time, and it took me probably two years and another kid later before I actually was like, you know what? I think I want to try something different.

I was doing a couple different shows in the area, but things were way more expensive. I’m in California now. And so it was really hard to keep up with—there wasn’t like a spot where I could regularly sell like how I had been previously.

And I had always kind of been like, I really want to start a blog, but too afraid to do it. And so finally, like it was probably September of 2017, where I was like, you know what, I’m going to try this, I’m going to be brave, put myself out there. And the worst that can happen is I totally fail. And I’ll be right back at the same point I was when I started. No big deal, right? Like I can do this.

So I at that point, like I had just kind of found another person on Instagram. They’re not a crafter. They’re just like an influencer. And she had a bunch of blog posts about like how to make your feed look pretty and how to grow on Instagram. And I was like, oh, I think I’ve been doing Instagram wrong. Like I just post randomly here and there whenever I feel like it.

So it really kind of started with Instagram. And then I launched my blog about a month later. And it’s kind of grown from there and totally changed.

Like I did a whole rebranding. And that’s when I became Megan Makes Do. Because I wanted to be able to encompass everything. At the time, I was doing home preschool with my daughter too. So I wanted to do that on my blog as well.

And then it’s even more from that just in like the year and a half I’ve been doing Megan Makes Do and running my blog. And now I’m designing crochet patterns and working with brands. And it’s like, oh my gosh, it’s like opened up this whole other world I didn’t even know existed.

And so now I’m kind of less focused on selling things in person. So I still do sell things. I make project bags. So I’m starting to make more for makers. And yeah. It’s just amazing, like the community that is out there and the people that I’ve been able to connect with. And I feel like, you know, my brand is still changing and growing as I change and grow. It kind of grows along with me now.

Brittany: 11:40
Yeah, that’s such a cool story. I bet too. I mean, I’m thinking you moved from central Illinois and you have extreme winters there and you moved to California, which is like beautiful all the time from what I understand. Yeah. Did you have to like, changed the types of projects you made like was there any kind of a realization that you suddenly think wow I’m making all of these yarn things but maybe I’m making the wrong things because you don’t need

Meghan: 12:09
them yeah yeah there was definitely a point where I was like do I have to give up crocheting like you know this is something that I can actually still sustain so I’m in northern California I’m like just south of San Francisco so I’m Yeah, we don’t get any snow. It’s not extreme weather here. It’s very mild. It does get cold. It’s pretty typical to be pretty chilly around here most of the year, so like 60s, 70s. I still wear my hats. Morning drop-offs, I just throw a hat on so that people don’t have to see my greasy hair.

It does get cold in the winter, but scarves and boot cuffs and heavier sweaters and stuff, it’s not typically great for this area. So that’s why I kind of stopped selling in person after last year. I still did sell quite a few hats this winter, but yeah, you don’t get as many sales of the crochet items here in California. So that’s why this year I’m focusing… Basically, all I’m really selling is the sewn pouches because those are good for so many things and those are good all year long.

Brittany: 13:18
Yeah. Now, do you find that your designs changed a little bit? Are you making things that are practical for you in that area or are you still designing patterns that are relatable to people who maybe do experience those cold winters?

Meghan: 13:33
So I do a little bit of both. So we’re, my husband and I are originally from Ohio. So we do go home to visit quite often, at least once a year, typically around Christmas when it is cold. Because I usually try to design things that I would want to wear and use. So yeah, I will still design like hats, scarves, like warmer weather stuff, typically like around, or cooler weather stuff, I guess, the warmer wears, like around the winter season.

And then I Like right now, like for summer, it’s like, I know a lot of people are doing, you know, crop tops and like skimpy little things. And for me, I’m like, it’s still kind of cold here. So I’m doing things that are kind of like, I feel like everything I make is kind of like a transitional piece. Because yeah, the weather here is a bit more even all year long. But I do still try to design things that everyone from like all over could use. And then if I don’t end up using it, I’ll just… usually give it to one of my sisters who are still in Ohio

Brittany: 14:31
yeah well that makes perfect sense I think that’s definitely a question that I’ve had because I would love to move I mean we experience four seasons where I’m from and yeah I always wondered about that if if we were to move to an area that was warm would I have to stop crocheting would I crochet cotton things all the time like that’s always just been a question yeah

Meghan: 14:53
no because I feel like you know now that I’m doing more in designing and not like selling finished crochet goods, it’s okay if like, you know, I make a hat or a scarf and maybe I won’t use it, but I can donate it to someone who would use it or give it to family members or gift it to someone. Because yeah, it’s like, I just, I don’t think I could ever not be crocheting. I think it’s like, it’s something I’m so in love with, but I’m like, I’d be, a part of me would be missing if I couldn’t do it.

Brittany: 15:22
Oh yeah. I could totally relate. Yeah. So now sort of bringing it into the present, if, you know, knowing what we know now about how you started, you’ve gone through a lot of transitions and it sounds like probably some, some hard times and some good times. What would you say is your biggest struggle that you face right now?

Meghan: 15:44
Oh, right now I would say the biggest thing for me, it’s kind of a mix of, I guess the all encompassing word would be like time management. Because going from working outside of the home to now my house is where I work, the lines between work and home life are very blurred. And so it’s hard for me to always know, like, okay, when should I be working and when should I be cleaning my house or playing with my kids or doing those other things that are part of my life?

I find that I’m a little bit of a workaholic, I guess, because I’m so passionate about it. I love it. I love doing it that it’s hard for me to know when to stop and when where those roles change. Whereas like when you’re working outside of the home, you know, it hits six o’clock. It’s time to go home. You put that stuff away and you’re done. Whereas here, it’s like, no, my work is always with me. Always. And I always feel like I’m kind of like trying to sneak times into work throughout the regular day.

And so, yeah, it’s been a weird kind of thing to navigate. And it’s something that I still struggle with, you know, finding that elusive balance between work and life. Yeah. So, yeah, I’d say that’s probably the hardest thing for me right now.

Brittany: 17:00
I can totally relate to that. I started going full-time with my business in 2017. And I found that you don’t realize what you sign up for until you’re actually in it. So I learned a lot about time management then, but I still feel a lot like those lines are blurred, even now. So I am definitely still working through that with you. Are there anything that you do in order to try to structure your day? What does a typical day look?

Meghan: 17:34
So typically I’m up around 7:30. I get my older daughter off to school and then I bring my son home and we have breakfast. And typically that’s kind of when my workday starts because he’s pretty content now to kind of play on his own a little bit more. So I’ll usually try to do some computer work first thing in the morning or just sit and I’ll be crocheting while he’s playing.

And then typically like around lunchtime, Noblesap will have lunch or we’ll go run errands for a little bit. We’ll do our grocery shopping unless we have like other things scheduled during the day. And then my daughter, I pick her up around like two o’clock every day. So it’s kind of like my day is kind of like broken up into little sections.

And then usually when we get home from that, I try to do a little more work too, but usually around four or five, I have to stop because we’ve got homework to work on. I’ve got to make dinner. I’ve got to get them ready for bed. And so it’s more like family time. I’m trying to make that more family time for those couple hours. And then after my husband gets home, we’re all together for a little bit.

And then they typically are down to bed by nine o’clock. And if my husband’s going right to bed as well, that’s more work time for me. And I’ve turned into a little bit of a night owl where I do my best work and probably most of my work after everyone’s asleep. So, you know, it’s like I’ll squeeze in a little bit during the day when I can. And then most of it’s done probably between the hours of like 9 and 1 or 2 a.m. depending on how yeah how late I want to stay up which probably isn’t the best thing I’m trying to be better about going to bed a little bit earlier and trying to stick to like more regimented schedules

And it’s so hard because everything is so random and it’ll just change day to day like my son will be three in May and I’ll just start this next fall we’ll be doing like home preschool with him so then my mornings will be preschool time not work time so yeah it’s I don’t know. I think the thing that helps me the most is being able to ask for help. Like right now, I have a friend who’s watching my son, so I can be talking with you.

But it took me getting out of that comfort zone and that feeling like I have to do everything on my own. I have to be superwoman. I have to, you know, I can handle it all. And I think that’s so harmful to us as women and moms is to think that we have to do everything on our own and that we can’t ask for help.

And so like, no, I’ll let my husband know like, Hey, I really have this big project coming up. I need time to work on it. So we’ll like schedule out like, cause like, okay, I’ll take the kids this weekend and we’ll go out for the day or something so that you have the house to yourself to work. But being able to vocalize that you need help and asking for the help has been really important for me. Like, and it’s a hard thing to learn how to do.

Brittany: 20:28
It really is. I can relate to that as well. I do like to try to do everything myself. Now, I don’t have the dynamic that you have where I am not a mother yet. So I do have the flexibility to be able to work during the day while he’s home. But I still find myself trying to manage everything and feeling like I’m not always on my A game, you know?

Yeah. It’s really difficult to manage your time, manage your responsibilities, and try to be present with them, you know, with your family when they’re here. And gosh, I know one thing that I really, really try to do is work on my computer during the day because I can be in my office — that’s like my cue. When I’m in my office, my door is shut and I’m in work mode.

I work until it’s lunchtime. I’ll go away from the office. I try to make it a point to like step away from the computer for a while, eat my lunch and then come back and we’re in work mode again. But then in the evening when I know he’s on his way home I want to, you know, cook dinner. I actually really, really love to cook. I’m sort of like getting more and more into that. So I look forward to that time and, you know, I leave the office, shut the door and I try my best to leave it all there.

But there are times where I’m crocheting in the evening. But the good thing about that is you can still do that and not have to be so focused on it. You can still watch TV with them or have a conversation with your family.

Meghan: 22:02
Yes, exactly. Yeah. There’s some times where my husband’s like, can we hang out, but like you not be crocheting? I’m like, what? No, I have to have my hands, but they have to be doing something.

But yeah, it is nice that like, you know, I can squeeze it in here and there and I could be doing kind of like two things at once. But yeah, it is hard to draw that line and to know like, okay, it’s okay for me to step away from work.

I always feel guilty and I always feel like I’m failing at one thing when I’m succeeding at the other. If my business is going really well and I feel like I’ve got a huge handle on this, I know exactly what I’m doing, then I feel like my house is a complete disaster or my kids are screaming and crying and I’m like, oh my gosh, that part of my life is falling apart.

So trying to figure out how to give 100% to everything I think is—it might be impossible—but feeling like you’re doing the best that you can and giving your best self to all the different areas of your life, it’s hard. It’s hard to know where to draw those lines.

Brittany: 23:08
It really is. I found that trying to be intentional about my own care, it’s really helped me out a lot. Before, I was a lot like you. I was a night owl. I stayed up until midnight, one or two o’clock in the morning.

I back then was still working a full-time job. So I would give myself to my job. I would come home and do all of those things around the house. And then it was in kind of like work mode, although it was really just a passion project at the time. And I really let my self-care—like you would ask me about self-care and I would say, what, what’s that? I didn’t do that.

But man, when you spend even just 30 minutes a day to do something for yourself, it’s like your entire perspective shifts. You don’t feel like you’re behind anymore. You don’t feel like you’re just succeeding at one thing and like really being terrible at another thing.

Meghan: 24:07
And that’s really true. Yeah.

Brittany: 24:09
And I usually have to push myself to do it. It’s funny how we know what we need to do, but we don’t always do it. But when we do, we’re like–really excited that we did. For example, so I’ll preface this by saying my husband and I have made this shift where we are morning people. We’re like, we’re 5 a.m.-ers. Not all the time. Five or six. Most of the time six.

But we get up at—I mean, he actually gets up a little bit earlier than I do. But I’m working on that one. Yeah. So we’ll get up. He gets ready. He goes to work. And I will typically just scramble up whatever I can find for breakfast and then run upstairs to my office because I just can’t wait to get into work. And I mean, that’s a good problem to have. I love it.

But once I’m here, I will not leave. I just can’t walk away from a project that’s not finished. And realistically, a lot of the stuff that we work on takes more than a day to finish. So that’s a big problem.

Well, the other day I thought, well, I just spent a little time painting an extra room that we have in our house and we converted it to like an exercise room. And there’s not much in there. I have a road bike that I have sort of propped up on a trainer. And then we have a rowing machine, which I despise, but I love it at the same time.

So I thought, well, I just got finished painting this room. I’m going to go down there. I’m going to do 15 minutes on the rower. That’s it. And then 15 minutes on the bike and that’s it. And so I go down there, I fire up a podcast, I’m listening to it and I get through that 30-minute workout.

And by that point, it’s like seven o’clock. So I’m like, okay, like I didn’t sacrifice much work. So, you know, I go and get ready, hop in the shower. I’m up in the office by eight o’clock. And I had like four things on my to-do list that day that were like my top four priorities. I had three of them done before 11 o’clock.

And I was just thinking like, how did this happen? Why did this happen? When I don’t spend the time in the morning to do these extra things, I’m never this productive. So I feel like there’s got to be something to that. I just—yeah, I got to test it out a little bit more and make sure that it happens every time.

Meghan: 26:34
I can totally relate. Yeah, I find like, I’ve been trying to work out, but I feel like, you know, trying to squeeze in—I always tell myself in my head, like, you don’t have time for that. You don’t have time, you don’t have time. And instead of like saying that over and over to myself, it’s like, I just have to do it.

So if I work out like first thing, like as soon as I drop my daughter off at school, if I come home and work out first thing, it doesn’t seem to eat up my day. Like I feel like then it makes room for other things. And like, I’m in such a good mood from doing it that it’s like, you know, my to-do list can get done way faster.

So it’s got to be something about that. And yeah, I think it’s a lot of like why we can’t get certain things done or why we have a hard time, you know, getting through our list for the day—just as in what our minds are telling ourselves. Like if we’re constantly in our heads going, oh my God, this is gonna take forever or I don’t have time for this or, you know, and we’re telling ourselves that over and over, then we start to believe it and we make it happen. We turn it into the truth.

And so I think it’s about like breaking that cycle and telling yourself, no, I do have time. I have time to take care of myself and it’s okay to take care of myself and put myself first a little bit too. Because yeah, I think we can typically let our businesses kind of start running us instead of the other way around, which I know I struggle with too.

Brittany: 27:54
Exactly. And sometimes that’ll catch up to you. I don’t know if you have any like struggles with this at all, but hand and wrist fatigue and like arm fatigue, shoulder, all of that stuff. I feel like we as people who crochet constantly, we have to really be careful about that and how we stretch and—I don’t know, like our hands are our greatest asset at this point. They’re like our tools. And if we don’t take care of them, then we can’t do what we love. And that would be just awful. Yeah.

Meghan: 28:26
Oh, yeah, exactly. I feel like if I’ve done like a long day of just crocheting, it’s like, yeah, my hand muscles will be like just super sore and tight. And so I’ll try to make it that like the next day I’m either doing computer work or maybe I’m just sewing. So that would give those muscles a little bit of a break and kind of balancing out that way.

‘Cause yeah, it’s surprising like how physical the work can be sometimes—even though for most people looking at us, we’re just sitting there crocheting like doing nothing. But yeah, it does bring its own set of aches and pains too.

Brittany: 29:00
Yeah, and they’re almost like silent at first. When you’re in it and you’re working on your project, you don’t realize how much you’re aching until you stop. And then you realize like, oh, I’ve got like a cramp in my wrist or my thumb or wherever. Yeah.

Yeah, I have to do a lot of stretches to help with my wrists and that sort of thing. But I’m not as great at doing them because, like I said, it’s a struggle to stop. And I know a lot of people face that too. I mean, we just love what we do and we’re into our project. Who wants to stop?

Meghan: 29:34
Right, I know. Yeah, that’s the hardest thing—being okay with stopping. Because I just—I don’t know, when you really love something and it doesn’t feel like it’s hard work, you know, you’re enjoying every part of it, it can kind of, you know, just consume your mind and the rest of your life.

And yeah, I struggle with that too, especially if it’s like a really great project or it’s something I’m really excited about that I want to get out like quickly. It’s like, no, I just want to work on this project forever. I don’t want to stop ever.

Brittany: 30:03
Yeah. And I think another aspect to that too is like the mental health benefits of it. We love doing what we do because it makes us feel—yeah, exactly. Yeah.

So I love sort of reflecting back on things that I have done and that sort of thing. And I also really love learning from other people’s experience. So one question I—or well, I guess it’s more of a phrase that I always say to myself is, you know, you don’t know what you don’t know. Yeah.

And I really hate that because I really love to be prepared for things. But I constantly find that you don’t know what you don’t know. So has there been an instance recently where you have maybe thought that or you learned something and you’re like, man, I wish I would have known that then?

Meghan: 31:15
Yes. Doing my taxes this year. Oh my gosh. It was like one of those moments where you’re like—you’re—I’m even embarrassed to say this and admit this now but it’s like I’ve been doing them wrong. I’ve been doing them wrong for years—like years.

And so I really wanted to get better at like bookkeeping and taking care of that aspect of my business because I’m not the greatest at that. I’d much rather just crochet and write patterns versus taking care of that side of it. Yeah. So I signed up for this boot camp run by Janet from Paper and Spark and I started going through it.

And I’m going through everything. I was like, okay, I got this, I got this—like pulling everything from the year and getting it all put in this spreadsheet. And then she got to like inventory and how you’re supposed to like break everything down and keep track of it and that you can only deduct the cost of things that you’ve sold that year, not like everything. And I was like, what? Oh my gosh.

And so like I talked to my husband because like he helps with the taxes too. And like we were doing it right technically, but it wasn’t like a detailed record of like, okay, here’s what I have in my inventory. Here’s how much I use. Here’s the cost per item that I used.

And so it was kind of like one of those things where you’re just like—it’s hard not to beat yourself up about it because you’re like, oh my God, I didn’t know this. And I’ve been doing this, not necessarily like totally wrong, but just not the best way. And so, yeah, it was like, just, oh my gosh. Like I remember like even crying about it because I was like, how did I not know that I was supposed to be doing it this way this whole time? And like, how do you then go back and fix it and make it right?

So it was a lot of computer work, a lot of like sorting through receipts and trying to figure out and going through my whole stash of everything that I already have. But now I’m like—I had to keep reminding myself, it’s okay. You know better now, you can do better now.

So that was probably the most recent thing that I was like, oh my gosh, I had no idea that I was even doing something not right. And so it’s one of those live and learn kind of moments. But yeah, that’s probably the biggest one I’ve had so far.

Brittany: 33:28
That’s a pretty big one too. I would love to link to that in the show notes because taxes for small business owners, that’s something that a lot of people don’t talk about. And it’s because it’s so different for everybody that it’s a hard subject to address.

So I would love to include that just so if somebody is in a similar situation and they want to check that out because they want to learn more about it. I know the piece of software that I use to help with like bookkeeping and that sort of thing is QuickBooks Self-Employed. And that has really, really helped us. Yeah, I haven’t tried that. I’ve—

Meghan: 34:04
—always done a workbook on an Excel file on my own. But now that I’ve taken this course through Paper and Spark, I’m using the one that she has set up. And it’s making so much more sense to me.

And my husband and I sat down this year and did our Schedule C together. And it was like, oh, okay, so this is how I have to categorize things so that it matches with what’s on the Schedule C.

And I think a big reason why people don’t talk about it is because a lot of people don’t know. It’s not like when you sign up to become a business and you go get your business license that they’re like, “Oh here, let me teach you about how to run a business and do your taxes.” You are totally on your own and you have to just kind of figure it out.

And so yeah, Janet’s like a great resource for that. She’s got so many things like on her blog and she’s always got like different courses and she’s got tons of spreadsheets available for Etsy sellers or people that sell on Shopify.

I think it’s like you have to put your ego aside a little bit and admit that you don’t know what you’re doing in order to learn how to do things properly. That’s what I had to do. I had to be like, all right, I clearly don’t know what I’m doing. I need help with this.

I even messaged her during the course. I was like, “Oh my God, I’ve been doing this wrong. What do I do?” I think it’s like being embarrassed to raise your hand in class. You don’t want to say the wrong thing and be told that you’re wrong.

And I think you have to get past that fear of not being right in order to learn so that you can be doing things correctly and that you feel better prepared for that part of your business.

Brittany: 35:39
Exactly. And those are things that we can’t ignore. You wear all the hats and you do the best you can and learning everything that there is to know about every aspect of your business. But I think the reality of it is, like you said, you have to learn the hard way sometimes. And that’s really unfortunate. But once you know, then you can do better.

Meghan: 36:01
Yep, exactly.

Brittany: 36:03
Now on—well, sort of on the topic of tools—are there any other tools that you use that you help to either grow your business or try to accomplish your goals? Maybe even if it’s productivity things?

Meghan: 36:17
Yeah, probably the biggest thing that I use—well, there’s two things I use together. So Pinterest is like my best friend. That is… And luckily, I learned about that pretty quickly into running my blog. Not so much when I was doing finished like craft shows kind of things.

But now that I’m blogging and offering free patterns there, you know, it’s always hard. Everyone’s like, “Well, how do you get people to your blog? How do people find you?” And one of the biggest things is using Pinterest to drive the traffic to your blog.

I took a course, like a little free webinar thing, from—I believe her name is Melissa Griffiths. And I took that probably like the first month after I decided I wanted to become a blogger. And it was like, “Oh, okay.” And so I’ve been using Pinterest since the very start.

Pinterest is a search engine. And so you have to think of it like that. So when you’re creating pins—and you know, I’ll make specific images to put on Pinterest—and so you’re going to be wanting to always use those keywords that you want, have your SEO really good for Pinterest because that’s how people are going to find you.

Pretty much 85 to 90% of the traffic that I get from my blog comes from Pinterest.

And one of the things about Pinterest too is that you kind of have to be pinning every single day, which for a lot of people, that’s kind of impossible if you can’t just spend all day pinning on Pinterest.

So I actually signed up and I use Tailwind for Pinterest as well. And Tailwind—they’ve got like tribes and stuff in there. So there’s tribes that they’ll share their content, you can repin their pins, you put your content there, they’ll repin yours.

But Tailwind will schedule out your pins for you. So right now I can go on maybe once a month, and I will schedule a bunch of pins to my own content, and then schedule a bunch of pins to other bloggers’ content. And then I just shuffle my queue and it will pin five or six pins a day for me, and I don’t have to be on Pinterest.

It’ll just pin them to the boards, and then I start getting more and more page views, which helps you out—especially if you have ads on your blog. But those two things together—game changer.

If you’re doing any kind of blogging, that’s something that I’m really thankful that I learned right away. I used to use Pinterest just for fun, just like, “Oh, I’ll pin recipes and cute hairstyles and makeup tutorials.” And I would pin crochet projects too.

But knowing how to use it in order to get people to see your product or see your blog is so helpful. Because who’s not on Pinterest now? You know, like everybody’s on Pinterest. And so it’s a great way to grow and have your stuff be seen.

Brittany: 39:05
Yeah, and I feel like it’s probably good for makers too, people who have Etsy shops, because you can use it in that way as well.

Meghan: 39:12
Yeah, yeah. Just think about like, you know, what’s the final destination that you want someone to get to? Is it your Etsy shop? Is it your personal website? And just make sure that that’s what the pin is linking to and make sure that the pin is relevant.

So like, say you’re selling crocheted finished items, make very tall pins. I go in, I make everything in PowerPoint and just turn it into a picture at the end. But make them—your vertical pins usually work the best. So, you know, you can take your product photos and then—

Brittany: 40:17
Yeah.

Meghan: 40:18
Yeah. And so there’s a lot of things—like Pinterest is, you know, they’re doing new things all the time. But yeah, you just always have to think about like, “Where do I want my traffic to go? Where do I want people to go?” And then just make sure that the picture that you’re using for your pin is relevant to what you’re pinning to as well.

Brittany: 40:17
That’s so important too. I have a similar experience with Pinterest myself. I started on Pinterest primarily and I really spent a lot of time there because I really enjoyed that platform. And so I was on it every single day. This was before Tailwind came about, but it was easy for me to pin every day because I was really crazy about it.

And then Instagram came along and I got really crazy about Instagram. And so I stopped doing quite as much pinning on Pinterest. Well, I have recently started to put a lot more focus on that.

And it’s funny—I understand not wanting to pay for a scheduling tool. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So fortunately, I am using a completely different software for keeping track of my calendar, like my content calendar and that sort of thing. But a component of that is scheduling social shares.

And I’m able to use that to schedule my Pinterest posts. And I don’t have to pay extra for Tailwind just yet. But the one little drawback that CoSchedule has—or that CoSchedule doesn’t have, that Tailwind does have—is that you can’t pin other people’s stuff. You have to sort of create the pin. But it is working.

I know I’ve mentioned CoSchedule here on the show before. So if any of you are using CoSchedule, you can use it in this way, but know that that is one limitation of it.

Meghan: 42:08
Yeah. Yeah, that’s what I like about Tailwind is like it kind of helps you find other people’s stuff too, because there’s just—I mean, there’s so much on Pinterest. So it helps to have the tribe so that way I can quickly pick and choose other people’s pins to pin as well.

But yeah, it’s definitely been helpful. And I’m the same way. If I don’t have to pay for it, I won’t. But I felt like, okay, I was starting to make money from the ads on my blog. I was like, I think I can make it work. I think I’ll be fine.

It’s definitely taken the load off of me. It’s easier for me now. I don’t feel like I have to constantly be pinning or remembering what I pinned either because they’ll keep track of all the pins that you’ve already pinned. And it will tell you, “You’ve already pinned this one to this board. Why don’t you try this board?” or whatever. So I love it.

Brittany: 42:54
Makes it a lot easier. Definitely a lot of great features. I’ve gotten in there with the freemium sort of thing just to look around and see. I see the value there. It’s going to happen. It’s just—I just got to bite the bullet and do it.

Yeah. So we’ve covered a lot of ground here to sort of bring everything together. We’ve talked about so many different areas of struggles that just any small business owner honestly can face. But specifically, I like how we’re relating it to the yarn industry and, you know, being a designer and being a blogger and being a mom and all these things.

So for the person who’s listening right now, who is sort of on the other side of the fence saying, I really, really want to try this. I feel like I have a great idea or a great position or a unique spin on an idea, but they’re just not confident enough to just do it—what would your advice be to them?

Meghan: 43:52
To push that fear aside. Because I think that held me back for a long time. You know, I’ve been there. I’ve been in that position where it’s like, I don’t know if I have anything of value to offer or I don’t know if I can do this. And the truth is that you can. Like, you can do whatever you set your mind to.

And I think you just have to push the fear aside and get through that and start. And starting is the hardest part. Once you start, you get into it and you just want to keep doing it. But taking that first step is usually the hardest.

The thing that helped me the most was I read a book—I can’t remember which one it was—but in it, he talks about how taking these risks and taking chances, even if the worst thing imaginable happens with it and you totally fail, you still are better than where you were if you had done nothing at all. Nothing’s going to happen so bad that you can’t start over.

And that kind of switched something in my brain. I was like, okay, I’m going to start. I’m going to do it. I’m sick of waiting. I’m sick of saying, someday I’m going to do this. I’m just going to do it. But it had to be getting over that fear first.

Brittany: 44:59
Yeah, I think that’s really great advice. And for me, it wasn’t necessarily getting over the fear, because I still feel like I’m fearful about a lot of things. I think for me, it was very much getting used to the fear, but going forward anyways—just for me personally.

Meghan: 45:15
Yeah, because there’s always—I mean, even now—there are still things that come up that give me, you know, the butterflies, or I’m like, oh, I don’t know, or I’m worried about it, or I’m scared. So yeah, I like that: getting used to the fear and being okay with—there’s always going to be some anxiety when you’re starting your own business and doing something all on your own.

But I think remembering too that everybody started at square one. Nobody came into this work knowing everything all at once. That’s pretty much impossible. And so starting with one thing and kind of taking it piece by piece and learning as you go is a great way to start.

Brittany: 45:53
Yeah. And as we’ve learned, too, from your story, it’s a long process. So the longer you delay, the longer it’s going to take to get to the point where it does become what you need it to be—whether that be a full-time job, whether that be just an extra income or whatever that looks like for you—it’s going to take that much longer.

Meghan: 46:13
Yeah. Yeah. And it’s okay if what you start off doing right now could be totally different two or three years from now. You know, my business has grown and changed a lot over the seven years I’ve been doing it. And that’s okay.

You don’t have to have everything figured out. You don’t have to have everything set up right now, because it’s okay to change. It’s okay to rebrand. It’s okay to change your products. Change your website—whatever it is.

As you grow as a business owner, your business will grow as well, and it will change. And that’s okay. You think about the bigger brands out there like Coke and Pepsi. They’ve changed their logo so many times. They’ve rebranded. They’ve done different things. They’ve brought new products out. It’s not a stagnant kind of thing. It’ll change and grow as you go.

Brittany: 46:58
Yeah, and I feel like as long as you’re following your intuition, I really do believe that you are led to a certain place for a reason. So I feel like the journey that you endure throughout that process is exactly what was supposed to happen.

Yeah. Well, this has been a really, really fun conversation. I really love talking to other business owners and just sort of sharing in those struggles, if you will. You know, it’s not always wonderful. Sometimes there are low points. There are sad times or confusing times or frustrating times. And that’s not always evident on the outside.

So it was really great to chat with you about that and share that with others in the community who I know are going through that.

Meghan: 47:44
Yeah, no, it was great talking with you.

Brittany: 47:46
Yeah, so before we wrap things up, though, I would really love people to have a chance to connect with you online. So where’s the best place that they can go to just connect with you and see the other things that you have going on?

Meghan: 47:58
So you could find me on Instagram. My handle is Megan Makes Do—Megan with an H. And then my website as well, MeganMakesDo.com. So I’m always sharing what I’m working on. I’ve got lots of free patterns and resources for makers on my blog. And so, yeah, you can follow along with me there.

Brittany: 48:16
Sounds good. Well, I will have that information in the show notes page. So you don’t have to remember how to spell it. I had to catch myself a couple of times. It’s just natural to type Megan without an H.

So I’ll have that in the show notes so you don’t have to remember that. You can just, you know, head on over to Instagram and follow where they are. So thank you again. It’s been so much fun.

Meghan:
Yeah. Thanks for having me, Brittany.

Brittany:
Well, there you have it. I hope you really enjoyed this episode with Meghan from Meghan Makes Do. Again, you can follow her on Instagram and check her out on her website. I will have all of that information in the show notes page, by the way. You can visit that at behooked.com/114.

Now, if you find yourself in a similar situation—where you’re a blogger, a designer, a mother, any or all of these things—just know that you’re not alone. You’ve got a wonderful community surrounding you, rooting for you and hoping for your success.

So perhaps today you reach out to somebody—maybe it be on Instagram, maybe it be an email to somebody—and just introduce yourself and say hello and make a new connection. I know it’s one thing that you won’t regret. It’s never something I regret to make a new connection, especially within the yarn community.

All right, now that’ll wrap up this week’s episode of the B.Hooked Podcast. If you haven’t subscribed to the show already, I would love for you to do that now. Just pull out your podcast player and hit subscribe.

Next week’s episode is going to be a really, really interesting one. I have the opportunity of speaking with Amber from Divine Debris all about tapestry crochet. You know, that really unique form of colorwork crochet where you can write on your project?

We’re going to talk all about that next week and you won’t want to miss it. So I will see you there. Until then, have a wonderful weekend. Bye for now.