Oh man, does this resonate. I was invited to participate in a panel on doing business as a person making and selling stuff. I build furniture. Early on, while I

Oh man, does this resonate. I was invited to participate in a panel on doing business as a person making and selling stuff. I build furniture. Early on, while I was still a student, somebody told me that I have to get on Instagram, because "that's where all the woodworkers are" [0]. Also I this panel was a person who makes things that sell at a more impulse purchase price level [1]. One question was about social media strategy. And they were all over how to get the most exposure on Instagram: when to post, how to interact with the app to get ranked higher, how to get your friends to save your posts instead of liking them, how buying stuff from other makers on Instagram and posting it shows how you support the community and helps your brand, etc. I had so many questions I didn't ask: how much time does all this gramming take? How much money do you actually make? Do you actually sell anything via Instagram? Of the woodworkers I know personally, exactly one has gotten any business via Instagram. I'm sure some of the really instafamous ones get work, but it's a long way to the top. I think my time is better spent building furniture and selling via other avenues. I post what I'm doing, but I don't worry too much about it. I'll be honest: I'm not making software money building furniture. But the business is growing (in revenue and profit terms, I have no desire to manage employees). And I see a path for it being a truly meaningful contributor to our household income in the next year or so [2]. To clarify: it has been modestly profitable the whole way, just not hugely so. A move to a new area in a year with limited opportunities for in-person sales probably set things back a year, but it's still going OK. Picking up some contract jobs has helped with the cash flow immensely. I don't mean to make any assumptions about anybody else's business, but you've got to be selling a lot of impulse purchase priced items daily to make ends meet. That's a lot of time doing fulfillment and everything else that gets product in the customer's hands and money in your pocket and less time making things. Maybe they've found a way to make it work, but I had to wonder if they have more audience than business. I'm not asserting that this is case for that business. It's not, however, a way I see a profit in. Thinking this way probably ensures I'll never be big time, but that's OK. Meaningfully profitable is my goal with this. [0] Yeah, I know. Fuck that: I need to be where the people with money are. Still I've learned a lot from other people's posts, gotten good feedback, and if we're honest, the imaginary internet points are nice when you don't see another soul in the shop for days at a stretch. It's good to know other people are enjoying my work. [1] Details elided for reasons that will soon be obvious. [2] I'm the meantime, there's that old joke: What do you call a drummer without a girlfriend? Homeless.