Crochet Business School Podcast · 2026-06-02 · 13 min
Key moments - from our scoring
Substance score
19 / 100
Five dimensions, 20 points each
This episode tackles the frustrating middle ground where crochet makers generate sales but lack sufficient profit or time to feel successful. Kelly Thomas identifies that typical Google-searchable advice - post consistently, use videos, build newsletters - either has already been implemented or doesn't apply to the maker's specific situation. The real problem isn't a missing marketing hack or promotion strategy; it's the unwillingness to honestly calculate actual profit per hour worked. Thomas walks listeners through a concrete exercise: tally monthly sales volume, subtract yarn and packaging costs to find real profit per sale, estimate total working hours, then divide profit by hours to reveal hourly wage. For most makers in this position, the result is shockingly low - often less than minimum wage. This realization exposes why more sales and more time feel impossible: taking additional orders requires time the maker doesn't have, and raising prices alone doesn't solve the time constraint. Thomas argues that escape requires uncomfortable changes and a shift in business model - not incremental improvements to the current approach. She promises to share her own story of breaking through this ceiling in the next episode.
You likely haven't honestly calculated your actual profit per hour worked. Once you do the math - sales volume minus material and shipping costs, divided by total hours spent - you'll see that your hourly wage is unsustainably low, making it impossible to scale without solving the underlying business model problem.
Track one month of sales and count total sales made, calculate profit per sale (sale price minus yarn, packaging, and other direct costs), estimate your total working hours that month, then divide total profit by total hours to get your hourly wage.
Raising prices helps but doesn't fully solve the problem if you lack time to make more items and don't know what profit per hour actually justifies your effort - you need to be honest about the minimum wage you'll accept and whether your business model can deliver it.
Google requires you to articulate the specific question you're asking, but if you haven't honestly identified what's wrong with your business (usually unsustainable profit margins or time-to-income ratio), you don't know what to search for and won't recognize the answer.
Do the exercise immediately: write down your monthly sales count, profit per sale (actual profit after costs), total hours worked, and calculate your hourly wage - be brutally honest with no justifications or inflation of numbers.
Our reviewer’s read on each dimension, with quotes from the episode.
The episode centers on one core insight - calculating hourly profit to identify the real problem - which is valuable but not particularly novel. The rest is motivational preamble, repetition of that single insight, and vague hints about a 'solution' that is deliberately withheld until next week. There is minimal actionable density relative to runtime.
The answer is not on Google at all. The answer is in you, and it means being honest about what that missing piece is.
Divide the profit number by the number of hours that you worked, and that gives you your salary per hour.
The advice to track profits and hourly rates is standard business accounting, not a fresh insight. The framing that 'the answer is in you' and cryptic references to an unrevealed solution next week lean toward clickbait-adjacent engagement tactics rather than original thinking. No contrarian or first-principles arguments are presented.
Do that exercise. Sit down and actually take a look at your numbers and be honest with them.
if someone says, 'Come and work in my restaurant, this is what I'm going to pay you every hour,' you go, 'No chance.'
This is a solo monologue by the host, Kelly Thomas. No guest appears on the episode. There is no second voice, no practitioner perspective beyond the host's own stated experience, and no external validation or alternative viewpoint.
I'm Kelly Thomas, and let's dive into what happens when you feel like you've hit a brick wall in your crochet business
The episode contains almost no specific examples, data, or evidence. A single concrete exercise (calculating hourly profit) is described, but no actual case studies, named businesses, metrics, or real numbers are provided. The promised revelation of the host's personal story is deferred to next week. The advice remains abstract and general.
it took me months to kind of realize the truth of it, and it took a uncollected parcel to really drive it home about the reality of this whole thing
I'm gonna tell you more about that next week.
There is no conversation at all. This is a monologue with no interviewer, guest pushback, or dynamic dialogue. The host speaks directly to the listener but does not invite genuine interaction or challenge her own assertions. The style is sermonic rather than conversational.
Welcome to the Crochet Business School podcast. I'm Kelly Thomas, and let's dive into what happens when you feel like you've hit a brick wall in your crochet business
So I'll be back next week with that. So thank you for listening.
Computed from the transcript - who did the talking, and the words that came up most.
Your crochet business is missing something. Just 1 piece of the puzzle to make everything click into place. But where do you find it? Google isn't helping, Facebook groups just give you generic advice or clickbait headlines. The truth is that you're not going to find it by searching the internet. At least not the answer you thought you were looking for. There is no quick fix hack to suddenly bring in all those sales. But I know what it is that's actually the issue with your crochet business. Listen in to this episode to discover more. After listening: grab a piece of paper and write down two numbers. How many orders you'd need each week to make this worth it, How much profit each one would need to make. Just look at them honestly. Thank you for listening to the Crochet Business School podcast. If you are loving the show, I would appreciate it if you would leave us a review here , and don't forget to
Transcribed and scored by The B2B Podcast Index.
Welcome to the Crochet Business School podcast. I'm Kelly Thomas, and let's dive into what happens when you feel like you've hit a brick wall in your crochet business selling what you make So this is quite a common problem for crochet businesses. When you sell what you make, you feel like you suddenly hit a brick wall. It feels like you've got all the pieces together that everyone tells y- you that you should have.
You're posting on social media regularly. You've, uh, improved your photos and got them looking so they look just as good as everyone else's. You're showing up consistently. You've got a newsletter going, and yet despite all these pieces being in place, something isn't working.
Something isn't quite right. You're getting sales, but not enough sales, yet you already have enough sales that you feel like you have no time, but you don't have the money to show for it. It's this really weird, disjointed place where it feels like everything is working kind of, but not enough for you to say that, "Yes, I'm m- I'm a success. It is working."
And everything just seems to stop at that point. It happened for me. It happens for lots of people, and you just don't know why. Why isn't anything seems to go differently?
Nothing changes. It's frustrating, it's exhausting, and you end up spending loads of time Googling for this answer. There must be a missing piece of the puzzle somewhere. There must be something that you're missing.
But when you do the searches for, um, how to get a crochet business working, how to successfully sell your crochet, you either get the generic advice that you've already done, post consistently, use videos, use newsletters. You've done all that, and then the other stuff you get is this clickbait rubbish of earn 10K a month, my exclusive Instagram strategy. It's clickbait. It's rubbish.
It ain't gonna work for most You're stuck in the middle. Your crochet business does not fit any of the advice you're finding because you've either already done it or it seems made for a completely different type of maker. It's not for you. It's not for where you are right now.
It's not f- meant for crochet. What do you do? What happens? You're convinced there's missing pieces somewhere.
I'm... I was the same. For a long time, months, I was convinced I could Google my way out of this trap that I felt I was in. It's like I'm getting sales, but I'm tired.
I need more sales, but I've got no time. Y- it's a, it's a weird place to be, and the answer's gotta be out there The answer is somewhere, but it's not on Google. The answer you will not be able to find in a Google search because the truth is you don't know what the question is. The thing about Google is that you have to be able to articulate the question, be able to type it into words in order to find an answer.
But if you don't truly know what the question is, you're not gonna find that answer because the answer isn't on Google at all. The answer is in you, and it means being honest about what that missing piece is. That missing piece, it's not a piece of information. It's not a marketing trick.
It's not a promotion hack. The truth is what's sitting inside you because it means being honest. Why isn't your crochet business working? You have the answers in front of you.
It's all there in black and white if you choose to look and if you choose to see what's in front of you. Because the thing is, you are now in a place where you can't fix the problem unless you are honest about what the problem is. Look at your sales. How many sales are you making right now?
And how much profit are those sales bringing in? You need to put it down on paper in black and white. Actually write these numbers down. And the only way to face up to the reality of what's going on is to do this exercise.
So I would really encourage you to go get a piece of paper and write this down properly. Over the last month, how many sales of your crochet have you made? How much profit did you make from each sale? Not how much you made from each sale, not the sale price, actual profit.
What was that number after you take away the cost of your yarn, the cost of the packaging that you used to send it out, of anything else that you needed to make it? How much profit was left after you made that sale Then write down how many hours you actually worked. If you don't keep track of this, it's gonna be a rough answer, but roughly how many hours a day do you spend on your crochet business? Write that number down.
Now, here's the kicker. Divide the profit number by the number of hours that you worked, and that gives you your salary per hour. That's how much you earned per hour that you were working. When you get that number, the chances are you're gonna be horrified.
But here's the thing, this is what's giving you this frustrating, stuck feeling You cannot take on any more orders if you don't have the time. You cannot create time because you just don't have it. Time only feels worth spending if you're making enough profit to make it worthwhile. But if you're paying yourself a pittance that you wouldn't accept if you were going for a 9 to 5 job, look at the number in f- that's in front of you, and if someone says, "Come and work in my restaurant, this is what I'm going to pay you every hour," you go, "No chance.
Absolutely no chance. I'm worth more than that. I will find a job that pays more." And yet, when it's your crochet business, you accept it.
You tell yourself that, "This is the dream. If I just work hard enough, if I just make a few more sales, it'll be worth it." But that profit number will never change. You either have to increase your prices astronomically, or you have to find more time from somewhere.
And let's face it, right now you're exhausted. You're running yourself into the ground between trying to get your crochet business to work, running around after your family, and maybe even having a day job as well. You have no time left to give Making more sales means crocheting more You don't have that time. Upping your prices could work, but are you being honest about how much profit you actually need to make to make this worth it?
How are you going to do that? It can be done, but it's difficult. It is really difficult, and you will be in a place that you are not in now A solution to this does exist. It genuinely does.
But you're not going to find the answer on Google. You're not going to find the answer through just raising your prices and hoping it's enough. Raising your prices does not solve the time problem. The answer is something that you haven't thought of yet, and it's not that you don't know what the options are, it's just that you have never thought that they apply to you.
It's something you've just never considered, because why would you? The solution is something that is going to be scary as hell, but it's also going to lift that weight that is currently hanging around your shoulders from having this exhausted, frustrating place that you're in. It's It's going to be a relief when it comes. Because once you're in this place, you either give up or you change direction.
Now, nobody wants to go up the stream, and you don't have to. Your crochet can still earn you a living. You can still make a career out of it. It can still bring you the money you need and work in the time that you have available.
That is absolutely possible. It does mean, one, you gotta be honest with yourself about where you are now and why it's not working, and two, you've got to be prepared to make some changes. Open your mind and accept some things that may be a bit on the uncomfortable side Big changes are needed, but there is a way out But so next week I'm going to tell you more about kind of my moment. What I did when I got to this place, how I got out of it, the process that it took, and this process does not take a small amount of time.
It took me months to kind of realize the truth of it, and it took a uncollected parcel to really drive it home about the reality of this whole thing. I'm gonna tell you more about that next week. But before that episode, do that exercise. Sit down and actually take a look at your numbers and be honest with them.
Don't inflate them. Don't try to justify, "Well, I didn't really spend a whole hour working on it on Tuesday, and I didn't really spend a full three hours on it on Thursday," so don't do that. Don't do that. If you have to justify things like that, then you're trying to rig the numbers, and you're trying to justify why they look so bad.
You need absolute honesty for this exercise because the truth is the only thing that's going to move you forward. Right now you're stuck. We need to get you unstuck, and that starts with yourself and being very honest about where things are right now, what the truth is about your crochet business and the time it's taking and the profits that you're really bringing in. Write it down.
It might be an uncomfortable truth, but the truth is required. So I'll be back next week with the next episode, and I'm going to tell you my story because when you're stuck in the moment, it feels like there's no way out, and if you just keep going, it will solve itself. It will not solve itself. It needs you to take the reins and make a decision.
So I'll be back next week with that. So thank you for listening. Do that exercise. Write everything down on paper, and I shall see you next week.
Bye for now.
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