“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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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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![When I was in high school I worked at a vintage store. It was my dream to work there. When some dreams come true, you see all the cracks in your fantasy but in this case it’s was pretty darn near perfect.
I dressed the mannequins (pretty sure that’s where my short stint as a Hollywood costumer 10 years later came from). I reorganized the store any way I wanted (finally a place for my OCD to shine). Window/store displays were 100% mine (my childhood obsession with dioramas came in handy). I got a discount and first pick of everything that came in.
My bosses were an “old” (to me at 16 year old although they were probably only in their 20s or 30s) couple of punk rockers with bleached hair and tattoos that looked like they were done with a blunt needle and ink from a ballpoint pen.
I was a Catholic school girl who wore plaid skirts and white button up shirts from 9-3 Monday-Friday but after school and on the weekend, I dressed like I’d just come out of a time machine from the 1950s and smoked cigarettes as I rung people up while Iggy Pop blared from the boombox on the shelf behind the counter.
It was a magical time when I look back with my rose-colored glasses. There were moments of magic but also feeling scared being in the store at night alone, wondering if my bosses thought I was doing a good job and spending hours cleaning (spraying Windex and rubbing spots with a paper towel) garbage bags full of clothes my bosses dropped off from their hauls at the by-the-pound wholesalers.
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