Crafting the Small Business is a 9-week series delving into the logistics (and fun!) behind owning and managing a small business that caters to the ‘handmade marketplace’ in southeast Michigan, the state of Michigan, the U.S. and abroad. The handmade marketplace is no longer an underground scene. It is an expansive network of online marketplaces, individual online stores, indie craft fairs, crafting blogs, opensource project websites, and independent Brick-and-Mortar stores.

Crafting the Small Business aims to empower beginner and intermediate crafters and small business owners by offering face-to-face time with experts from around southeast Michigan, including bloggers, writers, sellers, instructors and consultants.

 Maker Works’ mission is to share hands-on knowledge about all forms of ‘making’ as opposed to buying: It is through making that we develop as humans. And it is through sharing knowledge that we grow as individuals and as a collective. Crafting the Small Business series connects the dots between southeast Michigan crafters starting new businesses and those who are adept and highly knowledgeable in their specific fields. Creating more independent craft businesses adds ‘micro-manufacturing’ to the state of Michigan. If those small businesses can be successful, then revenue is generated for the owners and the state. And instead of floundering, Michigan and the Detroit area can thrive.

So as an attendee, your ultimate goal in participating in this series is to establish a personal path to financial stability. And have fun in the process, and make friends with other crafters and business owners!

Crafting the Small Business is organized by:

And sponsored by: