Dear Fellow Creatives,

After much deliberation, the directors of the Conference of Creative Entrepreneurs have decided to put the conference on hiatus in 2012.  Many more opportunities exist to help creative professionals with their businesses than when we began CCE in 2009, like Hello Etsy, Schoolhouse Craft, Blogher Creative Connection, WorkshopSF’s small business series, and many more.  With that in mind, we are taking the year to re-assess how CCE can best serve the West Coast creative community and are considering new formats, and new ways to educate.  If you would like to provide your suggestions, we welcome your feedback on our survey page.

We want to thank everyone who attended or worked on CCE during the last two years.  Both events were more successful than we could have imagined, and we are eternally grateful for all of your support.  We continue to delight in hearing about the projects and collaborations that began at CCE, from business partnerships, to pen pals, to book deals.

Please continue to stay in touch with us via Facebook, Twitter, and our web site.  We will continue to provide information and resources throughout the year as we make way for an exciting 2013.

Wishing you all success and fulfillment in 2012,

Lauren, Jamie and Laura

the entire CCE header hand-stitched in felt, from Andie Clark and Sheila Jackson of American Felt and Craft,

and a lavender pillow by Claudia Comay, with “Thank you” written on one side, and Jeff’s favorite word written on the other.

Thanks for these wonderful tokens of gratitude.  It really made our day!

Hi Everyone,

On behalf of Bazaar Bizarre, Stitch Labs, Willo O’Brien, Josh Zerkel, and Justin Glaeser, we want to thank you for joining us Thursday evening. We had a great time and hopefully you did too. If you were unable to attend, I’m including the links of all the speakers above and the links of the suggested apps below.

While we enjoy sharing the knowledge in the tech space that we spend so much time working in, what’s even better is getting out and having the opportunity to meet with so many creative people doing what they love. Please feel free to reach out to any of us if you have questions or would like to know more about how we might be able to help your business grow.

Also, one of our amazing panelists (Josh Zerkel), is having a FREE teleseminar 2 weeks from now where he’ll be talking more about online tools. For those of you that were at the meeting, you know how great Josh is and you won’t want to miss it! Click here for more info.

There were so many apps discussed, I’ll do my best to categorize them a bit.

Sales and Inventory Management

Stitch Labs

Collaboration

Google apps/docs

Dropbox

EchoSign

Basecamp

Asana

Organization

Evernote

Weave

Shoeboxed

Things

SugarSync

Busy Cal

Social and Email Marketing

Hootsuite

Sprout Social

Nimble

MailChimp

Constant Contact

Customer Relationship Managment (CRM)

Highrise

Salesforce

Infusionsoft

eCommerce

Storenvy

Etsy

Shopify

Magento

Invoicing/Time Tracking

Harvest

Freshbooks

Also, a site that does an excellent job of reviewing apps is makeuseof, but you can feel free to reach out to any of us via email or social media to ask questions. We’re happy to help. All of our links to our social media are on our pages (links above), so feel free to follow what we’re all up to.

We hope everyone has a great weekend and we hope to see you all again in the future.

Jake Gasaway

Director of Business Development – Stitch Labs

Happy Fall Y’all!  Just wanted to drop you a line regarding some fun studio updates!  Join us for our first ever workshop- PRINTIN’ IN THE KITCHEN. On October 1 we are gonna be cooking up some fine prints to schnazz up your kitchen in our San Francisco Studio!  Take a gander at those beauties in the header above– they will be yours!  Here is the full description:
Printin’ in the Kitchen, Saturday, October 1  10am -1pm
In this workshop you will carve your own food-inspired stamps and create projects by printing on paper and fabric.  We will make recipe cards, stationery, adorable jars and a tea towel.  We will have fun with relief printing and image transfer printing.  Fruit and Veggie design templates, created only for this workshop by teacher Christine Schmidt, will be your guide. Christine will also work with you to help you create your own designs!  You will leave with your completed projects and set of carved stamps so you can continue the fun at home!   Customize your own kitchen or make sweet personal gifts for the foodie in your life.   All supplies and materials are included in the cost.  Newbies and more experienced print makers are invited to join in the fun!  Cost is 85.00 all materials included.  Sign up here! We will be having more classes as the holiday season ramps up so keep your eyeballs open for more seasonal info!

There are only eight spots TOTAL for this workshop, so if you want to learn from the masters, make sure to reserve your spot today.

We also hear that Christine and Evan are expecting a “Baby Girl Yellow Owl Schmidt Gross” in January. Congrats to you both!

Many thanks,

Lauren, Jamie and Laura

p.s. We will not use your photos for our own marketing purposes without your permission and a linked photo credit, of course.

SFMade Orientation, Sept 20th

Come to an overview of SFMade’s programs and services and learn how we help manufacturing companies to succeed.
When: September 20th, 6-7 pm
Where: TechShop
926 Howard Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
Sign up here: http://wwwsfmade.ticketleap.com/orientation-7/

How to Manufacture Locally, Sept 27th

If you are planning to produce clothing, accessories, food or building/furniture products, this session is for you! In an interactive and supportive environment, you’ll learn how to set-up and manage your own manufacturing operation or use contract manufacturers.

We will cover key considerations including:

•    Assessing your needs and what makes the most sense for your particular business

•    Information and referrals to local factories and manufacturing resources

•    Acquiring facilities and where to look

•    Zoning and Permitting Issues

•    Obtaining financing

•    Addressing legal issues and documentation requirements

•    Overcoming specific roadblocks and challenges

•    Making valuable connections with your local manufacturing community

Presenters: Kate Sofis, Executive Director, SFMade, and Janet Lees, Director of Programs and Communications, SFMade

When: Sept 27th, 6-8 pm
Where: TechShop
926 Howard st
San Francisco
Register here

Bike to Make Ride, Sept 29th

Join SFMade and the SF Bicycle Coalition for a visit to three of San Francisco’s neighborhoods that still are home to many of our City’s finest local manufacturers – South of Market, the Northeast Mission, and the Dogpatch.  Led by SFMade’s Kate Sofis, the tour will start in SOMA where we visit Tech Shop – SFMade’s headquarters and a fascinating do-it-yourself facility for makers – and taste the freshly roasted coffee at nearby Ritual Coffee’s roasting facility; the tour continues into the historic Northeast Mission manufacturing district where we will visit several producers; and then we are off to the Dogpatch to glimpse DodoCase’s manufacturing operation, and we conclude at Rickshaw Bagworks.

Bikes not provided, so please bring your own!

When: Thurs, Sept 29th, 1-3 pm
Cost:  $25.00
Where: Tour begins at TechShop
926 Howard st
San Francisco
Register here
Space limited to 20.

• Tonight from 6-9pm at the Verdi Club (2424 Mariposa, San Francisco), come celebrate the release of Kelly Wilkinson’s first book, Weekend Handmade.  It’s currently available on Amazon here, and has so far garnered exclusively five-star reviews!

 

• Speaking of accomplished craft authors, the Halloween silhouettes that Jeffery Rudell shared in his keynote have, in a naturally modified from, also just come out as a book. You can find it on Amazon.com here. If you’re a big fan of Jeff’s silhouette work, you can also pick up his Silhouette Your Pet kit.  Stay tuned for his much-anticipated paper craft book in the coming months.

 

• Not to be outdone, Grace Dobush (whose second book is also due to be published in the spring) was just hired as executive editor of HOW Magazine’s new interactive design community.  Along with occasionally contributing to the magazine, which is an amazing business resource for creative people, Grace will be managing a new website (launching soon) and HOW’s new interactive design conference (happening in San Francisco in November!).  Says Grace: “I’m incredibly stoked to join the HOW team — I’ve admired the magazine for years (and was an editorial intern there back in 2004), and I love that I’ll be supporting and working with creative professionals full time.”

Thank you all for continuing to inspire us to get off our duffs and be awesome. Your accomplishments serve as a wonderful kick in the keister.

The first event is a taco-and-beer party on Friday called Meet. Greet. & Eat.  It’s sponsored by our phenomenal media sponsors, Utterly Engaged.  Utterly Engaged is a gorgeous online wedding magazine that is committed to supporting indie wedding businesses rather than the usual impersonal, wedding-industrial-complex companies that churn out the same barbie-themed stuff.  If you’d like to go, please register at: http://greetmeeteat.eventbrite.com.  CCE attendees will receive their free code via e-mail tomorrow.

Our second event is a cocktail hour and book signing at CCE, from 4-6pm on Saturday, August 6th at the Women’s Building.  Admission is free with your CCE badge.  Otherwise there is a suggested donation at the door.  This event doesn’t have it’s own awesome banner, but it features:

• Book signing with multiple CCE speakers, including: Lisa Congdon, Diane Gilleland, Meg Mateo Ilasco, Jenny Hart, Jamie Zollars, Grace Dobush, Erin Loechner, and Cody Vrosh
• Delicious food and beverages provided by Wine Sisterhood, Mission Minis cupcakes, rootd tea and more!
• Make-and-take workshops including a kanzashi demo by Diane Gilleland

Networking and making new friends is one of the most important reasons to come to a conference like CCE, so join us at both!  After all, the booze is free!

• Week 1: Setting Up Your Storefront: Learn all of the rich tools available to you with your Meylah storefront and use them to build a powerful storefront that looks great for your visitors.
• Week 2: Creating Your Content: Learn all of the tips and tricks to writing blog posts, clever product descriptions and even taking pictures to make your products and your messages pop!
• Week 3: Building Your Community: Learn about building your community online and offline to really achieve the impact you want…there is power in numbers!
• Week 4: Take Your Business To The Next Level: Learn about all the advanced techniques and innovative ideas that you can use to make your Meylah storefront rise to the top!

All three Meylah founders will be at CCE so you can meet them in person and learn about what they do (they’re all super nice and friendly).  They have also generously donated several free memberships to our raffle.  Sweet!

I have been in that leaky boat myself, so I was really intrigued when we were first approached by Vianza.  Vianza is a business platform and social marketplace for designers, independent retailers, suppliers, and small-batch producers to find each other, source products, materials & services, work together, and profit together.

Says CCE speaker Mita Patnaik,

“This solution bloomed from my experience in supply chain management for big businesses and as designer that worked with small batch producers and co-ops to create a line of handwoven textiles for home & body. I experienced the struggle of every designer: finding retailers, getting stock to them, finding suppliers and artisans and getting all the information from them. I knew from experience that big businesses manage this with supply chain management software…but how could a single designer manage her own supply chain? Where were the tools for that?”

In the same entrepreneurial spirit that spawned CCE, Mita created Vianza and made those tools herself.  Some of the neat things Vianza can help you with:

• Managing your workflow
• Organizing + tracking orders, shipments, invoices and payments.
• Allowing customers to track their orders
• Sourcing supplies and manufacturing for your products

The real beauty of Vianza, though, is that it supports sustainable development on a global scale. Mita is definitely a citizen of this ever-smaller world, as she told me recently from Bangalore: “When we create locally and sell globally, not only do we support other independent, creative businesses, but we also support local communities all over the world.”  In other words, by hooking up with other indie businesses for manufacturing and materials, you help make those businesses more sustainable at the same time you make yours more sustainable.  Win-win!

If you’re interested in learning more about how to grow your business beyond the one-person factory, consider these sessions:

Taking it to the Next Level with Mita Patnaik, Christine Schmidt and Evan Gross, Brandon Levey, Ferron Salniker and Jenny Hart, moderated by Jordan Kushins of Dwell.com

DIY and On-Demand Manufacturing with Meghan Kennedy, Josh Judkins, Stephen Fraser, and John Vegher

DIY is Overrated with Willo O’Brien

Creative Collaboration: Don’t DIY Alone with Willo O’Brien, Jaime Zollars and Kelly Wilkinson