Etsy Conversations Podcast

Featuring inspiring interviews with Etsy (& some non-Etsy) shop owners

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144 – Creative Yarn Entrepreneur, Marie Segares

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Hey Crafters! Have you ever thought about the other ways you could make money with your craft? Whether you sell handmade jewelry, decorative pins, or crochet pieces and patterns, as a small business owner, it’s important to think about building your business around multiple streams of income.

My guest on this week’s episode is Marie Segares, she’s the founder/owner of Creative Yarn Entrepreneur LLC, Underground Crafter, and host of the podcast Creative Yarn Entrepreneur Show.

Marie shares her insight, experience, and advice on ways you, as a handmade business owner can expand your business to include multiple streams of income within your niche… I love that because not many creative entrepreneurs think outside the box of their primary source of crafting income.

Marie has been crocheting for over 30 years. She has a professional background in the nonprofit arena, holds a Masters degree in Public Health from Columbia University and an MBA from New York University (NYU).

creative yarn entrepreneurIn 2008, she decided to launch her crocheting business as a side-hustling gig, where she began selling the things she made at various local craft shows and fairs.

Around 2013, she decided she no longer wanted to work full-time for someone else and began working part-time with a nonprofit organization while running her businesses and teaching crocheting and knitting classes at local colleges.

In this week’s episode, we talk about why she feels that deciding when and how to quit your 9-to-5 job is a very personal decision and what she feels aspiring creative entrepreneurs should consider before quitting their job to start their own business.

Marie also shares her opinion on how creatives can branch out of their creative space to create multiple streams of income during their slower selling seasons, and why she believes repurposing content can help you establish additional streams of income.

We also take a deep dive into her new book, Make Money Teaching Crochet: Launch Your Business, Increase Your Side Income, Reach More Students and she explains why she believes some books may be more suited for self-publishing while, for others, it may be better to hire a publishing company.

Marie shares a lot of valuable information, insight, and resources that are sure to help you expand your business, find clarity in your industry, and make more money through multiple streams of income!

Side note: Even though Marie’s book title states “crochet” I plan to buy myself a copy and do a book review of it on the podcast because my guess is that the principles she teaches can be transferable to other crafts… Stay tuned for a giveaway of the book too! 😉

Marie recently spoke at the BlogHER conference (I had the pleasure of meeting her in person at last year’s BlogHER Conference in New York where I attended one of the breakout sessions she spoke in). But I digress… She shares some information about her upcoming speaking engagement – in January 2017 at the Craft & Hobby Association’s 4-day Creativation Conference in Phoenix, Arizona!

[bctt tweet=”Go to an #event first before you apply to help you pick the right events for you @CYEShow” username=”ConvoMePodcast”]

Creative Yarn Entrepreneur – Topics Discussed

  • Marie’s opinion on how many craft shows creative entrepreneurs should attend each year
  • Why even though some patterns she has listed in her shop don’t sell well, she still refuses to remove them from her shop
  • Why she prefers teaching in-person in a classroom setting more than through online videos
  • Pricing for face-to-face classes versus online video courses
  • She goes into detail about her new book, the various formats it is available in, and why she chose to publish it in so many formats – listen up if you’re contemplating publishing an educational-type book around your craft
  • She dives into the details on what you can expect to get from each book format and which format is her top-seller
  • The marketing side of promoting her book and how she developed her virtual book tour
  • How creative entrepreneurs can get their foot in the door of various creative communities and professional associations and why it is extremely beneficial to do so

Creative Yarn Entrepreneur – Resources Mentioned

Best Ways to Reach Marie

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