#89 - Is the Fiber Advent Craze Worth It for Small Businesses?

In this episode, we explore the enchanting yet complex world of fiber advent calendars. These holiday treasures bring joy and nostalgia to makers, but they also pose challenges for small fiber businesses creating them. We discuss the potential for overconsumption among buyers and the heavy production burden on sellers, all while asking: Is the excitement worth the cost? I share insights on finding balance, sustainability, and profitability, plus some creative ideas for advent calendars that prioritize purpose over trend. If you’re ready to rethink the holiday craze, tune in for some valuable perspective.

FULL SHOW-NOTES WITH TAKEAWAYS

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BEST QUOTE FROM THE EPISODE

• "Are you getting the right kind of exposure from making & selling advent calendars?" 

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Chapters

• 0:00 The Business of Fiber Advent Calendars
• 14:31 Maximizing Advent Calendar Business Profit
• 22:27 Advent Calendar Business Strategies

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hello and welcome back, or welcome for the first time. I am so happy that you have decided to spend your time with me today. The dragon that is the fiber advent calendar is it magical or is it a monster, or perhaps both. There's a lot of advent calendar stuff going on. Whether you are in fiber crafts or not, it's everywhere. And today I want to kind of mix and match the perspective from the maker and the perspective from the seller of said calendars. Of course you already have a little vague feeling of where I'm going to go with this, but bear with me, you never know, I might surprise you.

Speaker 1: 0:53

So I've been working with a couple of different fiber businesses over the last few years Shops, dyers, designers. Last few years, shops, dyers, designers, different kinds of people in the fiber craft business. And in the way that we work together is that at one point they took my course and the Yeovil Business Circle course or program it's program course potato, potato and after that they landed in the business membership and what that means is that every month we'll get together and we'll have a wins and woes session. We talk about the things that went well, the things that aren't going so well, and we talk to each other and learn from each other and share experiences that we can all learn from. And I have different roles in that. In a way, I am a mentor, I'm also a coach and I'm also really standing on the side and letting the conversation happen and kind of steering it in some directions in order to get some real insights from these conversations. So the advent calendar has come up so many times because for you as a maker, it might just revolve around the moment that you buy it and the surprising moment that you get it months later. But for a lot of makers, let's just focus on yarn dyers or fiber dyers. At this point I'm going to focus on that, but I'm well aware that there are other ways that we can do Advent calendars, but I'll just focus on the yarn dyers for now and so talking to them over the years.

Speaker 1: 2:55

They are working on this. Some of them, almost, are working on this for a whole year. It's a lot of planning, it's a lot of work, there's a lot of things going on behind the scenes and as a business mentor, slash coach, I have opinions. Yes, I do. As a crafter, I also have opinions because, oh my gosh, it is so fun to open packages every day or every week leading up to Christmas and it's so exciting and it takes you back to the feeling of being a small child and that Christmassy feeling and the birthday kind of feeling that is so hard to get when you're an adult. It's really hard to get that kind of feeling. The Advent Calendar will get you that kind of vibe. So I've done a little bit of research around it, but I'm mostly speaking from the experience of talking to these business owners and how they have experienced working on Advent calendars and selling them. So there's a bunch of things going on right.

Speaker 1: 4:18

So let's focus on the maker first. Let's focus on the maker first. The sales points where you can start buying a calendar are so early on in the year that your mind is not even at Christmas yet. But because the business owners need time to prepare, to dye all the yarns or fibers and pack them and do all the marketing around it and everything. That's why it's so early on in the year. So there's this moment usually in summer, but sometimes it's as early as spring where you already have to decide. Do I want to invest in this, in this magical thing that I have to wait on for months to come. And I say invest, because they are not cheap. So there's that. Now let's say that you enjoy that kind of thing so much, you have the budget, you want to support these makers, the dyers, and you are all in. This is your thing, and you're so excited or perhaps you are excited at the moment when you buy it then you forget about it and then you get that that rush of excitement again once it's time and once they start sending it. Now, sometimes you even they even send the calendars quite early. That's another thing to keep in mind, like, do you want to sit on it and wait until it's December or do you want to receive it at the last moment? And then that is kind of a risk for the dyer again. Okay.

Speaker 1: 6:13

But focusing now on makers, on those people that buy an advent calendar. The fun of it is definitely very, very important, the joy, everything I just told you about, everything I was just saying. But there's another part of it. There's another side to it, because there's a little bit or perhaps a lot of over consumptionumption going on. You buy an advent calendar for the fun, for the joy of it. Hardly ever because you quote unquote need it. Now we can say this for the whole of our hobby like, how much do we actually need the stuff we buy for our hobbies? Actually need the stuff we buy for our hobbies. So that's a whole thing in itself, and last episode I was a little bit so boxy on that topic, so I'll keep quiet on that for now.

Speaker 1: 7:17

But even if you're not focusing on making what you need so much, the overconsumption part of it is the fact that you'll get small amounts of different kinds of yarn or fiber and sometimes you'll get a pattern that goes with it and you're excited about the pattern. Sometimes you don't know what the pattern is and it's just all a big surprise. Sometimes the little packages, what's inside, are matching and they build on top of each other into something that is a coherent amount of fiber, coherent in the way of how how should I say? Vibe, color, style, um, fiber itself, fiber matter, um. Of course it can be that, but sometimes you don't know. So there's a choice you can make there. If you don't know what it'll be, if it's completely a surprise and it's going to be, you don't know if it's matched or not then you'll have all these different kinds, small amounts of fiber in your stash? And if you don't get a pattern to go with that? And even if you do, are you going to be making that? Or is it just about the joy of wrapping, unwrapping the packages and seeing what's in there?

Speaker 1: 8:55

Now there's something else about this that I truly enjoy and is definitely on the positive side of all of this. If you think about an advent calendar as a way of using different materials to learn and to evolve in your craft for example, if you have spinning fibers, you can use them to learn different techniques. If it's yarn, you can learn different stitches you can give yourself an extra level of functionality or consciousness when you get a calendar, so you can use it as a learning journey in a way. So there's definitely a lot of positive things about it. And then, of course, there's that consumption fiber waste. Are you going to put that in your stash and how do you feel about that? Because if you feel great about that, that's fine. Of course it's fine, but if you've listened to me before, you know that I'm all about. Do you, but think about what you do and think about if it matches your values and all of that.

Speaker 1: 11:58

So now going over to the other side. If you're listening, you're most probably somebody that either wants to start a business, already has a business or is super interested in what happens on the other side. And deciding to make an advent calendar for your customers is a huge thing because it's so much work and there's so many decisions to make and there's such a there's kind of pressure. There's pressure from the other businesses in the field that are doing the same thing and are doing it in ways that look so professional and so beautiful that it's just a huge thing. But even if you've done it for years and you grew into it because it's kind of a trend and it's still growing every year, it's bigger and there's more, bigger and there's more and if you've done it for a couple of years, I'm wondering how that is going and what is it asking from you as a business owner and what is it giving?

Speaker 1: 13:07

So what I hear a lot is the idea that being part of this is it's connected to FOMO, like if I don't have an ad fund calendar, I'm missing out on the opportunity. The others are doing it. So then so should I, and I don't think that is true. I think we have to be realistic and look at your numbers. Are you looking at your numbers? Are you actually making money with them? If you look at the cost of the products, of the materials, the hours that you are working on this, if you look at all of that and be honest, is it profitable? And if it is, is it in a way balanced in profitability compared to other things you can do in your business to grow your business? And that could be anything Like I can give examples, but like I don't know building a new website or starting workshops or whatever. Just looking at the whole picture of this, because all the time that you spend making these Advent calendars is time that you could also spend on something else that might be more profitable.

Speaker 1: 14:32

And let me just remind you once again that if this is a business, it's not a hobby, and you're in it for the money. Even though it feels awkward, that's what you're doing. If you run a business, you're in it for the money. Otherwise, it's just a hobby. I need to remind people of this. So sometimes I'll just throw it in there. So okay, we're looking at that. Throw it in there. So okay, we're looking at that.

Speaker 1: 14:56

And then people go and they say what about the exposure? Isn't it true that if you do this, if you are into the advent calendar thing, that you get so much exposure and I would argue no, not really, because you can post about it when you start selling it and sell it, and that is the moment where you should get most of your exposure. But what a lot of dyers are thinking about is the fact that once people get their calendars, they'll open it and take pictures and they'll show it on Instagram and other socials and then other people will see it. That's true, absolutely true. It'll be so fun to look at all of that, but that's not the time that people are buying. So that is just fleeting exposure that is not bringing in sales, and you are effectively asking people to remember last year's calendar when you start selling it again.

Speaker 1: 16:12

So there's something to think about. Could you do something with that? Once people are sharing, can you collect emails from people that might be interested in a way for the next one? But remember that at that moment, those moments of exposure will not translate into sales, except perhaps if you do something with your existing offers. So, let's say, if you have mini skeins of yarns that you sell now and people are showing them off from the advent calendar. Perhaps what you could do is share a cute picture or a pretty picture that somebody shared of their mini and then use it in a way to sell your full skins, something like that. But be conscious about that. That's really important, I think, if you want to be part of the solution in offering materials for people so that they can make their own clothes and accessories instead of buying fast fashion.

Speaker 1: 17:24

It's also important to go back to your value system and to look at how does something like this fit in there and can you perhaps do it, but in a different way? Or just be creative. Think out of the Advent box. How can it be a sustainable way of crafting? Could you perhaps connect it to I don't know, emails that are about mending and you use your minis to mend your things and you mend along alongside alongside it, and every, every day, you mend something using your minis or whatever. I'm just just off the top of my head here. But how can you connect this thing that you're afraid of letting go of because you want to be riding that magical dragon? I hope that is not a metaphor for something. I'm sure it is. Well, let's just roll with it, because I totally see that there's lots of FOMO around this, but there's also lots of hours and hours and hours of work that might not get enough return. So the time investment versus the return might not really, if you're honest, be viable. Also, looking at quantity and quality, perhaps you can think a little bit more about that. Do a little less, perhaps not 20, what is it? 24, 25 days, but weekly and a little bit. The amounts can be a little bit more, something like that. The amounts can be a little bit more, something like that.

Speaker 1: 19:21

Purposeful things, focusing on local fibers and making it yarn tasting and offering more information about the yarn and about where it's from, so that when somebody makes a larger project they immediately think about this great local yarn that they can use. Or perhaps do think about restrictions. Offer a calendar for locals with local yarn, or offer just a certain amount of calendars so that you know that you don't have to spend months preparing. We also talked about planning a lot and how can you make sure that this is not taking over your whole year? Just thinking backwards, how much do you need to sell to make it worthwhile and how much time do you need to dye those yarns to, to pack those packages, really just reverse engineering the whole thing and then deciding is it worth it or not, because there's one big thing that I kind of want to end with here is that it is so much easier to keep the customers that you have to make a connection with customers and build on those connections that you've already made than to continuously trying to reach new people in an industry and even if it's such a niche right, the fiber craft industry small, small, small, but even there there are so many advent calendars and you have to do a lot of work to find all the customers that you need and, in the end, how many of those customers, and you should be able to look at your numbers and your information on the back end of your website. And if you don't have that information, that is something that we'll talk about soon, because you need to see if people are buying it again, and I bet that a lot of people will just have one experience of an advent calendar with you and then they move on to the next one, the next business. So is that worth all of that time? Worth all of that time? Or is it more important to focus on the people that are already in your community and in your client list.

Speaker 1: 22:05

This is just something I wanted to talk about and I cannot wait to hear your reactions about this. I'm sure you have opinions, so go to the show notes link. The link is in the show notes. You can go to the website and there's a recorder button and you can record a message to me.

Speaker 1: 22:27

And I'd love to hear your thoughts about Advent calendars. Is it magical or is it a monster? And how do you, as a business, deal with this? But just give us a little bit of insight about how you do these things. And you could be super, super profitable and have figured out a way that you are not working hours and hours and weeks and months on this. And if you are the sharing kind, it would be amazing to hear from you. And if you don't want to share with everybody and you are up for sharing it with a smaller group, then why don't you become a member of our community?

Speaker 1: 23:09

Go to patternshiftfm to find out more.

Speaker 1: 23:12

For a small, small, small amount, you'll be part of a community of makers and sellers that want to change the world one stitch at a time.

Speaker 1: 23:23

I'd love to hear from you before I forget, if you go over to patternshiftfm, you'll get a pop-up and you can download my door wall calendar for 2025. And you can print it out as large as you like. It's free. And what you could do is print it out a little bit smaller and then use it to plan your Advent calendar year, because it's one year on one page. It makes it very clear very quickly how much time you spend on a project like this. So if you make loads of money doing this, by all means it brings quite a bit of fun to people. But also think about your value system as a business, about conscious use of materials, and perhaps do something extra to make it part of somebody's learning journey or make it more sustainable, or do something that shows off lots of different makers. Connect it to what you think is important and don't do it because everybody else is doing it. That has never been a great reason to do anything. Bye.