There are a lot of different ways to run a craft business. Many people choose to run their business alone, as a sole trader without any employees. Other people decide to partner up with a friend or acquaintance when starting their craft business.

There are some pros and cons to either way of starting your business and you should spend a lot of time thinking before you decide what is best for you. It’s a lot easier to change your mind about how you run your business before you actually get started than after you are deep into the process.

Here are some pros and cons of partnering up for a craft business or going it alone. I hope these tips help you decide what you will work the best for you as you start your craft business.

PROS OF PARTNERING UP

1. You always have someone to work with.

One of the main benefits to partnering up with someone to start your craft business is that you will almost never have to work alone. For a lot of people, being self employed can mean a lot of long hours at home by themselves with no one to talk to. But, if you have a business partner, you’ll always have a co-worker to talk to while you work.

2. You have someone to bounce ideas off.

Another great pro of partnering up with someone is that you have someone to bounce ideas off. When you work with someone else you can often come up with new ideas that you might not have thought of when working alone. And brainstorming is a lot more fun when you have someone to do it with!

3. You can share and receive criticism.

When you have a business partner, you can enjoy the benefit of sharing and receiving criticism. Constructive criticism can help both of you improve your products and work procedures. In this way, having a work partnership gives you a lot more opportunity to grow and learn than working by yourself.

CONS OF PARTNERING UP

1. Disagreements are inevitable.

Of course disagreements are inevitable if you do choose a partnership for your craft business. It’s simply human nature that two people will not always agree on everything. And when you don’t have a supervisor in charge of you and your business partner, it can be a lot harder to resolve issues between the two of you. Disagreements between business partners can easily halt the progress of your work and the growth of your business.

2. Sometimes it’s hard to trust.

The person you choose to partner up with will be someone that you initially trust. But even if you have never doubted this person before in your life, once you start mixing friendship with business, at some point or another, doubts will creep in. Can you trust them with the finances? How do you know they have your best interests at heart? You can always add a second person to your business if you start alone but it’s a lot harder to switch to trading alone once you have established a partnership.

3. What happens if one of you quits?

Another con to partnering up in the craft business is that it can get really messy if one of you decides to quit suddenly. Maybe your friend suddenly gets a full time job doing something they love and they decide that crafting is no longer a priority, leaving you in the lurch.

Taking care of all aspects of the business on your own after being used to doing it with a partner can be overwhelming at the least. It may even mean the end of your business if you aren’t able to handle everything yourself.

PROS OF GOING IT ALONE

1. You are your own boss, period.

One of the best pros about going it alone with your craft business is that you are always going to be the boss. There is never anyone else there telling you what to do or how to do it. You get to make all of the executive decisions about product lines, suppliers, where to sell, prices and more. It can be very freeing to have everything under your own control.

2. You have complete control of the finances.

Another pro of going it alone is that you have complete control of the finances. You will never have to worry about how the money is being spent, or whether or not you can trust your partner, because you are the one holding the purse strings at all times.

3. You can make any changes you want.

Without having someone else to worry about, you can make any changes you want to your business. You change your schedule at the last minute to accommodate family time or even take two weeks off without having to ask permission. The beauty of going it alone is that you can make any changes you want, whenever you want, without having to ask for permission or approval.

CONS OF GOING IT ALONE

1. You can’t always take time off.

While going it alone does mean you can work your own hours, sometimes it also means you can’t always take time off when you want to. You are your own boss, and have control of the schedule, but if fourteen rush orders come in on the weekend and you’re the only one to fill them, you probably can’t take the weekend off.

2. You have to do everything yourself.

There’s no room for sharing and trading off tasks when you go it alone because, quite frankly, you have to do everything yourself. With all of the record keeping, product making, selling and mailing orders, you can become very stressed and bogged down when you have no one there to help you.

These are just a few of the pros and cons of partnering up or going it alone. I hope this helps you to decide what will work best for you as you start your craft business.

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