An article entitled “The Modern Trap of Turning Hobbies into Hustles” has soothed many creative people this week. Writer Molly Conway gives you permission NOT to make your creative passion into your career, and I support that sentiment wholeheartedly. Yes, you may create stuff solely for the sake of creating. Of course you do not have to “monetise your joy”. If you’re among the relieved majority, and the article gave you peace, then I support that. Go forth and enjoy your hobby with my enthusiastic blessings.
But if she sounded like a concerned parent advising you to manage your expectations and get a real job, then come with me, down the rabbit hole… because this post is for you.
Entrepreneurship is the new black
I have reservations about this article. While I support the main premise, I also think that the writer uses a sledgehammer to crack a nut. She empowers hobbyists by depicting entrepreneurship as a nightmare. That makes your decision easy if you weren’t really into starting a business anyway – cue sighs of relief all over social media – but it also throws every other reader’s entrepreneurship dream under the bus.
Perhaps a kickback is warranted when monetising your craft has become so fashionable. But there are creative people out there who really DO want to be entrepreneurs, and their confidence also needs to be protected. For me, self-employment has been a positive experience, and I’m anxious to keep that option on the table for those who want or need it. So let’s break down some of the assumptions in this article.
Molly Conway’s article slips some strong opinions under your radar before you even begin. The title itself describes creating your own career as a “trap”. It immediately downgrades your career from a potential real business to an overwhelming spare time “hustle”. Sure, it’s fashionable to monetise whatever the heck you can. Entrepreneurship is exploding right now, and there’s a wider cultural context for that. The dream is no longer to receive a carriage clock for 25 years’ service to an employer, but to take back control in a world where long term job security is a great deal less common than it used to be.
Of course people envy you when you develop a skill that you could theoretically use to make money. They admire not just your skill, but your initiative. They have been sitting on the couch watching The Only Way Is Essex in the evening. You have learned to sew. No-one in the office knows quite how to make the fabled dash for freedom, but however it’s done, you’re streets ahead in developing some kind of skillset that could potentially help you in the employment apocalypse. People get pretty excited about that, as you may have noticed. Take the compliment.
Feeling offended is also the new black
When did we turn the innocent compliments of tourists in our world into reasons to feel oppressed?
Some of the articles we share on social media love to manipulate us into feeling strong emotions. They tell you what you should feel outraged, offended or victimised about today, and then turn that negative emotion around and empower you to speak out, giving you a shot of strength and support… and so you share. It’s the currency of viral content (and the story behind political polarisation, but that’s another post). The other word for it is… clickbait.
Here’s how it works in this case: Take something well-meant – like a colleague telling you that you “should” sew professionally – Gosh, that thing you made is so awesome, it could be professional! – and blow it up into overwhelming societal pressure to burn yourself out for the sake of money. It’s a subtle bait and switch. Yes, you have received those comments… but an article like this re-imagines people’s misguided admiration as crushing oppression from society at large, and by golly, we’re going to fight back. Congratulations, you’re now a victim, and you didn’t even know it.
What if I suggested that no-one is forcing you into making your hobby into a career? What if you were the one putting pressure on yourself? It’s a tough pill to swallow, but I want you to recognise that you and I are 100% responsible for any pressure that we put on ourselves to succeed. You’re not living in war-torn Sudan, and you aren’t a victim of an outside oppressor in this area. Perhaps we should call it “First World oppression.” If someone is putting pressure on you, it’s up to you whether to accept and internalise that pressure or not. If someone suggests you do something you don’t want to do, the answer is “no”. That’s it. End of. Even if you have to repeat it every day.
What if I DID still want to create my own business?
Did the lady in the orange dress want to start a business? We never actually asked. Was she overwhelmed about opening an Etsy shop because society was pressuring her (curse those thoughtless compliments!) or did she want to start a business in theory, but felt overwhelmed by the technology?
Starting your own business is not a walk in the park, it’s true, but there’s a big secret: that’s also the hidden gift. You’re pushing against resistance every day – the fear of putting yourself out there, the fear of failure, the fear of success, even – but that’s the work that makes you a finer human than you were before. It’s the most rewarding creative project I’ve ever attempted. Step 1, in 2019, is usually to overcome the fear of technology. How DO we set up Etsy, Paypal, a mailing list, a domain, a website? It’s overwhelming, but it can be figured out, one step at a time… if you want to. It feels awesome when you get it done.
Sewing for money: a dead end, or chapter 1?
When you start a business, version 1.0 probably will be sewing in return for money. It was for me. Molly Conway describes the overwork that follows in detail. It’s a trap, she says; go home, it’s not worth it. But if you are one of those people who read this article and felt discouraged, I suggest you reject the option to give up, and try surrendering instead. Surrender to the fact that sewing for money is hard, and badly paid – and that this is only version 1.0 of your project. This is wrinkly, badly fitting mock-up numero uno, people. It’s level 1 of the game.
I was a dressmaker too, once upon a time. I made too much for too little. It sucked, so I stopped. But my reason for stopping was not that doing something I love for a career was a waste of my health and energy. My reason for stopping was “there has to be a better way”. You’re right, oh craftspeople of the world: to be a for-hire dressmaker DOES kind of suck. But blaming society’s perceived expectations of you, and accepting permission to sensibly withdraw to a fluorescently lit office instead, is to ignore door number three.
If you are this capable and this creative, and you still want to work for yourself, then is there another way to get this done? Could we do something parallel but related to our passion, and make a living more healthily and sustainably? Enter Version 2.0. I can’t tell you what that is yet, because your version 2.0 is yours to create, but I gotta tell you, mine is pretty awesome, and so is that of former freelance graphic designer Lauren Stowell, now the CEO of American Duchess.
Making a Thing, and having someone give you money in return for taking that Thing away, is not the only way. You’re a creative; use that creativity already! Look past the dead end. Some creatives have uplevelled out of crafter-grade burnout. What are they doing differently, and how can you follow suit?
Burnout version 2.0: overwork with a better income
Even if you do find version 2.0, you’ll still hit the overwork beast. Entrepreneurs in all fields hit this wall sooner or later: there’s just too much to do. You beat the technology in version 1.0; this is the next stage. But overwork and burnout are still not the end of the story, they’re just the boss at the end of Level 2.0… otherwise known as the Fear Of Letting Go.
Overwork and burnout are symptoms of an unwillingness to get help. It is impossible to run a business alone. Most small businesses fail because the entrepreneur persists for years in attempting to do everything herself. Gathering, training and working with a team is challenging. It’s not what any of us signed up for. We resist the heck out of it, sometimes for years. Most people don’t want to go there at all, and so they paint themselves into a corner, believing, like Molly Conway, that their choices are a) overwork and disillusionment, or b) fluorescent lighting and a 6am start.
It’s a Thing I’ve been struggling to overcome myself for years, and I’m grateful to have a team who are putting up with my control issues while I get my sh*t together. But it’s not insurmountable. Hiring and working with a team is just another rite of passage, and it can be overcome.
And what is it all for, anyway?
Molly Conway tells you that you’re being victimised by a wider cultural statement that monetary worth is the only measure of value. “Every time we feel beholden to capitalize on the rare places where our skills and our joy intersect, we underline the idea that financial gain is the ultimate pursuit.”
This is the most subtle message of all – that the point of entrepreneurship is greed, and you wouldn’t want to be one of those awful people who’s in it for the money, now would you?
In the beginning, yes, you start a business in order to increase your income. But it soon goes beyond that. Once the basics are in place, your business becomes something bigger. First you build income, then you build time freedom, and then it starts getting much bigger and cooler. Now it’s about spreading a message. It’s about building a team and a community that feel like family. It’s about impact and service. It’s about doing good in the world – creating a platform from which you can say something useful and try to make the world a better, kinder, happier place.
Your attention does not “belong more rightfully on profit than on pleasure”. The profit enables you to bring pleasure – to both yourself and others, not one or the other. That’s the difference between hustle and entrepreneurship.
Conclusion – just to emphasise the point
I hope I’ve made it clear that my beef with this article is not the central theme. If you feel pressure to monetise your hobby and you don’t want to, then don’t. That message is valid.
It was the lens through which Molly Conway showed us our world that is flawed. In my opinion, she manipulated us to make the right decision for some of us easier to make. But I think you’re smarter than that; you are capable of making your own choice. I want you to feel empowered to create, empowered to create a business if you want to, and most of all, empowered to create your own identity in the world and communicate it confidently. Being a creative person is a joy, not a curse, and you get to use your aptitude for making stuff however you wish.
They say that entrepreneurship is the engine of innovation, and if it resonates with you, you do have the potential to create something that might one day make a dramatic difference in the world – a difference that goes way beyond an Etsy shop and some extra money on the side.
That’s a reality. I went into this wanting to make a real living, and I’m doing that, and even creating some income for a bunch of other people while I try to spread a message. The other day I received an email crediting me with stopping someone from attempting suicide. Someone found a lump while fitting a corset that she wouldn’t have been fitting without Foundations Revealed, and she’s getting treatment for kidney cancer now, and it’s probably going to be okay. The ripple effect of putting yourself out there can be astounding, unexpected, and even completely unintentional. It’s about so much more than the darn money.
Version 1.0 of your dream probably won’t work. That’s ok. If you want this, version 2.0 is waiting out there for you, even though you have no idea what that is yet. That’s a good thing, because if you saw how important your little project could become ten or twenty years down the road, it would freak you the heck out. You have to do it one baby step at a time – but you only need to see the next step.
To conclude, I’ll quote my friend Susie Moore, who helps people get that first “side hustle” going: “Your life belongs to you. And it’s happening now. It’s time to stop underestimating your talent, fulfil your precious potential, and straight-up love your life.” I couldn’t agree more.
You are amazing! I love your message of 100% responsibility for our own choices! It’s a message that first resonated while reading some of Dr. Glasser’s work on Choice Theory. In this age of hurt feelings and over victimization the reminder is refreshing. Thank you for sharing! Danyette
ONE of ONE Couture
(Version not quite 1.0 I’m still very much enjoying making wedding dresses:)
Thank you for commenting, and thank you! I’m glad it resonated, Danyette. And just so you know, being at Version 1.0 is awesome. Nothing wrong with that. Some people stay at Version 1.0 and it works for them. Whatever works for you is a valid choice! <3
You. You and your brain, and your amazing heart, and your talented hands… You are the creative sister I’ve always wanted to find in the world.
This was brilliant.
Back atcha, love. You have given me so much confidence not to shrink back from talking openly about entrepreneurship to my sewist friends. We’ve got this, all of us. <3
Brilliant! I read the original article on the way home from a few days away. It left me feeling initially relieved and then completely deflated. So, business 1.0 done, version 2.0 on it’s way. Thank you xx
My business partner sent me this. We’ve been working together running a sewing school for two years now. And we take commissions too, because we’re good at what we do.
And we don’t only monetise our own joy, we bring joy to our students by teaching them to use their own creativity. And just today I was able to bring joy to a client st the first fitting of her perfect-for-her LBD.
I love what I do.
I haven’t read the other article. I don’t think I need to, do I?
Oh, Cathy… This is SO spot on. I can’t even begin to applaud it enough. I went from Sewing 1.0 to Pattern Design 2.0 and have never regretted that shift. I never imagined the possibility until two customers suggested it. My initial response was, “But I can’t possibly!” After giving it some thought, that changed to, “Who says I can’t possibly?” And my world shifted overnight. You are right on with this post. Turning passion into profit doesn’t instantly mean drudgery. Often, it means reimagining how you will use that passion…and finding a door you never realized was right in front of you. Brava!
Thank you for this post. I, too, was a dressmaker and also costume assistant for hire – both side hustles – later on, much later on – went back to costume assistant for hire. Found I needed more knowledge and did some schooling as well as being a costume assistant and hired sewer for theatre, opera, ballet – just put it in front of me and I’ll sew it. That way I got to know folks and got more jobs. But kept up the knowledge with classes, workshops, whatever. And found that was my business model 1.0 – and that lead to model 2.0 – being in charge of projects as lead or designer getting paid better $$ and being able to pick and choose the jobs I take or not take. And sometimes I even get to hire folks like I was in Model 1.0. And even win a few awards. Model 2.0 is not going to make me extremely rich or even famous, but it’s a nice income for work that gives me joy. Thank you again for your validation and confidence building!
Thank you for so beautifully expressing the same unease I was feeling.
“Congratulations, you’re now a victim, and you didn’t even know it.” Can we take this and apply it to all areas of our life please? I am bewildered daily at the new things I’m supposed to be offended about or the new ways I’m being insensitive or marginalizing somebody. What if we started feeling good about ourselves and pointing out all of the good ways society is changing?
Hi Cathy, thats well written! I’m quite glad that I missed to read the article you are referring to.
Whr I would love to know and what really would help me to calculate right and to make it easier to find the right pricing is some kind of time calculation in general from the experts. How much time do they spend on projects? I know the results vary and nobody can get a fixed calculation out of that but it might help to have an overview. So miscalculated projects should be happening not that often to avoid frustration.
What do you think?
As someone who has been deliberating between starting my own bussiness alongside part-time work or just going back into full time employment this article resonates with me 100%. Thank you so much for writting this I completely agree, we must take responsibility for our own choices , a message I have not been doing for the past half year.
I’ve had two honest attempts at making a hobby into a business. The first one was a catering business with a friend which fell apart in 4 months. Our friendship was finished and I realized I really, really hated cooking for hours, carting all the stuff to somebody’s party, being a servant for hours, staying until the party was over to clean everything up, packing up my van with leftover food and dirty dishes, then waking up the next morning to a van full of the ruins to clean. AND it was always on weekends and holidays, so I lost my entire social life. My next business was making jewelry, which actually blossomed. It was thrilling to have people fall in love with my creations and the business grew to where I was designing and creating custom pieces for people with lots of money, and I was selling galleries all over the country. Then an economic collapse eliminated people’s disposable incomes overnight and I had to quickly get a “real” job. BUT, I had the wonderful experience of having been able to support myself for years doing something that made me feel joyful every single moment. AND, I did EVERYTHING myself. My website, photography, advertising, bookkeeping, marketing, shows, customer interface, and the actual design and creation of my stuff. I could NOT have paid anybody to do anything for me. It wasn’t that lucrative, but every month I managed to pay my bills. I’m a senior citizen now and starting again…searching for a few ways to support myself if I lose my “real job” and eventually to supplement Social Security. It will likely be a potpourri of different things I’m good at…and maybe some things that I like to do, but others hate to do. Nothing is black and white. You learn what you’re good at and what is a struggle. One thing I didn’t think about was that being self-employed means you are totally responsible for saving for your retirement and you get NO vacation pay. AND, you pay a lot more in Social Security tax because no employer is paying into it. AND, there is no health insurance or any of those benefits paid for by an employer. At the end of the day, I wouldn’t have done it any differently. If I die today, I know I lived a rich life and didn’t reach this age putting everything off until retirement. So many of my friends worked their whole life and now they aren’t healthy enough to do everything they wanted to do. They may have big houses and plenty of retirement money, but they never really lived their dreams.
“But what if I *do* want to monetize my joy?” Then do so and all success and happiness to you! It’s really that simple. I have nothing but respect and admiration for professional creatives, and I also think that hobbies are wonderful things that make us happier and more fulfilled as people. There’s room for everybody.
I almost got teary eyed.
I am a student of business and I still haven’t found what to do , I just know my hobbies have to do with creativity.
This article says what I have been thinking for a while and doubting myself over.
Thank you.
Duane, I am the same! I just deferred my business studies because it doesn’t nourish me and I got exhausted. Now all I want to do is sew creative (upcylced) clothes. I have also started thinking: “would anybody actually by this?” Version 1.0
Good luck to you.
Thanks for this article!
Dear Cathy,
I actually came to you through the lovely Bernadette, who I found through YouTube. I find historical dress fascinating (I’m a historian in the day job) but my sewing is really not good enough to attempt historical dress making (and a lack of patience!). No, while I admire all that people like you do (and um, go a bit ga-ga over your trip on the Great Central Railway cos I live down the road in Leicester) my ‘thing’, so to speak, is journal making, junk journalling, etc. I hadn’t read the original article that you refer to but so much of what you say here about starting your own business applies to Junk Journalling I think – if you do your own journals, which is an expensive business (not to mention the production of a pile of unused journals), then sooner or later you start to think about selling journals. Some people have made a real good go of that, others, less so. And then there’s other paper-related things, cardmaking etc. I expect you can probably make the same argument for many craft-related activities.
The part that got me though, was your line about the difference between the hustle and entrepreneurship. I’ve observed it in a number of people – the earning potential seems to go to their heads, and they seem to become more interested in the money than in working with, supporting the people who helped them to make a success of their own business. I’m not naming names, because that’s not the point of this, but what you’ve said has really explained why with certain people who have made a real success, monetarywise of their business, it’s left a sour taste in my mouth and a slow withdrawl whereas with others, it doesn’t, it’s ‘MORE POWER TO YOU!’ and still rooting for them (‘scuse the caps).
Like many others I have thought about monetarising my hobby, my craft. It’s been suggested to me by a number of people. However, I am a historian through and through. For me, my craft is an escape from the pressures of academic study. I stick a youtube video on and craft with people. I will sell my journals – if only to ‘fund’ the habit, so to speak. Thank you – because your article has helped to really nail much of what was unsettling me about the whole idea of building a business on this, which frankly, in the last few weeks, has started to ruin the enjoyment of the crafting. There ain’t nothing that kills a hobby faster than a feeling of obligation. I’m hoping, that now I’m letting go of that obligation, that the love comes back – and I hope more and more people get to read this article, before they make mistakes that kill their love of craft, or takes the inspiration needed and reaches for the stars 🙂
Liz
Love this! I enjoyed the original article because I get so tired of having the same conversation with people who admire my sewing/crochet/embroidery who don’t understand why I don’t want to make money with it. But I also enjoyed your article because I am studying my other passion (architecture!) at university right now after a few years fixing my health and re-evaluating whether an architecture career was what I wanted from life.
The structure of monetising my love for architecture enriches my love for architecture, whereas the structure of monetising my love for textile crafts (in whatever form that monetisation might take) would diminish my love for them.
Thank you for always encouraging us all to both respect and challenge our own boundaries with kindness.
I like the way you broke this down and separated sewing for pleasure opposed to profit.
So many of us seamstress’s have fallen prey to the well-meaning comments assuming that if you sew beautiful garments for yourself, well, why WOULDNT you want to earn a profit? This a natural in our cash consuming culture.
If you are debating a business but having doubts (which is a BIG alarm bell right there!) learn how to write a business plan- ( REAL one). the kind which includes gas delivering costume or postage and packing materials, thread, machine maintenance, time spent sewing reducing your hourly wage, yadda, yadda, you will see reality.
You can see sideways too, if making skirts is easy for you, just sell skirts. Or don’t. Think outside the box. Or as Cathy says: just sew for you. It’s your life. Enjoy it.
Hi! I just found your blog, and I loved your writing here Cathy, but I have to say, I think something is missing from your critique, and in the comments agreeing with you. How much does an individuals class status impact their ability to make crafting a career? A lot of people mention the initial burn out phase or business failure that was necessary to find their ‘true’ area of expertise – a lot of us get a second chance. I’m a crafter on Etsy, just starting out with my business and excited to get started, and I personally had this experience back in 2017, where I learned that I can’t make everything by hand, but needed to invest in an embroidery machine to make a profit later. But I could only afford my embroidery machine by borrowing money from my family members. How many of us can honestly say that we’d even be able to start a business in the first place if we didn’t have profitable jobs, albeit ones we hate, in order to fund the start up of a side hustle in the first place? I’m noticing an uncomfortable lack of compassion for those who can’t afford funding a second or even first chance at making crafting a career. Sometimes it’s not a case of being creative enough to imagine version 2.0, not having enough grit and confidence to stick with it – sometimes people, equally as talented as the crafters we all admire on social media, fail before they even get started, because they can’t afford to pour in the necessary time and effort to start a business. We shouldn’t blame these people for failing to “look past the dead end”. Vision and creativity doesn’t always lead to success. I’d like to know how we as crafters can help support those for whom job precariousness is not an inconvenience to be avoided by self-employment, but an inescapable, life-threatening reality. Crafters co-operatives anyone? A longer examination of these ideas can be found in Oli Mould’s “Against Creativity”, published in 2018 for anyone interested. Thanks for your article, and I’d love to know other’s thoughts on this 🙂
Brilliant, Jessica.
I’ve been working on developing the ability to work enough to develop a business every few years. Then, my health tanks further. I spend a long while figuring out how to work with what skills and abilities are left to me. I start making progress. Then, in time, my body ratchets to yet another state. There goes the work and the way of thinking that supported it. Figure out what I’ve got, use my *need* to work to develop another little sideline, and….
Living on disability has always been terrifyingly hard. There’s a lot of motivation to try to earn a bit more! I’ve also got that inward push to be productive & be useful in the world, for my own mind’s sake.
I *love* the idea of creative cooperatives, but for me to participate it’d have to be fully funded, for one thing, and not require me to keep an external schedule. Things have to happen when they can happen. This sometimes looks like bad citizenship, but it’s not meant to be; it’s simply the reality of this life I have to live.
I watch Cathy, Bernadette, and a few others because of the built-in self-care reminders; for instance, Cathy reminds me that *pacing works*, and Bernadette reminds me that it’s *okay* for a task to take awhile. Valuable lessons to revisit over & over!
A socioeconomic society that supports us to the extent we could thrive is possible, in terms of resources and available money in the world; it’s long overdue.
The link below is an article about the fetishization of side-hustles and the emerging gig economy at the expense of the average worker (it makes for a compelling read). After reading the original article referenced by Ms. Hay, I walked away with a very different take on it. I firmly think that it was merely an attempt to add literature to this fraught topic and to create a focus on the issues behind the current trend to constantly capitalize on EVERYTHING (including a part of life that used to be sacred: the downtime hobby). I’m an amateur seamstress. I love, love, love what I do… but only because it offers me an escape from running a business (which I already do for someone else in an industry that I previously thought I loved – turns out business will kill your love for anything if you don’t have that entrepreneurial streak in your DNA). If I had to monetize making clothes, I’d end up hating it. I love that people like Cathy Hay and Bernadette Banner have the drive and motivation to do what they do for a living – that’s a great life choice for THEM; it’s not something I would choose for myself. I also admire that they have an entrepreneurial streak – we don’t all have that and we shouldn’t all have to feel forced into it. Thus, I will have to voice my dissent that taking offense is the new black. You see, if someone wants to compliment me they can just say “Hey that’s great! It looks professionally made/store bought! Good on you!” What really crosses the line is when people continue to insist that I should start a business because “my skills are so great” or they “know someone else” who would buy something I’ve made. I’ve had family members and strangers alike become very pushy about it: “Oh, you’re complaining about your 9-5? You have the skills to run your own business. Why don’t you do that instead?” or “Millennials are so lazy. You have a skill. Capitalize on it and stop complaining about the economic downturn.” I honestly thought the most cringe moment in this blog post was where she wrote that being offended was the new black. No one complains about rudeness or injustices because it’s a fashion statement, they complain because they want to see change. And just because something may not be rude to you, that doesn’t mean it isn’t rude to someone else. The adult thing to do is to apologize and move on, whether you particularly agree or not. Anyway that’s my two cents and here’s the link:
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/jia-tolentino/the-gig-economy-celebrates-working-yourself-to-death
I miss the wotds to define properly, but this article comes into my day like the news of being pregnant, thank you so much for the emotion and for making the world so kind 🙂