Last Wednesday I had the opportunity to go to a business&craft seminar hosted by the Cleveland Craft Connection. For those interested in crafts, there were classes ranging from Beginner&Intermediate Knitting to Fabric Necklaces. I decided to take advantage of the wonderful business-minded folks who were in attendance and signed up for courses in Branding, Business 101, Social Media and Etsy.
78th Street Studios
Our fearless Flea leader, Stephanie Sheldon, discussing personal brands. I feel so fortunate to be able to participate in the awesome-ness that is the Cleveland Flea. Starting a vintage shop has been an interest of mine for years and the Flea has been the perfect place for me to start and figure out the ins and outs of having a business.
Helping people navigate through this is another passion of Stephanie's and she leads classes and takes on clients through her other endeavor Indie Foundry
Oh Etsy...as necessary as it is, it seems terrifying and time-consuming to keep up an Etsy shop. I've always thought that after putting all of that work into photographing and listing items, they would just disappear in a pool of other vintage items. And yes, that can happen, but our Etsy liaisons were so knowledgeable and helpful and after the craziness of the Holiday Flea calms down, I plan on tackling the world of e-commerce!
There was also a wonderful keynote address from the founder/owner of Chic-a, Joanna Reyes. She shared her successes and failures in starting her business and adapting to different demands. Her parting words were the all-too-relevant Proverbs 16:19-"The heart of man plans his way but The Lord establishes his steps". I fully believe that as much as I plan and dream and try to figure out how this is all going to work out, ultimately, someone greater than I has His hands in everything and is orchestrating this wonderful gift called life.
While super informative and helpful, my other two classes were a little more dry...but hey, look at these cute quilting hoops :)
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