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Jewelry making often starts as a hobby, but people with talent and a flair for salesmanship often switch from hobbyist to home-based business owner. However, because you make and sell jewelry from your home, doesn’t mean that you made the crossover from hobbyist to businessperson. The successful home-based business person realizes that they are no longer making jewelry just for fun. Instead, they own and operate a business, and treat it as a business, with their studio as their place of business. This doesn’t automatically happen when you hang your shingle. Instead, you must discipline yourself, and often friends and family to the fact that you are running a business and are no longer a hobbyist.

When you made jewelry as a hobby, the atmosphere in your studio was pretty casual. You hung out there in whatever you felt like wearing—or not!—barefoot or in your fuzzy cow slippers. You enjoyed chatting with friends and family who called or dropped by, and kept an ear out for kids trying to maim each other or the furnishings. That was fine when making jewelry was just a hobby, but now that it’s your business, you have to set boundaries for yourself and everyone else involved. This means that business hours are business hours. No long chats with your BFF about what is happening on your favorite TV show. Take the kids to daycare, or hire someone to come in to care for them and do light housekeeping. Set a dedicated time period for working in your studio, and stick with it. When you discuss this with the people your decision affects, you’ll be surprised at their willingness to help you succeed, and their understanding of your business needs.

Maintaining your focus while working can be difficult, especially when your workspace isn’t isolated from the rest of your home. You need a private place to work, where you can shut the door and not be disturbed by the world on the other side of it. Each week, make a work schedule and discipline yourself to keep to it. You are your own boss now, and your sole employee, so you have to keep yourself in line in order to have a high production yield. Set goals for yourself, and time limits within which to complete each project. Provide time at the beginning and end of your work hours to check your e-mail and make your replies courteous, but as brief as possible. If a lengthy business call or a family emergency cuts into your scheduled work hours, try to compensate by working a little longer for a couple of days. Having discipline doesn’t mean standing over yourself with a whip or adamantly sticking to your schedule, come what may, but barring unforeseen events that require your immediate attention, you diligently apply yourself to your business during the time you have set aside for it.

When you treat your jewelry making as a business, so will others. Eventually everyone will become accustomed to the changes you make to accommodate your new business schedule, and honoring your work time will become part of the daily routine. As your business grows, you almost certainly will need to readjust your work schedule to keep up with the demand for your jewelry, but if you worked outside your home before turning your hobby into a business, it will be like going back to a former routine, and won’t seem such a drastic change to your family.