Synopses & Reviews
Are you ready to make a living from your craft? Applying her trademark "you-can-do-it" coaching style to the nuts and bolts of business planning, Kari Chapin covers all of the issues involved in turning your creative hobby into a successful business--from mapping out a business plan to expanding production and distribution, finding funding, and addressing legal matters. With this definitive guide, you'll discover how to grow your business beyond the dining room table and finally quit your day job.
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Carefully defining such differences as "goals" versus "intentions" and "business" versus "personal," Chapin draws the reader up through successive layers of consciousness, moving steadily toward that crucial juncture where what you do and
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Crafters and artists or those thinking about turning a hobby into a career will find sound, practical advice here. Handweaver's Guild of America
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Kari has cut through the puffed up, polysyllabic language and posturing that most business books spin that makes it all seem like some secret society.
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Kari Chapin covers a variety of essential business areas such as mapping out a business plan, expanding production and distribution, finding funding, and addressing legal matters. Ms Chapin's marketing background and her "can do" attitude provides craftsmen the tools to grow their hobby into a successful business. Easy to read and well organized, this book provides practical advice for getting started or how to grow an established business. If your goal is move your creative business out of your dining room, then let this be your guide. Living Crafts
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The style of this book is crisp and refreshing. Chapin's thoughts are invitingly readable and each chapter includes sound, practical advice from the Creative Collective as well. If you have ever wondered if you could actually make a living at your creative craft, Chapin has a wealth of answers for you. San Francisco/ Sacramento Book Review
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Thiswonderful book cheers you on and coaches you on how to make a livelihood from your passion, including stories from other creative people, their struggles, successes, and advice.
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This book will help take your business from the kitchen table to fulfilling your individualized dream of a fulfilling, meaningful, and lucrative creative business. Bead - & - Button
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It's an essential addition to an indie biz owner's bookshelf! Miss Modish
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Whether you sell your art out of a swanky studio, populate your Etsy shop with stuff you make at your kitchen table, or just dream about doing something along those lines, Kari Chapin has a word of advice: plan. As is a business plan! In Grow Your Handmade Business, you'll learn what creative people like yourself need to plan for in turning a hobby into a business. The book is readable, approachable, and supplemented by tips, tricks, and confessions from 24 other entrepreneurially minded folks. Lisa Congdon, artist, illustrator, author of A Collection a Day
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If you've decided to make 2013 the year you turn your crafting passion into a moneymaking venture, be sure to add Kari Chapin's Grow Your Handmade Business to your required-reading list. Hobby Farm Home
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Countless crafters have turned to The Handmade Marketplace for advice on selling their goods. Now Grow Your Handmade Business helps creative entrepreneurs achieve their long-term business goals. Kari and her contributors talk frankly about budgeting, licensing, marketing, time management, loans, taxes and even the law. Whether you are new to the handmade business world or attempting to grow your business, this book will be valuable. Lisa Congdon, artist, illustrator, author of A Collection a Day
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If there was ever such a thing as a creative business therapist, I would be laying on the couch in Kari's office gladly throwing cash at her. Jay McCarroll, fashion designer, fabric designer, Project Runway season 1 winner
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Time to bust the starving artist myth! Kari covers heavy business topics with creative flair and arms readers with knowledge they need to succeed. Tara Gentile, writer and business coach
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Kari has cut through the puffed up, polysyllabic language and posturing that most business books spin that makes it all seem like some secret society.
Review
Thiswonderful book cheers you on and coaches you on how to make a livelihood from your passion, including stories from other creative people, their struggles, successes, and advice.
Review
It's an essential addition to an indie biz owner's bookshelf! Hobby Farm Home
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If you've decided to make 2013 the year you turn your crafting passion into a moneymaking venture, be sure to add Kari Chapin's Grow Your Handmade Business to your required-reading list. Jay McCarroll, fashion designer, fabric designer, Project Runway season 1 winner
Review
Carefully defining such differences as "goals" versus "intentions" and "business" versus "personal," Chapin draws the reader up through successive layers of consciousness, moving steadily toward that crucial juncture where what you do
About the Author
Since the publication of The Handmade Marketplace in 2010 and Grow Your Handmade Business in 2012, Kari Chapin has gained national visibility as a sought-after speaker at craft business conferences and events. She also offers one-on-one creative coaching and courses online. She's known for her effective coaching style and distinctive, supportive voice, along with her strong ability to market and network.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Meet the Creative Collective
Part 1: Mapping Your Dream
Chapter 1: Identify Your Dream Business
-What Form Does Your Dream Business Take?
-What Direction(s) Will Your Dream Business Take?
Chapter 2: Dream Business Fundamentals
-Do You Have a Hobby or a Business?
-Where Are You Now, and Where Are You Going?
-Onward and Upward
Chapter 3: Working for Your Vision
-A Business Takes Work, and Plenty of It
-Visualize Your Perfect Workday
-Practice Mindfulness around Feelings
-Why Are You in Business?
-Formulate Your Mission Statement
Chapter 4: TLC
-Just Say No!
-Who Cares? You Do!
-Family Matters
-Take Yourself on a Creative Retreat
Chapter 5: Goals and Intentions
-Keep Yourself Honest
-Determine Goals
-Goals versus Intentions
-Make Reasonable Goals
-Keep Track of Your Goals and Intentions
Chapter 6: Benchmarks
-Measuring Your Success
-What Does Success Look Like?
-Calculating Success One Step at a Time
Chapter 7: Get Some Help!
-Say It Loud and Say It Proud: Help!
-Mentors: Your Business Gurus
-Your Personal Board of Directors
-Build a Brain Trust
Part 2: Planning for Success
Chapter 8: Types of Business Models
-Business Model Defined
-Running Your Business from Home
-Renting a Studio or Office
-Renting a Storefront and Keeping Shop Hours
-The Off-Site Bottom Line
Chapter 9: Business Plan Preliminaries
-What Is a Business Plan, and Why Do You Need One?
-Business Plan Basics
Chapter 10: Do You Manage Your Time, or Does Your Time Manage You?
-Time Management
-Keep Your To-Do List in Check
-Managing Time Is Easier Than You Think
Chapter 11: The Nuts and Bolts of Business Plans
-Getting Started
-Executive Summary
-Who Exactly Are You, Anyway?
-Business Plan Checklists
Chapter 12: Know Your Marketplace (or Marketing!)
-Know Your Industry
-Target Market, Say What?
Chapter 13: Putting It All Together: Your Marketing Plan
-Taking Stock
-Marketing through Advertising
-Marketing through the Media
Chapter 14: What Do You Make, and How Do You Make It? Having a Production Plan
-Ready, Set, Produce!
-Licensing
Chapter 15: Money, Money, Money
-They're Just Numbers
-Numbers 'R' Us
-Numbers Nomenclature
Chapter 16: Budgets and Budgeting
-First of All, What Exactly Is a Budget?
-Monthly Budget
Chapter 17: Profit and Loss
-P&L Overview
-Detailed P&L by Department
Chapter 18: Money and How to Get Some
-Bank Loans
-Grants
-Angel Investors
-Crowd-Funding
-Family and Friends
-Financing with Personal Credit Cards
-Finding a Way
Chapter 19: Making It All Legit
-What Kind of Business Are You?
-Going into Business with a Loved One
-Taxes
-Payroll
-Insurance
Chapter 20: Professional Support and Where to Find It
-Accountants and Lawyers and Agents, Oh My!
Parting Advice
Acknowledgments
Resources
Index