The Many Roles of a Crochet Pattern Designer
The Realities of Being a Crochet Pattern Designer
I never imagined how many ‘hats’ I would have to wear when opening my own crochet pattern designing business, and that I would have to learn how to do them all myself - eek. As a crochet pattern designer, I can tell you that the role involves so much more than just designing a pattern and selling it. While the design process is undoubtedly an essential part of the job, there are many other tasks that a pattern designer must undertake to create a successful business. In fact, there are a myriad of roles that a crochet pattern designer must fulfil to make their business thrive, from accounting to marketing and everything in between.
One of the most critical roles that a pattern designer must take on is accounting. As an entrepreneur, it's essential to keep track of all the money coming in and going out of your business. You need to manage your finances, pay taxes, and keep accurate records of your income and expenses. This can be a daunting task, but it's one that's essential to running a successful business.
In addition to accounting, a crochet pattern designer must also become proficient in photography and photo editing. High-quality images are crucial when it comes to showcasing your designs and enticing potential customers to make a purchase. Whether you're taking photos of your finished projects or creating visual aids for your blog or social media platforms, it's important to have an eye for detail and the technical skills to create polished images. (Cue begging the husbeast for help lol.)
Below is a pin-sized image to help you find this post again later.
Another crucial role for a pattern designer is writing compelling pattern listings. Your pattern description needs to be clear, concise, and engaging, so that customers know exactly what they're getting when they make a purchase. This requires a solid understanding of grammar and the ability to write in a way that captures your target audience's attention. (I’m still working on this one!).
Creating graphics and marketing your designs is also an integral part of a crochet pattern designer's job. You need to understand your target audience, their needs, and their preferences, and use this information to create graphics and promotional materials that will appeal to them. This can involve anything from designing logos and branding to running social media campaigns and collaborating with influencers to increase your reach. (I need more time to dedicate to this!).
Overall, being a successful crochet pattern designer requires more than just technical skills and creativity. You need to become proficient in a range of roles, from accounting and photography to writing and marketing, in order to build a thriving business. But with hard work, dedication, and a willingness to learn, anyone can become a successful pattern designer in the world of crochet.
How and Why I Decided to Track My Hours
As a mum to three small children the time that I can dedicate to my business it limited. Whilst I am currently on maternity leave and therefore have more time than usual, I try to restrict my work activities to when the baby is asleep and the bigger kids are at childcare or asleep. I employ several techniques to try and help me use my business time effectively e.g. chunking tasks together (with varying success), but feel that I have much room for improvement. Additionally, when my maternity leave ends my available business work hours will significantly reduce. This is why I decided to track my work hours.
My goal was to track the time that I spent on various business-related tasks over the course of a week. I then planned to review the information gathered and come up with a plan on how I could do better. I fell down at the first hurdle 😬. Despite my best efforts, and trying on two separate weeks, I failed to keep accurate records for more than three consecutive days. You can find the data that I managed to gather the second time below.
I divided my tracked tasks into several groups: crocheting, putting out my newsletter, updating the website/writing blog posts, doing all things social media (e.g. creating graphics, writing and scheduling posts, replying to comments, posting in crochet groups), designing and writing-up new patterns, learning new things (that would help the business), and administrative tasks (e.g. replying to emails, updating my business accounts, reviewing my analytics data).
Please bear in mind that the three days I managed to track were days where I had a good amount of childcare, that I was participating in a blog hop, and had a new pattern coming out that week (and another in testing). In light of this, and my only tracking three days, my results may not reflect a ‘typical’ week.
The Results
After tracking my work activities for three days, I realised that I need to make some changes to streamline my processes and make the most of my time. One of the most significant time sinks was social media, which took up a considerable portion of my work hours. Although social media is an essential tool for promoting my business and connecting with customers, I realised that I was spending too much time on it. I need to streamline my social media processes by creating a content calendar (currently I only do this for my blog), batching posts (more often than I do now - this is currently very hit and miss), and using scheduling tools to save time (I have decided to drop Twitter - thanks to this I can switch from using Buffer to the Meta Business Suite to post on Facebook and Instagram).
Another conclusion I reached was that I need to reduce my blog posting commitments and sign up for fewer crochet events (once the events I have already committed to have ended I plan to reduce to approximately one large event per quarter, and reduce my blog posts to once weekly before my maternity leave ends). While these are valuable opportunities to connect with the crochet community and promote my business, they also take up a significant amount of time. By reducing my commitments, I can focus on other essential tasks such as designing new patterns and improving my marketing efforts.
To make these improvements, I plan to implement time blocking and batch working (more effectively than I do now) to make the most of my work hours. I will also use templates for tasks such as pattern listings to save time and maintain consistency. I will also prioritise essential tasks that will have the most significant impact on my business's success, such as designing new patterns and promoting them effectively on social media.
To evaluate the effectiveness of these changes, I plan to re-evaluate the state of play in three months. This will give me enough time to implement these changes and determine whether they have made a positive impact on my business. By regularly tracking my work activities and making improvements, I can ensure that my business remains successful and sustainable in the long term.
If you have any useful suggestions on how I could tweak thing further, and/or provide a better experience to you please do let me know!
My Advice For You
Becoming a pattern designer can be an incredibly rewarding and fulfilling career path for those with a passion for crochet. However, it is important to be aware that it is not an easy journey. There will be many challenges along the way, including the need to constantly learn new skills, the time and effort required to create high-quality designs, and the business aspects of running a successful enterprise. It can also take time to build a following and generate consistent income.
Despite the challenges, if you have a passion for crochet and a desire to create and share your designs with the world, it is definitely worth pursuing your goals. With dedication, hard work, and a willingness to learn and adapt, you can turn your love of crochet into a successful business. There is also a supportive community of fellow designers and crocheters who are eager to share knowledge and help each other grow. So, if you're considering becoming a pattern designer, go for it! With perseverance and a love for what you do, the rewards can be immeasurable.