This post has been updated on September 27, 2025.
There’s a big difference between making as a hobby, and making for a living, and today I’m going to share with you something that will give you an idea of how many things you’ll need to be making and selling every day, week, or month, to be bringing in a respectable income.
There’s a couple of things you need to think about first though!
Firstly, it is SUPER important to note that we are working with revenue numbers here, not profit. For a handmade business, a profit margin typically falls between 8% and 30%. So if your profit margin across all your products averages to only 5%, a $50,000 per year revenue equates to about $2,500 income/profit per year.
With this in mind, you need think about what a “respectable income” means, to YOU? What are you aiming for? And I’m talking about the ideal outcome here, not what you *think* you can make in your first year, or even your second year… I’m talking about the end game. Aim high here, people. And then aim even higher, to take into account your potentially low profit margin!
As an example, $50,000 profit with a 30% profit margin, would mean aiming to bring in $167k revenue. If you want to aim for $500 per month ($6000 per year), that would be about $20,000 in revenue.
Next, you have to be sure that you will be able to dedicate the time required to create the income you are aiming for. Meaning, if you want to earn $50,000 profit (perhaps equivalent to your current full-time income), it’s unlikely you’re going to be able to do this if you are currently working a full time, 35-40 hour per week day job. That is burn-out territory, and you definitely do NOT want to go there.
You might also like to read: How I made $607 in my first online market and how you can too
Let’s go with our first example, replacing your current income of $50k, with a 30% profit margin. This means $167,000 is your eventual revenue target! If you are currently working full time, your first plan of attack will be to decide at which point you will transition to a part-time day job, so the rest of your week is dedicated to your small business. And by dedicated, I mean interruption (specifically of the child variety) free, if at all possible. And then decide at which point will you quit your day job all together, and make your business your full-time gig.
Of course these things can seem kinda big and scary to plan or even think about, but really all you’re doing is saying what you’d LIKE to happen, and if it doesn’t, no worries. You’ll re-adjust, set some new plans and just keep going. Everything is figureoutable.
So let’s look at some figures.
We’ll go back to our second example, the lower profit target of $500 per month. Maybe you just want some extra spending money throughout the year, and are not intending to replace your regular income.
Jewellery Product Example
Let’s say you’re average product costs $45, and you want to bring in $20,000 revenue per year (this is before expenses), with a 30% profit margin.
You’ll need 445 people to buy one product per year – $20,025 revenue
That’s 38 products per month – $1,710 revenue
Or 9.5 products per week – $427.50 revenue
Now let’s look at the same number of products being sold, but put our average price up by just $4 to $49 (side note, studies show people are more likely to purchase at $49 rather than $45, even though it’s more expensive… it’s that magical number 9 at the end!).
9.5 products sold in one week – $465 revenue
38 products sold per month – $1,862 revenue
445 products sold per year – $21,805 revenue
That’s an extra $1,805 per year, from raising your average product price by just $4.
What if you want to make thet $50k per year profit? With an average price of $49 and a profit margin of 30%, you’ll need $167k in revenue.
You’ll need 3,409 people to buy one product per year – $167,041 revenue
That’s 285 products per month – $13,965 revenue
Or 72 products per week – $3,528
Hand-Sewn Clothing Product Example
So, what about if your products were on average, $149 each? Perhaps with a 15% profit margin. This means our revenue target needs to double, to make the same amount of profit, because the profit margin is halved.
You’ll need 269 people to buy one product per year – $40,081 revenue
That’s 23 products per month – $3,427 revenue
Or 6 products per week – $894
Or if your average price is $149, but you’re aiming for $50,000 profit (which means $333,334 revenue with a 15% profit margin):
You’ll need 2238 people to buy one product per year – $333,462
That 187 products per month – $27,863
Or 47 products per week – $7,003
DIY Sticker Product Example
So what does this mean for those of us selling lower-priced items? It means, a lot more production is needed (time intensive if you are DIY), but also that you might have a higher profit margin. Let’s say you sell stickers and stationery items, and your average price is $6. But you have a profit margin of 70%. Here are two scenarios for the number of items you need to sell in order to make $6000 per year profit, and $50,000 per year profit.
$6000 per year profit with $6 average price and 70% profit margin = $8,572 revenue
You’ll need 1429 people to buy one product per year – $8,574 revenue
That’s 119 products per month – $714 revenue
Or 30 products per week – $180
$50,000 per year profit with $6 average price and 70% profit margin = $71,428 revenue
You’ll need 11,905 people to buy one product per year – $71,430 revenue
That’s 992 products per month – $5,952 revenue
Or 248 products per week – $1,488 revenue
If you have a low priced, low profit margin product, you might be in trouble!
If you want to replace you 50k income with 50k profit from you business??
In each of these scenarios at different price points and profit margins, you need to work out:
- Can I make 72 pieces of jewellery per week to sell at $49 with a 30% profit margin?
- Can I make 47 items of clothing per week to sell at $149 with a 15% profit margin?
- Can I make 248 stickers per seek to sell at $6 with a 70% profit margin?
It is physically possible?
I think this really goes to show that what you’re making and selling MATTERS. Your level of profitability can be greatly enhanced or restricted by your profit margins, as you can see!
What I want you to do right now is put pen to paper (or create a spreadsheet if that’s your thing), and work out what it will take, how many products you would need to sell per year, month and week, to make $10,000, $50,000 and $100,000 in revenue, to hit your ideal amount of profit.
Is it more, or fewer products than you thought? Is that number of products per week currently realistic, or will you need to outsource some tasks down the track (or put your prices up!).