We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Priscilla Mitchell a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Priscilla, appreciate you joining us today. Being a business owner can be really hard sometimes. It’s rewarding, but most business owners we’ve spoken sometimes think about what it would have been like to have had a regular job instead. Have you ever wondered that yourself? Maybe you can talk to us about a time when you felt this way?

I am happier as a business owner, but it definitely comes with it’s own stressors. The one thing I like about regular jobs is the consistency, and that I wasn’t just answering to myself, as in I had a commitment to a job, so I know I would fulfil what I had to do. Sometimes, I have a hard time with schedules, getting things done, distractions, and self motivation. Lately, it’s been a little harder than usual, and my mindset became pretty negative; I constantly felt like I wasn’t doing enough, and that I wasn’t good enough. I told my husband this, and that sometimes I thought of just getting a job to make all of this easier. He basically said I didn’t want that again, hahaha.

When you are running your own business you wear MANY hats: payroll, accountant, tax preparer, marketing, creator, social media manager… everything. It can easily get overwhelming, especially if you have a hard time sticking to a schedule.

But no matter how many times my thoughts consider quitting being a business owner, I couldn’t imagine life without what I have built. At the end of the day it brings me joy and satisfaction unlike anything else, and I wouldn’t want to give that up.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

For everyone who doesn’t know me, my name is Priscilla, I own The Stitch Queen Crochet, and I create colorful boho and hippie crochet patterns. I love designing crochet clothing that my fellow crocheters actually want to make for themselves, not just another design they can find anywhere else. Making patterns that my clients can crochet and sell is also a big thing for me, I love to see the people around me make money and succeed.

One thing I particularly pride myself in is creating size inclusive/made to measure patterns so that anyone in any size can make my pattern and feel beautiful wearing it!

I also include video tutorials for each stitch in all of my patterns, so that if you don’t know something you can learn it!

Bohemian and hippie styes are my jam. I love creating flowy styles, adding texture, and lots of color to what I create, and I want to be known for that.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Running crochet as a full time business is not as easy as some may make it seem, which is why a lot of people mostly do it as a hobby and sell items for fun. When I started up my crochet business again in 2019, after taking a bit of break to fully run my henna business, I realized pretty quickly that just selling items would never be enough to pay the bills, for me at least.

At this time I was crocheting my signature shorts, and I would get asked pretty frequently about releasing my pattern for it. I had already released my “Rastafarian Dreadlock Tube Hat Pattern”, and that was selling well, so I thought, why not?
I procrastinated for a bit, but after I got married and moved to my new place, I decided to get it done.
When I released that pattern, it sold like crazy, and is still one of my best sellers to this day!

This instance opened my eyes to a more sustainable crochet business idea: focusing on selling patterns, and less time making and marketing items that may or may not sell.

When I started focusing on this, I also had to change my target audience from people who wanted to buy crochet, to people who crocheted. Luckily my social media pages weren’t too huge yet and I could quickly make a pivot.

This also showed me the world of multiple income streams and made me realize it was the only way for me to make my business grow and get a certain level of residual/passive income. Since this change in direction and focus, my business income has increased many times over, and I have created many patterns that I and many others love to crochet!

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

All of my clients feel like my friends, and I love letting them see inside of my business and life. The crochet community is an amazing one, and I highly enjoy being a part of it, and creating my own mini one on my social media pages. I currently use Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, and my email list to keep in touch with my people. One thing that I do in particular is be myself. I can’t tell you how many times people point out that they love who I am, and what I share, and that it just brightens their day. I stay true to who I am, and that brings the people who are supposed to be in my circles, an it makes them want to stay.

I also love to share tips and techniques with my followers, I even made a group about how to become a crochet pattern designer, and I share what I do and how I do it for free with them.

Also, going Live is a big thing for me. I go Live on Facebook more than my other social media platforms, and I have really fostered great relationships with my fellow crocheters because of it.

One last thing I’d like to mention is the fun I have with my pattern testers. If you don’t know what pattern testers are, they are a group of several crocheters who test out my crochet patterns to make sure it’s easy to read and comes out the way it is supposed to before I release it to the public. I make a chat for us all to talk and share our progress, and it’s always a great time for us all to connect and crochet together.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thestitchqueencrochet.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/thestucthqueencrochet
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/thestitchqueencrochet
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thestitchqueencrochet/
• Other: TikTok – www.tiktok.com/@thestitchqueencrochet Etsy Shop – www.etsy.com/shop/stitchqueencrochet Ravelry – https://www.ravelry.com/designers/priscilla-mitchell Pinterest – https://www.pinterest.com/thestitchqueencrochet/