Episode 45: How to Balance Two Creative Businesses - The Creative Yarn Entrepreneur Show

In this week’s episode, I answer a listener question from Kathy Kelly, a crochet designer and teacher at Crochetbird and a jazz musician at Kathy Kelly Vibes! Kathy wants to know how to juggle two creative businesses at once. She says:

I’m a jazz musician and a crochet teacher/designer. When I start to have some success in one area, it’s hard to keep things going in the other area, and I’m kind of making lopsided progress.

Since my crochet and knitting business isn’t my full time work either, I thought I would answer this by sharing some of the things that I do to balance my different entrepreneurial activities. As you might know, I teach business education at the college and graduate level, and work for a local non-profit organization in addition to being a crochet and knitting designer, teacher, blogger, and podcaster. (For more details about what I’m currently working on, you may want to check out my LinkedIn profile.)

I shared four things that have helped me to be successfully in multiple businesses.

• Set your goals for each business. Have a clear idea of what you hope to accomplish with each business in the near and far future. Whether you decide to write business plans, create lists, journal your goals, or speak with a coach, think through this process so you can articulate your plans for each business. Since you are committed to keeping both businesses part time, be aware that you may reach a ceiling in one or both careers because you will not be able to devote the time and energy to take one business to the next level while still maintaining the other business.
• Schedule and organize your routines. Put structures in place to support each business based on the goals you are hoping to achieve. (I talk more about this in Episode 21: 10 Habits for Successfully “Owning” (or Working) from Home.) You may want to have multiple workspaces and devote specific days of the week to each business. It can be distracting to jump back and forth between radically different types of tasks and activities, and you’ll be less productive in each business as a result.
• Automate when possible. Find some activities in both businesses  you can automate to increase your impact and decrease the amount of time you spend on these activities. I automated social media sharing for all of my different businesses and freelance projects this year using Hootsuite and Tailwind. This has increased my focus on what I’m sharing and reduced the amount of time I waste on each social site. It has also increased traffic to my blog from different social sites. You may also find outsourcing helpful.
• Plan ahead. Detailed planning for each business allowed me to focus and use slow periods in one business to work on the other. I started using this free blog planner from Elite Blog Academy earlier this year, and I’ve been able to write up patterns to share during the semester when I’m busier. (Tamara Kelly talks about how she uses her planner in Episode 23: Diversifying Your Income and Boosting Your Blogging with Tamara Kelly from Moogly.)

If you enjoyed this episode

The Creative Yarn Entrepreneur Show is no longer broadcasting. Episodes are available as a service to the yarn community. This episode originally aired in August, 2015. Be aware that content may be outdated.

If you'd like to chat with other yarn-related business owners, join the Creative Yarn Entrepreneurs Facebook group. Support Marie's work by buying one of her books, Make Money Teaching Crochet: Launch Your Business, Increase Your Side Income, Reach More Students (Amazon | Gumroad) or Design It, Promote It, Sell It: Online Marketing for Your Crochet and Knit Patterns (Amazon | Gumroad).