You know how business owners say that starting a business has changed their lives, and you notice that they always have this glimmer in their eyes?

That’s so inspiring, right? Seeing them light up with excitement and pride as they share how starting a business has dramatically improved their lives.

Their enthusiasm is infectious, and it often makes you feel like taking the big leap into the world of business.

Get ready, because that’s exactly how I am when I talk about being a handmade business owner. 

My business has changed not just my life, but the lives of so many other people around me.

Now, if you are looking for motivation to finally start your own business or to keep going in the one you’ve already got, you need to read this blog post.

Seeing real-life examples of how businesses can change lives might be just the push you need.

Read more: How My Handmade Business Changed Everything

Personally, I started my first business in 2006, and I started coaching others how to do this in 2014.

I have four online businesses that I still run to this day that make me over seven figures every single year in sales, when you add them all up.

This has transformed my life in a way where I can never go back to living a regular life like most people. 

So let me talk about the ways my handmade business changed everything for me.

Time & Financial Freedom

One of the biggest gifts of having a handmade business is that I can pay all of my bills on time without worrying about having enough money leftover to pay for everything else.

Plus, being self-employed means that I get to do what I want when I want.

When I was younger, I was obsessed with making more money.

I did everything I could just to make more money than I was already making because seven figures in sales for a year was the big goal.

And then I reached that in 2020.

What a big win, right?

But what I found interesting was that my goals in the following years sweren’t purely monetary goals anymore.

Sure, I still have an income goal but it’s so that I can buy my dream house in Los Angeles.

Not solely for survival purposes.

It’s just not money for the sake of money anymore.

More than anything, my biggest desire is freedom of time.

I want to have a flexible schedule.

This isn’t the same thing as saying that I want to work a 5-hour workweek because I actually really love working.

I love being productive and doing things and creating and making experiences.

But what I’m so hyper-allergic to is being beholden to a set schedule.

For example: every Monday from 9am to 12pm, do social media. 12pm to 1pm, do lunch. 1pm to 3pm, check and respond to emails. 3pm to 5pm, team meeting.

I hate having a fixed schedule like that, because I’m a creative person.

Maybe a lot of creatives like yourself can relate to this.

We’re like modern day Bohemians, right? We want to do what we want when we want.

So when we’re called to have an early lunch with a friend on a weekday, we have the option to choose that.

If I didn’t get great sleep the night before and my head is feeling fuzzy, I want the option to choose to have an easier morning.

And my businesses have allowed me to have this kind of lifestyle.

I can wake up whenever I want, when my body feels like it’s got enough rest.

And then I can have a slow morning where I’m reading on the couch, cuddling with my dogs.

Take a call with a friend, do lunch, then start working on my one to three tasks for the day.

So while I may not be a millionaire in terms of net worth, I think having this lifestyle is the best gift of all.

More Space for The Things I Love

Aside from having options, what this does is give me back the time to pursue my other passions and dreams for my life.

Several years ago, that was learning how to make music and finding a way to express myself through cooking and food.

These days, it’s with my acting.

It’s my childhood dream to be an actor.

Writing my book, making a community of friends that I love, and investing in the ones I already have.

These things take time to develop.

And if I had a regular 9-5 job, it would be so incredibly difficult to do those things at the pace that I’m doing right now.

Sure, it’s not impossible, but these extracurricular things would likely only be done in the evenings if you’re not too tired or only on the weekends.

That makes me so tired and so sad just thinking about it!

With all that we have to do, day in and day out, don’t you just crave time to do nothing every now and then?

My businesses have given me the time and space to do other things with my life and, to me, that’s what can help create a very rich and fulfilling life.

I know some people are probably happy with doing the same thing over and over again, but I have to always be doing something different, and I can do that because of what I’ve built with my business. 

Personal Growth & Development

Having a business has also been the singular thing that has helped me grow as a human being.

I have learned so much of myself, and my business has forced me to grow outside of my comfort zones time and again.

Because do you know what the consequence is if you don’t?

Your business isn’t going to go anywhere, you won’t make any money, and you would not get paid and could be homeless.

So, for me, the stakes are really high to perform and do my job well.

Because if I don’t, there are direct consequences.

If I created products that weren’t good in my business, I would literally be out on the street because no one would be buying them?

That pressure has really helped push me to better myself and get out of my own way.

To really understand what my fears are and to learn skills like having more confidence, how to be more assertive, how to have difficult conversations.

Having said that, I don’t believe that I’ve needed to change who I was at my core to have a successful business.

I’ve merely leveled up and gotten better at being who I am.

And because of that, I don’t believe that you have to become any specific one way to have success.

You CAN be successful by just being you.

So I don’t want you to think that you have to change who you are down the line, okay? 

Having a Platform and Making an Impact

I also feel like having a business has put me in a position where I’m better able to influence other people in a more impactful way.

Through the products I create and the coaching I offer, along with my voice and leadership in the community via my YouTube channel and social media posts, I have the privilege of having a platform where I can connect with you and show you what’s possible as a business owner.

And, sometimes, that is the only motivation we need to start doing something for ourselves.

To see that someone else can and has done it before you.

To hear of the stories from my customers who have bought our products.

I love how everything I’ve created has touched people in some way or another.

And knowing that there’s a teeny tiny piece of me in people’s hearts and lives is an incredible privilege.

If I was working in a typical 9-5 job, I would hope to be working for a company that would affect other people in that same way.

But even then, I would merely be a cogwheel in a bigger machine and I can just see how that wouldn’t be as fulfilling for me. 

One way that this influence and impact has directly affected me is with my husband.

He was a nine-to-fiver like most people and he didn’t know anything about how to start or run an online business until I showed him how.

And, now, he has five years of experience running and growing one of our online stores selling personalized art to seven figures in sales in 2020 that now makes half a million every year in sales.

The bigger picture goal for him is to be developing his own video games and with the business knowledge he has now, he’s going to have such a leg up and more surefire success.

Also, just from talking about it, I influenced a friend of mine to finally take action on her business ideas.

I didn’t give her the ideas as she already had them, but she told me that seeing that I was actually running legit businesses on my own made her see that it was possible for herself too.

And not even a year later, she launched two of her own businesses – one of them she has a patent for!

That’s amazing, isn’t it?

Disclaimer: Not All Rainbows and Sunshine

It has really been a very exciting journey and life so far.

And I’m so grateful for everything that’s happened.

I mean, it wasn’t all rainbows and sunshine.

There were definitely many moments – way more than I can count – where I felt like throwing in the towel.

When things didn’t work out the way I thought they would, when things out of my control caused me to lose so much money…

Yeah, all sorts of things like that happen to every business owner all the time.

But the cost of being in business for myself is a very cheap price to pay for all the amazing benefits that I’ve gained from going down this path.

I always say that once you come over to the dark side of being your own boss, it’s really hard to go back.

I don’t think I could ever get a “real job” again.

This is the life I want, and I’m so, so grateful that I’m already living it.

I think the people that do go back to a standard 9-to-5 never really found a way to enjoy the process…

And, also, we all have different personality types, needs, desires, and fears, so running a business on your own is not for everyone.

Limitless Income

And, of course, another big advantage of being self-employed is that I have no income ceiling.

At a regular job, I would max out at whatever annual salary I was making, maybe with some bonuses or raises here and there.

But with my businesses, the sky is really the limit.

Before, we’ve made hundreds of thousands of dollars in a single year of take home income.

Unless you’re in tech at a senior managerial level or like a surgeon, it’s really hard to beat that kind of income.

But the downside to that is that your efforts are directly tied to your paycheck and you have to worry about things like how to get a customer or how to make more sales, when regular nine-to-fivers usually don’t have to worry about that sort of thing.

And, as a business owner, there’s definitely less stability with income.

It is definitely a lot riskier to be self-employed.

And, with anything that’s riskier, there tends to be greater wins as well as greater losses.

From my experience, the wins have far outweighed the losses, which is why I keep doing it. 

And which is why I will keep doing it for a very long time.