‘From Guilt & Frustration To Freedom – A Crafter’s Journey’ – my personal story of how I turn my hobby into a profitable online home business.
If you have not read it yet, you can get instant access by entering your name and email to the web form on the right column of this page.
Once you subscribed, you will be directed to download the free eBook and begin to receive my step-by-step tutorial on launching your own internet home business.
If you enjoy the eBook, please do write a comment below.
Hi! My name is Flora Tan and I’m a crafter and Christian home business owner who enjoy working online.
Thank you for the book and I look forward to future e mails. It is so good of you to share the succsess.
Veronica! You are most welcome:-)
Hi Flora,
I loved your story and your desire to share and care for others. I have been making crafts for about 20 years and now I am making greeting cards and like you started out selling them for next to nothing to friends or others. I would love to know how to have a website and you have given me the hope to dream!
God Bless You,
Barbara
Hi Barbara!
I’m so glad to help ignite your dream. Hope to see you realize your dream in 2012. Go for it!
Hi Flora..
Your e-book is very inspiring enjoyed it alot. Have been making cards for a few years but don’t realy know how to sell them. Thought about selling them on the internet but I only make one each. Maybe you could help me. Also don’t think I would be any good at writing a blog. Thanke for any help you can think of for me.
Hugs
Elaine
Hi Elaine! You can sell one-of-a-kind cards if you only make one each. But you need to sell at a high price to make a profit. And about writing a blog – write just like you’re talking to a friend – same like the way you wrote this comment – only longer:-)
Hi Flora,
Many thanks for sharing your experiences and your e-book with us. I’ve been down the road you have traveled and am now working to build a digital photography products business online. Progress continues, and I learn more each day. When you publish your book about starting an online business I hope you will be able to address how craft designers can monetize their sites. It’s one of those essential sections that make the difference between having an inspiring hobby and earning a secure living. I hope you will be able to visit my website also, and find inspiration for your own work there. It’s a growing blessing. Best wishes for the new year, and for your Mom’s recovery.
Mr. Chris Teske
Hi Chris! That’s what this blog is about – to help crafters make money from their crafts via successful blogs that people love to visit and read. Notice your SBI website. Good!
thank you for sharing your story.Ilove to make cards and i have so many cards in my cupboard but i dnt know how to sell them.
I believe your weblog is nice! I found it on Bing today. I believe I will come back one day, thank you.
madam congratulations for your success.I read your e book.i also want do like this.i have hobbies egg;painting,writing stories,poems.songs,etc.but i could not improve my skill.so ,in my dreams i am helpless person although i am a successful teacher,economicaly sound. so i learn from your story that we try to achieve our dreams. If u allow to me i want to translate your book in my mother tongue PUNJABI.
thanks for motivation!
anjana menon
barnala(punjab)
INDIA
[...] A Crafter’s Journey [...]
[...] A Crafter’s Journey [...]
Flora, you’ve been so inspiring since the day I joined your making cards forum
your story is very encouraging & touching! I feel sorry for myself that I am not as active as I want to in your forum. I’ve almost given up making card coz I thought it’s wasting my time & money. So few years ago I try to sell papers on the internet and last year I making my craft blog. I also join some challenges and becoming one of design team in a graphic site. I’m still struggling though selling my crafts supplies, making crafts and working full-time as personal assistant, and like what you said, always waiting for “friday” to come earlier. The internet connection is also frustrating & I haven’t got money to buy the good one. So many plans I write but most of the time I don’t know how to execute them 
So thank you for sharing your story as it gives me hopes & strength to keep doing what I love & make a living from it. And now I’m looking forward to read your next step 
Ika, so glad that you have not given up cardmaking. Cardmaking is a good hobby and I wish more people will take up making their own greeting cards and sending those homemade cards to stay connected and cheer family and friends. What I will teach you is to turn it into a successful business and yet still be able to enjoy it as a hobby, still connecting and cheering lives with those homemade greeting cards. So look out for my next email.
[...] A Crafter’s Journey [...]
Thank you for sharing your story. I am looking forward to reading your next step.
Hi Shirley! It’s an ongoing journey and I hope you will follow my journey and go for your dream.
Awesome! What a journey, you are very courageous and have great persistency and foresight. Thanks for the depth of information that I may vicariously use in my content.
It is obvious YOU have the Qualities of a great Mentor.
The Lord Prosper the Works of your Hands.
Martin Pereira
Thanks, Martin for your feedback and encouraging comment.
Flora,
Thank you so much for sharing your journey! You’ve made me realize why I keep feeling guilty my cards and Stampin’ Up products. I’ve been trying to figure out a way to make money from home because I have a 4 yr old daughter and to put her in daycare would be pointless just for me to go to work. All I would be doing is paying for her daycare. I wouldn’t make much more then that where I live. My Husband takes care of us but I feel like I should be doing something to contribute if we ever wants to buy a house. So I’m giving up Stampin’ Up and moving on to greater pastures. I just need to figure out what those greater pastures are going to be! lol
Keep up the great work and the inspiration!
God Bless
Amanda Ballard
Hi Amanda! Thank you for sharing with us your situation too. You have taken the first step in making changes in your life – knowing your situation and taking action. I’m so glad that I can be of help in some way. Looking forward to journeying with you.
Flora,
I have a blog with the Handmade Cards and a few of the Scrapbook pages I have created on it. I would love to know how to make money not just with my blog but by selling what I make!!! Your story is so inspirationsl!
Thank you, Rachel, for sharing. There are many ways to make money with your blog and as you have already got a blog going, you will be able to implement the various income streams that I will be sharing in my subsequent emails to those who signed up for A Crafter’s Journey.
Flora
Thank you, reading your book is inspiring. I have always liked crafting, and have been wanting to be more creative.
Sandra, thank you for sharing.
Flora, your story is simple and to the point without getting heavy on the details. Good for a start and easy to read. Like the rest of the comments above, there are so many things to think about and questions to ask. It’s not so simple actually and there are a lot of nitty gritty things to think of. What happens if there are too many bloggers out there offering the same items for sale? Won’t it cause a glut? I’ve been wanting to start a blog and my target was last year. Unfortunately, I had to put this idea on the back burner because I fell ill and had to undergo treatment. It would have been the best time to start my blog but just didn’t have the inclination to do anything. I hope I can start sometime soon. Thank you for sharing this with us!
So sorry that you were ill, Anita. I wish you’re fully restored to optimized health and able to begin to pursue what you have put on hold. Don’t over-stress yourself. I think the most important thing is to take the first step and progress at your own pace.
Very inspiring Flora! Thank you for sharing, I actually see the last few years of my life in your story, except that I’m stuck on the part of guilt, frustration and depression on the horizon. Maybe one day I’ll get where you’re now girl. Those dreams…
We can work towards realizing our dreams, Izabella. Thank you for sharing with us. I want to see you quickly get out of guilt, frustration and depression.
Thanks for sharing your story. I enjoyed reading, but thought it would also reveal more of what you did in detail. most of us are already at the point of desiring to get started and just need the actual “how to”… what programs did you use specifically? what best server? who to host our blog? etc…
Thanks!
Lola! I have kept my story simple and not loaded with all the technical details. When overloaded with too much details all at once, a person can feel so overwhelmed that he or she might not be able to take any action at all. So I’m going to do that a step at a time. I want each one of you to be able to start right and go onto the next action step without floundering or being lost in a maze of information.
[...] A Crafter’s Journey [...]
Thanks Flora for putting your story out there for those of us in search of more. I have always wanted to be a “crafter” but going to the “job” was all I had time or energy for. I have done that for 33 years now, and I am looking for something I want and can do that I will LOVE doing. I am going to give this a try, and see how it feels. I have tried MLMs in the past, and have found that they are just not for me. I am not into recuriting or into pressuring or trying to talk someone into something. I want to use my creativeness to make something beautiful that someone would love enough to purchase. And most of all, it is about not punching a clock away from home.
Sally, I know how you feel about your “job” which taken so much of your time and energy and that dream within you that wants something better – doing what you love. Thank God for the internet – anyone of us can walk away from our day job one day if we would put in some work in our spare time now to build our online business. It is not a ‘get rich quick’ scheme. You need to work on it with a passion and over time, when you see that your online business is making more than your day job, that’s the time to quit and work your home business full time.
Thank you for your interest in helping people, I really don’t understand how to even start a blog or what not, I love to make cards, and have been told I am good at it, but I don’t know what to do with it. Your story makes me think, but still very unsure of myself. Thank you, Correna
Correna, that’s the main objective of this blog – to reveal and make clear the ‘mystery’ of an online home based business so that ordinary folks from all walks of life can easily start a business online without wasting a lot of hard earned money on scams and programs that won’t work.
Wonderful and Inspiring.
Thanks & Regards.
Thank you, Rajat!
Thank you Flora. I am still daunted by the idea of starting my own website and blog. I already have a ‘real’ shop that I struggle to make the bills in because I make everything in my shop myself. I’m not sure how to find the time to start the online business, but your story inspired me. Thanks again.
Hi Lynda! If you have an hour or two a day, you can build a website or blog and take your craft business online. Most of those whom I have helped have had a full time job but because of their dream of being their own boss, they work on their blogs in the evenings and weekends maybe averaging 4 hrs or more a week.
Hi James! Thank you for your feedback.
Hi Flora,
Thank you for sharing your story. Very Inspiring!
Keep up the great work!!
God Bless,
James