It Works Or It Doesn’t Part II: How Do You Know If It’s Working?

And what do you do if it isn’t?

Sunsoak (2020) - rug wool & linen on linen warp

Last week I wrote about deciding to hit pause on making my next online weaving course. I discussed the time and the effort that has gone into the four courses I’ve already made, and the need to take a step back and assess whether teaching online is really working for me. 

But how do you define whether something is “working”? What metric do you measure it by? In today’s post, I want to share the questions I’m asking myself as I figure out if my business is actually functioning, or if I need to make a change. 

First, let me give you some backstory. I set up my weaving studio in 2015, and over the years my work has slowly expanded from selling tapestries to weaving rugs, running workshops, making commissions, teaching online courses and selling weaving kits. In 2020 I set up Balfour & Co as a separate business for my teaching & weaving supplies, and kept the Christabel Balfour brand for my own woven work. 

Each step felt like a natural evolution from what I was already doing. And, in theory, it’s a balanced ecosystem. People who wanted to learn to weave often found me through my work at Christabel Balfour and then signed up to a workshop. People looking to commission a tapestry discovered Balfour & Co and then came to Christabel Balfour. However, in practice, it’s been pretty overwhelming.

So in May 2022, I downsized. I moved to a much smaller studio. I stopped selling my woven work, and focused on building up my programme of in-person workshops, and launching two new online courses. 

Now 12 months on, I’m trying to make sense of where I’m at, and if it’s working for me or not.  Here are the questions I’m asking myself as I do so. 

What Were Your Goals?

The first step in deciding if something is “working” is to define what it is that you’re actually trying to do. Too often in creative work the possibilities for the future feel endless and expansive - and unreachable. For me, laying out concrete goals is a way to clarify what I actually want or need to achieve, and letting the other possibilities float away.

So when I first set up Balfour & Co it had 2 goals -

Goal 1 - To create a separate brand and platform for the teaching side of my business 

Goal 2 - To take the financial pressure off my woven work and generate at least 50% of my yearly income.

But then last year, when I stopped selling my woven work, I created a new goal - 

Goal 3 - To generate 100% of my yearly income through teaching & remove the need for me to sell my weavings completely.

Have You Achieved Those Goals? 

Once you’ve defined your goals, you can work out if you’ve achieved them, or if are still in the process of achieving them.