Are you a serious business person?

At Etsy there is a thread about can I make enough only on Etsy? It caught my eye and I read the post. What stood out were the remarks mostly saying you need to do other things to attract buyers to your shop. This I really agree with and if you are not creating you are marketing.

Painted Wood Keepsake Box

Underlying the remarks was a sentiment that crafters (I dislike this description) can never make enough to support themselves unless there is a husband supporting the family or you. One, these statements were obviously made by women probably mothers and married. Making this generalized observation about crafts is simplifying the real business of creating handmade quality product and the average crafters is not serious about their work and this is why it is a craft. The creative artist is extremely serious and looks at their work as a business. Their quality highly different work overlooked because Etsy and other sites are being overrun by the I like to craft people. Not everyone at Etsy are in this category and many are serious artists and serious business people. It is impossible for Etsy to filter the not serious crafters from the serious artist.

Maybe it is up to the person to ask themselves if you are not serious than move aside and allow the serious artist show their work. There are church fairs and local outlets for those who just dabble. For some of us it is our livelihood and there is no one else picking up the tab and we could not be happier. This is our chosen profession and we work every day at our jobs. Having your own business is not for those that look at it as being part-time. Art is serious business and artist are serious business people.

So I ask you are you serious about being a creative artist or are you a part-time crafter?