Your art or craft business should be enjoyable, but its best chance of success will be if you manage your time well and treat it with the same professionalism you would any important job.

Most art and craft businesses are begun part time while employed at another job. Figure out how many hours you would like to devote to your new business per week. A good beginning might be to commit to ten to twenty hours a week. If your other commitments are light or as your business becomes more successful, you may wish to commit to more time.

As with any work, scheduling regular time to use for your new business is a more professional approach, and more likely to lead to success. Scheduling regular time avoids many problems. You are less likely to neglect your business. It is also very important to respond to customers quickly, and this helps you to do so.

Pick regular hours if you can, as this eliminates doubt and mistakes. You might, for example, decide to work on your business Monday through Saturday from 7 to 9:30 p.m.

You might think that some weeks will be busy and on other weeks you will have little to do. But when you have enough of your product made or are low on commissions, this will be time you spend promoting your business, looking for customers, planning how to be more successful, and coming up with new designs. Most business require nurturing. Potential customers have to know you exist, and know what you have to offer them. This is as much a part of your business as making the products or offering services.

Determine your time commitment and schedule your work time now. Begin a list of tasks you will need to do for your business. This will help you know what to do with your scheduled time. Prioritize your tasks at the beginning of each week and do what is most important first.