Growing a handmade business after retirement
Turning my crafting hobbies into a career in the last years of my 50’s. Learning new crafts, making art and exploring the world of handmade gifts and trinkets.
A new chapter begins
Retirement is supposed to be the quiet chapter, long mornings, slower days, and finally catching up on all the things life never left room for. For me, it turned out to be the loudest, most creative, and most unexpectedly rewarding chapter of all.
Before starting EmEmbyMojo, I worked in social work. As retirement approached, I began exploring how my crafting hobbies could become a new career, learning new skills and discovering what I enjoyed making.
The answer, it turned out, was to make things.
Learning in my late 50s
I have always enjoyed being creative, from crochet to card-making. But in the last years of my 50s, I decided to take that curiosity seriously. I started learning new crafts properly: understanding colour, composition, and technique rather than just improvising. I explored everything from handmade greeting cards to art prints, from home décor to bath and body products with a distinctly Scottish character.
Learning as an adult is a different experience to learning young. You have less tolerance for things that feel pointless, and a much sharper sense of what genuinely lights you up. For me, that was the intersection of Scottish heritage and everyday gifting, making beautiful, useful things that carry a sense of place.
There is something deeply satisfying about mastering a skill later in life. Nobody expects it of you, which means there is no pressure and no ceiling.
From hobby to handmade business
The shift from making things for pleasure to making things for a business did not happen overnight. It crept up gradually, friends asking if they could buy something, family suggesting I sell at markets, a growing collection of products that felt genuinely ready to be seen.
EmEmbyMojo grew out of that slow realisation that what I was making had value beyond my kitchen table. The name carries something personal: a small piece of identity tucked into a brand. The products carry something equally personal: a love of Scotland, an eye for quality, and the belief that a handmade gift says something that a mass-produced one simply cannot.
Building a shop brought plenty of new things to learn, from photographing products to getting to grips with selling online. It has been a learning process, taking things one step at a time.
What we make and why it matters
Every item in the EmEmbyMojo collection is chosen with a recipient in mind. Whether it is a handmade card crafted with care, a piece of art for the wall that celebrates Scotland’s landscapes, a bath and body set made from quality ingredients, or a gift chosen for someone special, the intention is always the same.
We want the person receiving it to feel genuinely thought of.
Scotland is not just a backdrop here. It is the inspiration: the textures, the colour palette, the sense of warmth amid something rugged and enduring. Our home accessories and kitchen and dining pieces bring that character into everyday spaces. Our birthday gifts make occasions feel properly marked.
A note on timing
People sometimes ask whether starting a business after retirement is realistic. My honest answer is: it depends entirely on why you are doing it.
If you want a fast return on investment, this may not be the path. Building something handmade and authentic takes time. But if you want to keep learning, stay active, channel your creativity into something real, and connect with people who appreciate what you make, then there is genuinely no better time.
Retirement removes most of the fear. You have already built your life. You are not gambling your future; you are enriching your present.
Come and take a look
If any of this resonates, whether you are retired yourself and thinking about a creative venture, or simply someone who values a gift that took real effort to make, I would love you to explore the shop.
Browse our gift collections and find something for a birthday, a new home, or just because. And if you ever want to know more about a product or how it was made, drop us a message. There is always a story behind it.
Explore EmEmbyMojo and find something thoughtful for someone special, or for yourself.