Summit of Awesome

So, this past Saturday was the Summit of Awesome, put on by Hello Craft.  And, I must say, it lived up to its name!  First, where else can you just walk in and come upon a table full of fun materials to start creating with?!

There were lots of good presentations on various aspects of running a crafts business:  a woman from MailChimp spoke about the different features available to send out newsletters and other email messages to subscribers; there was a lawyer who talked about the ins and outs of copyright, trademark, and public domain in the arts;  the founder of Spoonflower talked about how he and his partner came up with the idea and how it's been growing over the last 5 years, but not as smoothly as it might appear.  I also really appreciated the presentation from a representative from Outright who explained some of the features of that accounting service (which I already use, but probably not to its full potential).  Actually, after the whole day of presentations, I realized a few key things:

1)     I am operating at a very middling understanding of all the benefits that a number of these online services can provide.

2)     And, to do things right and at the level I would like to do things, I need about 30 hours a day.

3)     And, it's true what they say – a crafts business is probably about 20% crafting and 80% business!

But, you know what, you do what you can do!

I ran into one of my crochet students, and it was great to see her.  I'm impressed by her crochet work and that she has quit her day job and is giving this a try full-time!  Her company is called Penny & Paul, and she is currently making the cutest baby beanies and little shoes.  She's inspiring me in so many ways, and I hope to report soon about some different ways in which we are going to team up :-)

I also ran into a number of other really talented crafters there, and as I said, it was a really inspiring day, though by the end, I had a headache and felt a bit overwhelmed.  I plan, though, to use the experience to really (once again) step back and think about how I use my very limited time.  I'm sure I'll continue to share those struggles with you over many upcoming posts.