why creating digital quilt patterns is THE BEST WAY to get your start as a creative entrepreneur in quilting

I want to let you in on WHY creating digital quilt patterns is THE BEST WAY to get your start as a creative entrepreneur in the quilting market and how to get started. 

Let’s switch our rational brains on again for a little moment… 

Here’s a recap from this post where I took a look into the numbers around the quilting market and what that means in terms of viability to start a creative business in this niche. 

Quilting as a market is valued at over $3 billion a year estimated to grow to over $5 billion by 2025. 

There is a large portion of the 20 million quilters worldwide, who are deemed ‘dedicated’. Not only do they have 15+ years experience (attesting to the longevity of the hobby) but they also spend on average $3363 every year on quilting supplies (see the full breakdown here).

These dedicated quilters are working on average on 12 projects per year. 

so, what does this mean for you… stick with me here

Knowing what we know about the quilting industry: 

a $3 billion a year industry, with dedicated quilters spending $3363 annually, and making an average of 12 projects a year…

Let’s just do the maths on that… 

Let’s say there are 10 million dedicated quilters, doing 12 projects a year.

Let’s assume 10 of those 12 projects are quilts. 

Let’s assume that just 5 of them are from quilt patterns those dedicated quilters bought…

That is 50 million patterns per year that quilters are potentially buying. 

And this is just the dedicated quilters!  Imagine all those beginner quilters out there who are just getting started, with new people joining the ranks every day… 

Can you see where I’m going with this? 

you might have heard people say things like…

just from those numbers alone I think we can safely say that there is room for you. 

But if you need more convincing, here’s a story I want to tell you about one of my students. 

Sue came into my world and she was fired up. She had all these ideas for quilts, but she had never quite taken the plunge to make any of them into quilt patterns. But she had been thinking about it for quite a while. 

Sue ummed and ahhed, and felt all those feelings we have been talking about. There’s already so many quilt patterns, no one is going to want my pattern. This isn’t even that good of an idea, it’s just ok. No one will want to buy this. 

Well, Sue came into my world and she learnt the steps to write her quilt pattern and get it out there into the world and lo and behold, Sue got an email from a lady who had bought her quilt pattern.

And guess what it said. 

Here’s what it DIDN’T say: 

What it DID say was:

now IMAGINE…. 

If Sue hadn’t taken that plunge. Hadn’t decided to put her fears to the side, to shelve her doubts, to quieten those inner voices that tell us ‘you’re not good enough. 

Imagine if Sue had decided to just keep on hiding her quilt designs, never publishing them, never taking that next step to get them out into the world… 

You have the possibility to scratch that itch for someone else too. 

Once when they make the quilt, and then everyday as they touch or snuggle under or think about the fabrics they used, or the memories the quilt they made holds. I talked about the power of quilts here. 

what will you do?

Will you share your creativity with the world, with people seeking joy, light, comfort? Or will you hide it away because of doubt, fear, uncertainty?

Growing that confidence is part of what you will  discover while you are learning to design, write and sell unique quilt patterns.

That fulfilment that Sue felt is part of what you will experience as a published quilt pattern designer. 

this is one of the big WHYs behind why I do what I do. 

But it’s just a part of the picture. Because again engineering brain comes knocking…

So why are digital quilt patterns the best way to start out when you want to build a side hustle or grow a creative business? 

• 1) ìThey are scalable – this means that you can design and write one digital pattern and sell it over and over again with little to no additional work on your part beyond the initial time investment to design, write and launch your quilt pattern

• 2) they are low cost to produce. Yes, you have startups costs like in any business, but as you’ll learn when you’re a part of my program, start-up costs in a digital pattern business are very low compared with other forms of creative businesses. 

• 3) you have no inventory – no print patterns to pay for upfront, store, manage, ship, update… 

You have a digital file you can update easily thanks to the power of the workflow I outlined in my last post.

• 4) You are already designing your own quilts, making your own patterns, so why not get them out and share them. This is the lowest hanging fruit as a quilter, meaning this is something you can get started with and see a return on soon. No need to create an entire digital course, learn how to use video, edit and build video of your course etc etc. 

can you see why digital quilt patterns are the best and fastest way to get started with your side hustle or creative business? 

> low cost start up

> minimal overheads

> in demand

Oh and.. 

What are you waiting for? 

Drop me a comment here and let me know what is holding you back from starting your creative business.

Can’t wait to get started on your creative business?

Grab a copy of the FREE guide ‘7 steps to grow a quilt pattern design business’ here.

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