plenty of people have said this better than I will but I love it (read: it's very annoying) when people suggest turning a craft hobby into a side business. There is no succinct way to explain to non-crafters, in a casual conversation, that for high-quality handmade goods, the amount of physical labor required already puts the cost of those goods far beyond what regular people would be willing or able to pay for those items. the cost of materials alone is sometimes more than what people would be willing to pay. not to mention the labor required to market yourself, especially if it's a fairly niche thing.
I told a friend about the horseshoe crab backpack I'm making and he made this comment about turning it into a side business. and. I know it's intended to be encouraging and supportive, but like.
Including materials, and given a very optimistic assumption that I will finish this project in another ~3 hours of work,
Charging at the federal minimum hourly wage of $7.25 for my labor, this backpack would cost approximately $203.
Charging at the somewhat more "acceptable" $15 hourly wage, it would cost $395.
Charging at $25/hr for a wage that actually values my labor beyond simple survival, it would cost $615 or more.
I'm not going to finish it in another 3 hours. And I am undeniably an amateur– the finished product isn't going to be perfect and crisp the way something "should" be to cost that much, so it won't be "worth" the amount it's technically worth.
Projects like this that I do for fun I am absolutely willing to replicate for close friends at a significantly lower price as a "gift" (asking for cost of materials and/or only a partial cost of labor). But there's no reasonable way to actually monetize a hobby like this.
Anyway, look at my crab.
