Crochet business goals: July - December 2022
It’s been a long time coming, but finally I wanted to share my upcoming crochet business goals for Cilla Crochets with you!
Find out what’s happened for Cilla Crochets over the past six months, future goals for my crochet business, and some top tips that I hope will inspire and help you on your own crochet business journey. I hope you enjoy the read!
Reflecting on the past six months of my crochet business
Before I share what’s coming next for Cilla Crochets, it’s important to reflect on what’s happened so far. Since I’ve done a lot of reflection in June and July 2022, I wanted to share the key things I’ve learned over the past 6 months with you first.
But before I get started, if you have any questions at all or would like to know more, you can always reach out to me. Simply ping me an email, comment on this blog post below, or DM me on Instagram or Facebook. I’m here to help and I think transparency is super important (e.g. I’m an open book!), so don’t hold back with any questions!
Why have I set 6-month goals for my crochet business?
Breaking my crochet business goals down into 6-monthly cycles has helped me be more specific and focused, but has also given me more flexibility to be able to change things when I need to. I tried this for the first time from January to June 2022, and from my experience so far, I won’t be going back to yearly cycles anytime soon.
There’s nothing quite like setting yourself some fantastic goals only to find that something has drastically changed to the point where your original goals don’t work for you anymore. That hasn’t happened to me (yet), but given all the unexpected events that have happened this past year for people around the world, I can imagine this has happened to many.
So shortening your goal durations ultimately result in less adjustments and more regular reflections, all of which will help you continue to move forward as opposed to feeling disappointed (e.g. like you haven’t reached a certain goal) or stuck. I highly recommend giving it a try.
Now I can confidently call Cilla Crochets a Crochet Business
Okay, while it’s not much, I have actually started making a little bit of pocket money with Cilla Crochets! This means I’m much more confident in actually calling my hobby (and dream) a crochet business.
If you’d like a thorough run-down of where I’ve come from with Cilla Crochets, I highly recommend reading through my last goal setting blog post here. However, I will give you a super quick run down here too.
In January 2022, I set myself a 6-monthly goal to focus solely on building a crochet audience on my chosen online platforms. These online platforms included my digital newsletter (called the Crochet Crew, you can sign-up if you head to the bottom of this webpage if you like), Instagram, Pinterest, and of course my blog (which you’re currently reading).
Now at this point, I had tried monetising my crochet passion once before by selling PDF crochet patterns, but it didn’t go as planned. So for the last 6-monthly period, I was not going to sell anything. I was just going to give out all of my crochet content for free. No ads, no paid patterns - everything was free.
If (and seriously, this was a big IF), I reached my audience goals on these platforms, I was “allowed” to monetise at this point (and at this point only).
The only thing I did not consider with my great plan was the fact that I would learn that some audience numbers are more valuable than others. And with all audiences, quality is far more superior to quantity. Let me explain…
Building an audience for your crochet business: Quality over quantity every time!
When you are building an audience for your crochet business, one of the most important lessons I have learned in the past six months is that quality trumps quantity every time.
What do I mean by quality over quantity when it comes to audience numbers for your crochet business? Here are the two most important points I can pass on:
Who is in your audience matters: If your audience is made up of people that fit into your ‘target market’, this is a quality audience! But what is the point in having a huge audience if no-one in the audience is actually interested in what you’re sharing or selling? There isn’t a point. This is just one of the many reasons why it’s not great to buy followers! So make sure you’re building an audience that’s made up of your ideal customer (e.g. your target market).
Engagement matters: No matter what platform you’re using, if your audience is engaging with your content (not just liking posts, but commenting and messaging/emailing you back), this is also a sign of a quality audience! In other words, if this is happening it’s a good sign that you’re building authentic relationships with people. Again, what’s the point in having loads of followers/subscribers if you’re only ever talking at them? This isn’t a sign of a good relationship in anyone's book. For example, would you be best friends with someone who never let you speak? A quality relationship goes both ways! The same goes for building an audience for your small business - it can never be a one way street.
While I was already focusing on these two points when I was building my audience, I wasn’t factoring them in when making my decision of when to monetise my crochet business.
In retrospect, I was saying to myself, “you can monetise your crochet business when you reach x number of people in your audience, but it doesn’t really matter if it’s a quality audience genuinely interested in crochet or an audience that’s talking back to you”. Reading that back makes me realise how blinded I was!
Thankfully, by the time July 2022 came around, I’d already made the decision to monetise.
This final decision wasn’t based on my audience numbers (even though I did reach some of my crochet business goals), but was based on the fact that people were engaging. People were talking to me (I wasn’t just talking at them), and I felt confident that I had built authentic relationships with people I was connected with. Most importantly, the people in my audience are ‘my type of people’ (e.g. people who are interested in and/or passionate about crochet).
So, before I share my goals for the next 6 months which feed into these big lessons learned quite nicely, let me share with you how I’ve monetised so far.
How I monetised my crochet business in 2022
To-date, I’ve taken a few steps to monetise my crochet business, Cilla Crochets, but I still have more to do. Here’s a quick overview of where I’m at…
PDF Crochet Pattern Shops
Firstly, I officially re-opened my PDF crochet pattern stores. This means, if anyone would like access to my PDF crochet patterns, they are now for sale on Etsy, Ravelry, and Lovecrafts. I will also be opening a PDF crochet pattern store on Ribblr too (this is on the to-do list!).
Crochet Blog Ads
If you’re a regular reader of the Cilla Crochets blog, you’ll also notice those rather annoying pop-up ads on my website. Now, while I know not everyone is a fan of website ads (is anyone?!), it is a really popular way for crocheters to make money. As such, I’ve decided to go down this route as well for one big reason…
I still want to offer all of my Cilla Crochets crochet patterns on my website for free. This means that if someone wants to use one of my patterns and they don’t have the money to (or just don’t want to) buy the PDF crochet pattern, they can still access the full pattern online for free. Yes, they’ll get some ads in the way of the pattern occasionally, but their website visit will give me a little extra money to go towards my crochet work.
The ad company I’ve signed up with for now is Google AdSense. I’ll also be adding InfoLinks as well, however I haven’t set this one up yet.
Crochet Pattern Bundles
I’ve also started participating in crochet pattern bundles. This is where I basically ‘donate’ one of my PDF crochet patterns to be added into a PDF pattern book with other crochet designers’ patterns. The PDF crochet pattern book is then sold for a limited time only (usually for around a week) and each crochet designer earns a commission on any sales they make. While this isn’t a consistent or reliable revenue stream (e.g. there isn’t a crochet pattern bundle on every week and there’s no guarantee you’ll sell one or more), it is something I’ll be participating in as and when I can.
This is basically everything I’ve done so far to monetise my crochet business, but now for the important part… what’s next for Cilla Crochets in 2022?
2022 Goals for Cilla Crochets
After sharing my major reflections on what happened over the last 6 months, I’m super excited to share with you my crochet business goals for July to December 2022.
Over the next six months my major goal is to focus on meaningful engagement fuelled by quality content.
What does that mean?
Well, it means I’m not going to care (so much) about how many followers or subscribers I have on any platforms! It means that instead I’ll be focusing on the content I’m creating, and most importantly, the conversations I’m having and feedback I’m getting from crocheters who I’m connected with.
You know when you make a goal and it feels 100% right? This is how it should feel when it’s right for you, and this is how this goal feels for me.
While I’m sure I’m going to learn a hell of a lot again over the next six months, I want to get more specific with you again. So here are the specific platforms I’ll be using and my six month goals for each (each goal links to the overall goal above).
Crochet Crew: This is my digital newsletter. On this platform (I use ConvertKit), while I will be tracking my growth rate (e.g. number of subscribers), my main focus will be on my open rates and click-through-rates. As well as how often subscribers actually respond to my emails (this always gives me a buzz!). These stats will give me a better idea of how well people are engaging and resonating with my content, which in turn will help me consistently improve what I create.
Website: Since I have website ads now, I will be tracking overall pageviews to my website each month. However, the more important stats that I’ll be tracking for engagement purposes are:
Avg. ranking on Google
Click-through-rate from Google
Comments on my blog
Instagram: Here’s where it gets exciting! No longer will I be looking at my follower account on Instagram! I seriously get such a relief saying that! Instead, I’ll be tracking the ‘Average Accounts Engaged’ each month and aiming to improve this figure instead.
Pinterest: Along the same lines as Instagram, all I’ll be focusing on over on Pinterest is the ‘Average Engaged Audience’ stat each month.
Extras: Lastly, I also have my Facebook page and a YouTube channel! I have some goals around doing more with both of these channels, but they still won’t be the focus. This is more about being realistic with my time and not spreading myself too thin. So if you follow me on Facebook or YouTube, don’t dismay - I will still be popping up from time to time.
Crochet Pattern Sales & Ad Revenue: I won’t be tracking them…. Just kidding!! Of course I’ll be tracking these stats, but I won’t be worrying about them too much over the next six months and I haven’t set myself any specific goals. I need to track them for accountancy purposes and also so they give me some metrics to compare against future. But these are not my primary focus at all over the next six months. Whatever happens in this area, will just happen…
Crochet Pattern Goals 2022
Now I’ve spoken briefly about all the fun crochet business platform goals, I thought I should talk a little about my Crochet Pattern Design goals for 2022.
My biggest goal relating to crochet patterns is to release at least one new or refreshed crochet pattern per month.
I still have a few patterns in my old crochet pattern format that I need to revise and put together in my new crochet pattern format. This is what I mean by refreshed crochet patterns. I would love to ‘refresh’ all of the older patterns in my collection by the end of this year - the ultimate goal. Keep your fingers crossed for me please!
Meanwhile, I also still want to release new crochet patterns as regularly as possible too. At the moment these new patterns will be a mix of:
Aussie Amigurumi Patterns for Intermediate Crocheters
A-Z Fruit Amigurumi Crochet Patterns (Easy & Quick Makes)
Quirky seasonal designs (aka Halloween & Christmas)
At least one beginner friendly pattern
I’m also quite keen to involve the Crochet Crew (and anyone following my journey on social) to help me decide on which designs I run with… After all, this year for me is all about engagement and conversation!
Sharing the crochet business journey
There was a time when I thought I could share crochet business updates with you on a monthly basis. The reality however is that it gets a little boring! Not for me… but for you… Maybe I’m wrong, but the last crochet business update I wrote felt a wee bit boring for me to write, a little self-indulgent, and a little forced. And I thought that if it felt like that for me, maybe it felt like that for you as a reader too?
I’m not sure, but in any case, what I’ve decided to do going forward is to write a blog post at the beginning of my goal period (this is it) and one at the end of my 6-month goal period. This latter blog post will be a review piece where I share all the specific stats with you and share how everything has gone. So you can expect to see this published in January some time, along with my next 2023 crochet business goal post (wow, really? where does time go?).
Anyway, for now, I hope this helps give you an insight into my plans over the coming months. I also hope it helps inspire and motivate you to reach for the stars when it comes to crochet.
For my fellow crochet business owners, you’ve got this!
Thanks so much for reading, and as always, I’d absolutely love to hear what you think! Feel free to reach out by commenting below (I always reply!).
Speak soon, and happy crocheting,
Cilla x
