It's that time of year when you should be tallying all of your receipts to get ready for tax preparation. I recommend hiring a good CPA to take care of your business tax needs. Unless you are fluent in tax law, or have a very small business, the cost you pay to a professional tax preparer will outweigh the gains you will receive by having advice that is correct. Tax laws change each year and it is hard for the small business owner to keep up without a knowledgeable person to help.

The CHA conventions are great places to learn a wide variety of information about selling your crafts to not only retail shoppers, but also to shops. If you have not attended one of these large craft organization-based venues, I highly recommend it. While costs can sometimes seem a little steep compared to small retail craft events, the information you will learn is priceless.

So what's it take to turn from a part-time hobbyist to a full-time crafter? First of all, you will need enough events and outlets for selling your crafts to fill an entire year. Make sure you "mix up" your income streams. Shows, a website, trade shows and consignment are a good mix to make sure your year is filled with enough different outlets to keep your business profitable.

When your craft business grows to a certain level, you may start to consider hiring someone to help. For crafts, I recommend sub-contract labor before you go into hiring an actual employee. The reason is simply.: employees require things like withholding taxes, worker's comp insurance and strict guidelines from just about every government agency you can think of... If you hire someone as a sub-contactor, you can tell them how many pieces to create and when it needs to be finished. Of course, with contract labor, you cannot tell them where to be, and when to do it. You also cannot specify how they perform the work. Just that the outcome meets your requirements.