Crossroads

You know the number of times you contemplate whether this is something you might do full-time? Head for the garage in the morning, bead for a few hours, clean beads, photograph, make jewellery, etc.? I'm at one of those crossroads at the moment. Me being methodical within the chaos, let's evaluate:

pro-hobby approach:

- safe and secure income from day job

- in the current climate, difficult to find job if you change your mind

- if you don't fancy beading for a couple of weeks, the world will not come to an end

- if equipment breaks down, the world will not come to an end

- you can experiment, even if it turns out rubbish, it doesn't matter, you don't *have* to sell

- you can price however you want (interesting one, this, see below!)

pro-pro approach:

- you do what you love, every day (but see point 3 above!)

- LOTS more time behind the torch = more ppp = better beads

- more time to build up customer base

- working from home, flexible hours

- time to do teaching, fairs, etc.

Concerns:

Flexible hours = lots of hours - but more than working full-time plus making beads and selling them as a hobby?

Pricing: interesting...I try not to underprice professional bead makers, but if I *was* a professional bead maker, wouldn't I have to lower prices, simply to sell more? A constant conundrum.

This is a rather convoluted ramble - which is, in fact, rather representative of the twists and turns inside my mind.