Launched in Lockdown: How the Pandemic Ushered Brits To Turn Their Hobby Into an Income Stream

Repeated lockdowns, restrictions and a turbulent jobs market ushered more Brits than ever before into entrepreneurialism as in 2021, we saw the beginning of the Great Resignation, where in the wake of the pandemic, millions of people decided to change careers. In fact, in the UK, a record 400,000 Brits swapped jobs in the third quarter of 2021, a trend that looks set to continue into 2022, with new data by LoveCrafts – the UK’s leading craft supplier – unveiling the Brits who have now turned their pandemic pastime into a full-time career.

Over 1 million businesses were started during 2020 and 2021 alone. Now, recognising the societal shift in the private sector with Brits transforming their living rooms into workshops, a first-of-its-kind study by LoveCrafts.com has unveiled that 1 million Brits said the pandemic led them to turn their passion for part-time crafting into a full-time career. Further to this, 4.1 million now craft items to sell with a further 5 million being encouraged by friends and family to sell their homemade makes.

With Brits turning hobbies into hustles, metrics from the online marketplace Depop reported a 300% increase in sales as the growth of independently made items became ubiquitous, and handmade grew up to 30% on the platform. Now, as the art in artisan is commercially rewarding, LoveCrafts explores a nation that has turned their crafting passion to profit, with 3.5 million now monetising homemade crafts.

Case Studies:
Championing indie designers and micro-businesses, LoveCrafts has profiled an array of Britain’s most prolific crafting entrepreneurs: https://www.lovecrafts.com/en-gb/c/article/indie-june-2021