From Handmade to Scalable: How to Stop Trading Time for Money

In today’s episode of Creative Juggle Joy, Kaylie Edwards talks about the struggles many creatives face when they’re stuck in the cycle of trading time for money. 

If you’ve ever felt like your handmade business or other creative business is at a standstill, this episode is for you. 

Kaylie shares her own journey of hitting a ceiling with her candle business and the lessons she learned in scaling smarter—not harder.

She discusses the power of scalable products, from printables and digital downloads to courses and print-on-demand, and how you can create passive and semi-passive income streams that work alongside your handmade business.

 Whether you’re an artist, maker, or designer, this episode will help you transition into a more sustainable business model without losing the heart of your creative passion.

Tune in to hear Kaylie’s real-life examples, as well as strategies for getting started with scalable products in your own business, and how to minimize the burnout cycle.

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Transcript

Kaylie Edwards (00:05)
Hey lovely listeners and welcome back to the Creative Juggle Joy podcast with me, your host, Kaylie Edwards. If you're anything like me and many of my listeners, you've probably found yourself at a point where you're trading hours and hours of your day just to make ends meet.

Whether you're handcrafting every product or working tirelessly to fill orders, it's a cycle that many creatives get stuck in. And trust me, I know the feeling all too well. When I was running my candle business, I hit a ceiling and fast. I could only make so many candles in a day around my full-time job in a solicitors. And even with demand increasing, I just couldn't keep up. There I was making each item.

by hand, filling orders, packing and still feeling like I wasn't getting ahead. I know I'm not the only one who's felt that burnout creeping in. That exhaustion from being always on and feeling like there's never enough time in the day. But what if I told you that there is a way to scale your business without putting even more hours constantly?

a way to stop trading your precious time for money. In today's episode, we're going to explore exactly that, how to make the shift from handmade scalable products so you can keep growing your business without the overwhelm. Grab a cuppa and let's dive in. Let's start by talking about why handmade businesses often reach a ceiling. When your income is directly tied to the hours you put in, the reality is there's a limit. You simply can't work

24 hours a day, especially if you've got family commitments and health to look after. I know I'm not the only one juggling with chronic health issues and all the other bits of life that demand attention, especially if you've got kids. I know all too well now with a toddler that life just doesn't go the way you plan. And when you do plans, as I found out way more recently,

I scheduled out a whole two months of tasks I needed to do for various projects for myself and Loris, my client, and a few others. And yeah, it didn't go well because there was a couple of urgent priorities that came up and I had to change everything around and now that whole day that I spent scheduling didn't go to plan. And you know what? I hit that wall with my candle business and it was incredible.

incredibly bloody frustrating. I remember days where I'd be up until 2 in the morning finishing orders only to wake up the next day and do it all over again after I got back from my full-time job. That constant cycle of pushing myself and feeling exhausted, it felt like I was stuck in quick sand. And here's the kicker, the more I worked the less I actually grew.

It meant that I was constantly scrambling to make orders and get them out, get them shipped to the post office and it left me with barely any time to even promote my business and market it. I couldn't scale my business because I was physically limited. That's when I realized something had to change. I needed to stop thinking of my business as just a work harder situation and start thinking about how I could scale smarter.

if I wanted the income that I wanted. This is where scalable products come in. When you add income streams that don't rely on your physical time, everything changes. You can stop being stuck in the mindset of, if I'm not making, I'm not earning. Scalable income streams can be things like printables, digital downloads, courses, print on demand products, and even licensing your designs.

There's also other things like, but they're a bit slower in growth, YouTube ads, YouTube monetization, blogging can be very lucrative. And there's also many other things that you can try. But now hear me out. This doesn't mean you have to abandon your handmade roots. It just means you find ways to add passive or semi-passive income that works alongside your handmade business.

I know that's not what happened to me, but that was because I had to pivot my business. But if I had known about these before I had to finish my handmade candle business, I would have tried to do this around my handmade candles. Or at least I maybe would have changed the products I was creating because the handmade candles are a bit of a pain to create. For me, it was creating printables and print on demand products at first.

That's where I went to after my hand-made candle business finished. That was whilst I was on maternity and it was the only thing I could do. Or that I thought anyway. As a creative, I still get to design with my business now. But now I can sell my designs in a way that doesn't require me to physically create a new product each time, freeing up my time to be able to market. I took something I loved. Creating.

and turned it into a product that could be sold over and over with minimal extra effort. Yes, there... don't get me wrong, there's times when you are gonna have to put a lot of hard work in at the beginning but once it's created and you've put it out there, it's done. You don't have to keep creating that once people buy it and there's ways to even automate these systems as well.

So you can do your handmade product around a scalable automated system. Let me give you some examples. A semi-passive means you still need to check in now and then, while fully passive is something that generates income without much ongoing effort. So think like books and things, know, authors put out books, they've created that product over a year maybe or less, and they put that book out there and now it's done. That's it. They've published it.

done and people buy it over and over and they receive royalty payments from it. That's a great example of like a fully passive product. And an example of a creative, well another creative, because obviously authors are creatives as well, is a lady who's called Leslie MacKinnon from The Pottery Wheel in the UK. She started as a pottery artist but she hit the same issues as all creatives do and

all handmakers do and then expanded her business into multiple ways when she figured it out. She sells her handmade pottery, runs a blog and a YouTube channel sharing pottery tutorials, so that's one and two income streams and also sells digital slab templates to help other ceramic artists. So by diversifying her income streams she now earns even when she's not actively making her pots.

and create a more sustainable and scalable business model for herself and her family. And you can create a hybrid business model. It's just leveraging your time more around what you love. And it frees you up to do everything else that you want to do. A great example of an artist who's done this exact same thing is Kelsey Rodriguez. Started as a fine artist. She still does that now. And then now she's doing YouTube ad revenue.

her YouTube channel. I think she does art licensing as well. She's affiliate marketing, selling digital painting guides and she sells prints from her originals through Print On Demand which is allowing her to scale without making more physical art. I want to give you another example because I know people some people might think well how can that work for my business. Alicia Littlejohn

Little John's Yarn built her crochet business beyond handmade products by layering in digital crochet patterns that she sells YouTube monetization because she also has a YouTube channel which seems to be a big trend for creatives and they do well. A paid membership is what another thing that Alicia does and uses obviously affiliate marketing as well So she's creating multiple income streams that work together because blogging for example can drive evergreen traffic to your shop

or to your affiliate links for years to come. You just build on it. Another lady I came across, most recently actually, and I'd seen, I've seen these products and stuff before and I didn't, I'd love to do it myself. This is definitely one I'd like to have a play around with because I used to like doing paper crafts and things and I love like woodworking as well. This lady, Rona, from Making the Cute Life.

She also has a YouTube channel. She's a fantastic example of a creative entrepreneur and a mum who turned her crafting passion into a scalable business. She started with Cricut-based crafts and attends local events to sell them, but has also expanded her business by selling SVG cut files for crafters. So creating Cricut tutorials on YouTube and other places and offering designs through Cricut's official platform. She's leveraging digital products and online content.

She now earns from multiple revenue streams without relying solely on her handmade crafts. A quilting example is Elizabeth Chappelle, who's done really well for herself. She's from The Quilt is Candy. She started with handmade quilting products, but expanded her business beyond physical products. Now she sells digital quilt patterns, runs an online quilting membership, offers courses on quilt design, and even teaches business strategies for creative entrepreneurs.

I've also even seen her promoting other people's courses with her affiliate links like Bonnie Christine's immersion program for surface pattern designers. By adding passive and semi-passive income streams, she's built such a thriving business and that doesn't solely rely on selling handmade quilts. And she also has a podcast as well. Now, I know what you're thinking. This all sounds fantastic, but where do you even begin?

The idea of scaling your business without losing that personal touch or feeling like you're biting off way more than you can chew can be overwhelming to say the least. Let's break it down. So you want to start small. If you're just dipping your toes into the world of scalable products, think about your niche, what your customers are already asking for or around your audience, what kind of things that they're into.

Do you have patterns or designs or ideas that you can turn into a digital product? Could your handmade items inspire a printable or a digital planner that complements your main business? Could you add your artwork to products or even as like background designs to planners or printables? Don't overcomplicate it. Your first step could be as simple as brainstorming one scalable product idea today.

and maybe it's a digital pattern or a printable worksheet that ties in with your handmade creations. Start with what you know and expand from there. And the best part, you don't have to stop making your physical products. You're just adding another stream to help your business grow beyond the limits of physical time. Now know this might feel like a lot to take in and trust me, I get it, I've been there with everything.

And transitioning from a strictly handmade business to one that also includes scalable income streams can feel like a big leap, especially if you've got other commitments going on. But I want to help you take that step and make it as smooth and stress-free as possible. That's why I created my new course, From Handmade to Scalable. In this course, I'll walk you through every step you need to take to add digital products and other scalable income to your business.

without losing the heart of what you do. If you're ready to take your handmade business to the next level and stop trading time for money, check out my course. I'll leave the link below where I give you a roadmap to get started. It's all about balance, flexibility and making sure your business works for you, not the other way around. So go ahead and grab the course and let's make this happen together. You have got this.

And that's a wrap for today's episode of the Creative Juggle Joy podcast. I really hope this episode gave you some food for thought on how to start shifting your mindset from just working harder to working smarter. The beauty of being a creative is that the possibilities are endless. And I want to help you tap into those opportunities so you can build a business that serves both your creative passion and your lifestyle. Thank you so much for tuning in today.

Remember, no matter where you are in your journey, just take it one step at a time. You don't have to do it all at once, but small changes will lead to bigger results over time and it compounds over time and leverages your time. As always, keep creating, keep juggling and most importantly, keep finding joy in the process.