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Marketing your creative business: how to find your ideal customer
Business Tips

Marketing your creative business: how to find your ideal customer

ByEleanor Whitney March 13, 2015March 12, 2015

“How do I market my shop and products?” is the most common question I get asked by shop owners who use Shapeways, the 3D printing service and marketplace where I work on the community team. My answer is always more…

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Four steps for healthy, creative business collaboration
Business Tips

Four steps for healthy, creative business collaboration

ByEleanor Whitney February 20, 2015February 16, 2015

Like many creative people, I both love and loathe working alone. I often feel I want to pursue my singular creative vision, but also feel strongly that my vision and what I can create is stronger when I work with…

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Why looking back moves your creative business forward in the new year
Business Tips

Why looking back moves your creative business forward in the new year

ByEleanor Whitney January 23, 2015January 23, 2015

It’s the time of the year for resolutions, putting our best intentions into action, and setting goals for the year ahead. To help get your New Years’ projects and goals up to speed and set realistic goals for this year…

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How Makers + Entrepreneurs Can Survive and Thrive during the Holidays
Business Tips

How Makers + Entrepreneurs Can Survive and Thrive during the Holidays

ByEleanor Whitney December 5, 2014December 5, 2014

The holiday season has officially arrived and with it comes the familiar rush of parties, fairs, markets, sales, and social events. I work for an online retail company and we, like many makers and merchants, have been preparing for the…

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How to assess + pitch the value of your creative products
Business Tips

How to assess + pitch the value of your creative products

ByEleanor Whitney October 31, 2014October 31, 2014

Do you value the creative work that you do and business you are building? “Of course I do!” you say to yourself, but do you know how to pitch and communicate that value to your customers? And finally, do your…

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How to Craft a Successful Crowdfunding Campaign
Business Tips

How to Craft a Successful Crowdfunding Campaign

ByEleanor Whitney October 3, 2014September 27, 2014

So you have taken the plunge and decided to run a crowdfunding campaign because you are burning with passion about your project and are ready to spread the word and raise money. You are excited but also  nervous about what…

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Should you crowdfund for your handmade business?
Business Tips

Should you crowdfund for your handmade business?

ByEleanor Whitney August 20, 2014August 20, 2014

As independent creatives, most of us had the opportunity to support, or even run, a crowdfunding campaign for a creative project. Mustering up support from the community for our ambitious, creative projects is a big part of how creative projects…

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Three Tips to Get Creatives Inspired This Summer
Business Tips

Three Tips to Get Creatives Inspired This Summer

ByEleanor Whitney July 11, 2014July 26, 2014

As a North Easterner I’m attuned to the changing seasons. I think of winter as the time for hunkering down and honing a skill and summer as a stretch of languid days full of drinking lemonade and going to the…

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How to survive (and thrive at) conferences
Business Tips

How to survive (and thrive at) conferences

ByEleanor Whitney March 28, 2014July 21, 2014

Expert speakers. Valuable workshops. Sparkling parties with industry influencers. Meeting your social network in real life. These are just a few advantages of going to conferences. As fun as they are, they can also be overwhelming. I just returned from…

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how to assess opportunity cost for handmade businesses
Business Tips

how to assess opportunity cost for handmade businesses

ByEleanor Whitney February 28, 2014July 22, 2014

Lately I’ve been thinking about the concept of “opportunity cost,” which is probably familiar to any of you readers who have taken a course in microeconomics. Simply put, “opportunity cost” is what benefits or profits you forgo to pursue a…

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The time has come. Our incredible Katie Mac is mov The time has come. Our incredible Katie Mac is moving on from her social media manager duties at Team DHL. But, don't start bawling your eyes out quite yet, because Katie AKA @iamthekatiemac will still be on our team, just in a different role.
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This means that we have an opening for a new social media manager & we're also hiring a PR assistant!
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Do we have a list of dream qualities for applicants? Yeah. But, more than someone checking off every single thing on the list, I am passionate about working with other creatives who love this crafty small business community that we call home.
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Please share with anyone who you think would be a good fit.
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I can't wait to get to know you!
(Link in bio)
I've always been a goal setter. I mean, seriously, I've always been a goal setter. I mean, seriously, I turned my Hello Kitty diary into a TO-DO list notebook when I was in second grade.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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As a hardcore goal getting Type--A lady, I always spent a lot of time thinking about the future. My thoughts carried this notion that once I got ... fill in the blank (this apartment, this relationship, this work success etc.), things would be ok. I would be ok. Like, that version of myself that would exist once that thing was done was a better version of the current me.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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It took YEARS and lots of therapy and journaling and long late-night heart to hearts with friends for me to realize that the me in this very moment is ok. Not just ok, but awesome. That future me, she's great too. And, so is the past me. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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The best goal I have and the goal that's always on my list is to strive for harmony between being grateful for everything in this very moment and pushing towards growth in all aspects (self, relationships, work etc.). It's about letting your goals inspire you not make you feel like unless you accomplish them, you're 'less than'. It's about being your own biggest cheerleader.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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Thank you to #PatchworkShow alum @jessweymouth_ for creating this art that reminds me of my constant adventure with the symphony of gratitude and growth.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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📷🎨: @jessweymouth_
This little dog has been by my side through the wo This little dog has been by my side through the worst heartbreak, letting go of businesses and starting new ones, half a dozen moves, my business partnership starting and then ending, hundreds of drives back and forth between Northern and Southern California, getting married, our sweet son Luca joining our family and so much more. She’s the sweetest pooch, a die-hard protector, loyal, adaptable  and I’m so grateful her. Here’s to my dog Nina and all the four-legged furry best friends out there on Love Your Pet Day. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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Pet portrait by yours truly!
Here are my top three favorite crafts of all time. Here are my top three favorite crafts of all time...⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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1. Screenprinting⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
2. Sketchbooking ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
3. Sewing⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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I can't wait to read yours below...
I'll never forget reading The Bluest Eye in 9th gr I'll never forget reading The Bluest Eye in 9th grade. The way my world opened... not just to how gorgeous words could be when they're woven together by an artist with a pen and paper but also to another time and place, the pain of her characters, racial injustice, the concept of beauty and the ways in which I understood and related and the ones in which I didn't. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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Thank you and happy birthday, Toni Morrison, wherever you are... I hope the Sunday mornings are long,  the sunsets outlast your attention, the biscuits are buttery, your bookshelf is full and your pen never runs out of ink.
The thing I remember most about 6th grade Girl Sco The thing I remember most about 6th grade Girl Scout camp is…⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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this annoying camp song we sang about kids going on a bear hunt (why on earth are kids hunting bears?) during which they run into various obstacles… a river, a cave etc. * sing, ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
“Can't go over it, Can't go under it, Can't go around it, Got to go through it!”⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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30 years later that song pops into my head & whenever I’m in a rough spot, I sing that refrain to myself. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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I sang that refrain here while I knit my way through anxiety during one of my almost daily monitoring trips to the hospital during my high risk pregnancy last year. I remember how filled with fear I was that I’d tell myself, "just get through this next hour. Got to go through it," & then when that hour was up, I’d do it again until I was another day closer to having a healthy baby.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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I’ve hummed those words, “... Got to go through it!” to myself many other times through heartbreaks, losses,  disappointments & fear. Funny how that irritating song became one of my coping skills. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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It taught me that as hard as I try to push past the sadness or ignore the anxiety or fight the heartache, it won’t work. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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Every life-changing conversation, every transformative business risk, every pushed creative boundary, every truly blissful moment filled with that magic that makes you pause and say, “Thank you,” to the Universe, ALL of those experiences are born from going through it. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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Although you didn’t make friendship bracelets at camp with me, I’m sending you a care package. You can borrow my camp mantra. When the road gets bumpy, remind yourself that the only way out is through & call on your past triumphs to bolster your confidence until the last line becomes a rebel yell, “Got to go through it!”⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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P.S. - Our newsletter subscribers got a longer version of this story - link to subscribe in our bio.

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