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Thanks so much, @michelle-ecklor and @linda-tieu. I'm looking into your suggestions now. 🙂

@dana-gervais, thank you – that is a great, comprehensive list. I hear you about not including hours, I know that would depress me, since so few of my patterns even recoup basic costs.

@jess-cook, that is a very good point. Being able to parse the reasons why one pattern might do better than another would be useful. Marketing is a whole new…[Read more]

@jane-purchase you've gotten some great responses here! I'd like to put in my two cents vote to say that I think you should track sales of individual patterns, if not for a financial reason than for a marketing one. Then you'll have a better idea of what's working (AKA, what's different about the patterns that sell more – the patterns themselves,…[Read more]

Hi @michelle-ecklor!

I didn't do the traditional thing, per se, I kind of lost my day job and then had to make a go of something, which led to freelance writing and then working for a friend who owned a handmade biz, and then doing the VA thing, and now my current job! So I'm not much help.

BUT! I can tell you that Tara has spoken about her…[Read more]

@michelle-ecklor Hi Michelle! It was an easy decision for me to quit my part time day job. We didn't need my income (still don't) so I'm in a very lucky position. I was unhappy in my job and my husband just said one day that I had to quit it and try to make my side business work. I would do it all over again. What would I do differently? I think I…[Read more]

Review of April 2017:

What went well? I'm glad to have much more of a direction and guidance from Chart your Stars en the Mile Markers I set up. I need a plan to get me to a certain point, that's just how I work best. In the beginning of the month, I was on track with my blog posts and newsletters. But due to family circumstances, I lost time…[Read more]

Review of April 2017:

What went well? I'm glad to have much more of a direction and guidance from Chart your Stars en the Mile Markers I set up. I need a plan to get me to a certain point. In the beginning of the month, I was on track with my blog posts and newsletters. But due to family circumstances, I lost time creating my second blog post…[Read more]

Review of April 2017:

What went well? I'm glad a have much more of a direction and guidance from Chart your Stars en the Mile Markers I set up. I need a plan to get me to a certain point. In the beginning of the month, I was on track with my blog posts and newsletters. But due to family circumstances, I lost time creating my second blog post for…[Read more]

Review of April 2017:

What went well? I'm glad a have much more of a direction and guidance from Chart your Stars en the Mile Markers I set up. I need a plan to get me to a certain point. In the beginning of the month, I was on track with my blog posts and newsletters. But due to family circumstances, I lost time creating my second blog post for…[Read more]

@mary-roth that is fantastic! I'm curious too. Please ask. 😉

Visions of Fiber club closed again yesterday– I was really concerned that I would lose a lot of people due to the month I postponed club because of travel, but apparently I shouldn't have worried. 18/23 people renewed, and I got 7 new folks for a total of 25!

One of my new subscribers has a shipping address on Lunar Landing road at McDonald…[Read more]

I have US Bank. I only pay $3 if I want statements. I'm not sure what the minimum is now, but mine was less than $250 initially. There are several different types of biz plans. I believe I have the silver one. Good luck!

Thanks, guys!

@nicole-van-gremberghe Yes, I can open a personal savings account at my own personal bank. But I don't want to do that as I want to keep business and personal accounts completely separate. My business account is at a completely different bank than my personal account. So if I were to open a savings account at one of those two banks,…[Read more]

@jane-purchase Each pattern is slightly different and not all categories apply to all designs, but I include the cost of: yarn, tech editing, sample knitting, advertising, prizes (for test knitters) and postage for the prizes, PayPal fees – any fee that is incurred in creating the pattern. I do not count my hours because that depresses me. Fees…[Read more]

@karen-robinson I don't have a separate account (yet) as I don't need to collect taxes just yet. But what I was thinking, can't you just open a personal savings account with your bank? Or is that not allowed in the US? I'm pretty sure I can open a savings account here in Norway with taxes in mind. Just trying to think with you 😉

@tanja-osswald, thank you, that seems like a great list of what to track!

@karen-robinson, thank you! I do tech edit as well, so I have another source of income apart from the designing, so yes, I want to know how the designing vs. the tech editing is doing. Right now, the tech editing is funding the designing, for the most part, which is okay. I…[Read more]

I do a breakeven analysis for each pattern so I know how many I have to sell to break even and I like to know when I break even on each design (I use a simple spreadsheet for each pattern). I also keep track of which ones are selling well and which ones don't sell as well. Each month I look at my business holistically from a profit/loss perspective.

Here is my hesitation but I'm happy to put something together: I plan to go to the BCS Dinner at 7:30 on Saturday (and I paid for it) which is after the 3-5pm BCS meeting, and then Sunday there is the Yarn Group reception at 8 pm (following the YG meeting at 6:15), which I also paid for.

I would like to suggest that we meet for a less formal…[Read more]