Launched in Lockdown: How the Pandemic Ushered Brits To Turn Their Hobby Into an Income Stream…
Repeated lockdowns, restrictions and a turbulent jobs market ushered more Brits than ever before into entrepreneurialism as in 2021, we saw the beginning of the Great Resignation, wherein the wake of the pandemic, millions of people decided to change careers.
Edward Griffith, CEO and Founder, LoveCrafts:
“Coming through such a difficult couple of years, we’ve seen a rise in hobbyists monetising their crafts and it’s been dubbed it “the year of the hobby hustle”. We have thousands of independent knitting, crochet and stitching designers who have uploaded hundreds of thousands of patterns to LoveCrafts, and in 2021, there were millions of downloads for indie patterns.”
In fact, in the UK, a record 400,000 Brits swapped jobs in the third quarter of 2021, a trend that looks set to continue into 2022, with new data by LoveCrafts – a UK leading craft supplier – unveiling the Brits who have now turned their pandemic pastime into a full-time career.
Over 1 million businesses were started during 2020 and 2021 alone. Now, recognising the societal shift in the private sector with Brits transforming their living rooms into workshops, a first-of-its-kind study by LoveCrafts.com has unveiled that 1 million Brits said the pandemic led them to turn their passion for part-time crafting into a full-time career. Further to this, 4.1 million now craft items to sell with a further 5 million being encouraged by friends and family to sell their homemade makes.
With Brits turning hobbies into hustles, metrics from the online marketplace Depop reported a 300% increase in sales as the growth of independently made items became ubiquitous, and handmade grew up to 30% on the platform. Now, as the art in artisan is commercially rewarding, LoveCrafts explores a nation that has turned their crafting passion to profit, with 3.5 million now monetising homemade crafts.
The national research by LoveCrafts has revealed that hobbyists have turned their pastime into a profitable business on an unprecedented scale, unveiling 4.1 million Brits now craft items as a pastime, while 5 million have been encouraged by friends and family to sell their homemade wares and 1.7 million make a living from selling their crafts. Further to this, the data unveils the 1 million Brits who turned to DIY during the pandemic, and now sell crafts as their main job.
Edward Griffith, CEO and Founder, LoveCrafts:
“We work with, and promote “indies” at every opportunity and offer help and support with marketing, including yarn and thread support, and the chance to collaborate with our marketing and design teams. It’s so gratifying to see how much the value of handmade crafts has increased, given the endless hours of creativity and skill that goes into them, and it’s great to see that handmade items are so sought after.”
LoveCrafts.com
