When is a hobby a business or business a hobby?

If you read my Rothbury Daily blog last week you may remember I had a winge about the price of coffee and cake. It might have seemed that I was maybe disapproving about this particular establishment but really I was stating that the price was more than I personally was willing to pay. If this lovely quirky business can get other people stopping and enjoying what they are offering and they pay the prices then I say "Good for them!"

Our County of Northumberland is stunningly beautiful and it needs unique businesses like that to thrive and offer both locals and visitors something different to maximise enjoyment of the area.

The coffee price thing has made me think about us crafts people and how we price what we do.
At Coccuveda, over our 5 years, we have sold art and crafts from over 60 local crafts people and many of our customers have remarked on how reasonably priced our goods are. Are we selling ourselves short?

Most of Coccuveda's crafters, myself included love what we do, that's a good start, we take great pleasure out of the fact that people want to buy our creations and most of us put a sellable price on it, after all the point of making it is to sell it, not for it to remain on display for ages as a pretty piece out of the price range of many a customer. Then there is a dilema, we do actually value our work and want the customer to value the work involved in designing and handmaking each unique piece too. Getting the balance right is a tricky one! Many crafters will be earning much less than the minimum wage but does that make it a hobby?

Coccuveda is definitely a business though, we have all the overheads that go with having a bricks and mortar shop, a shop alongside many other lovely independent establishments that enrich the individuality of Rothbury. So pricing is an important factor, we don't try and compete with the mass produced things that can tempt people, we just want to offer things at good fair and honest price that keep us all making and selling with maybe a few bob in our pockets as a reward!

Business that are hobbies, must be a real luxury! In my opinion they are businesses that have been set up with no expense spared in their layout and design, they offer beautiful things in beautiful surroundings that make you hang on tightly to your purse in case it just opens without too much thought. These are businesses ,again in my own opinion, that are there and are bringing pleasure to the proprietor whether they actually sell things and make money or not, that must be a hobby, a delightful pastime.

I think if my numbers ever come up I will have a business that is a hobby! Maybe that's my goal! But for now I will keep Coccuveda as it is and how the local crafters and customers like it.