Image by *bene*, via Flickr Creative Commons

In this show:

• Bettie Newell, and attorney and a crafter, helps us understand legal business structures, including Sole Proprietorships, LLCs, Corporations, and Partnerships.

• We talk about why these structures are important, and which ones might be best for what kinds of craft businesses.

• …And we talk about what’s involved in getting your business set up as one of these structures.

Links:

• Bettie Newell blogs about crafts over at Handmade in Portland. You can also catch her on Twitter.

• If you’re in Oregon, Bettie recommends the Small Business Legal Clinic.

• Check to see if your community has a Mercy Corps office. Some of them offer small business classes.

• Another good resource is the Small Business Development Center, which exists in many states.

• Here’s how to apply for an Employer Identification (EIN) number

• Here’s a directory of state Secretary of State offices.

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

Image by ellajphillips, via Flickr Creative Commons

In this show:

• I talk about why it’s so important to plan at least some of your blogging ahead. This is an idea not many bloggers seem to use, but it’s really powerful.

• I share some approaches to planning and some tools that work.

• …And I talk about the specific benefits you can get from all this planning.

Links:

• As I mentioned in the show, my Mom plans her blog a year in advance. Check out her system!

• Charlie Gilkey offers free downloadable Blog Post Planners each month.

• …And here’s ProBlogger Darren Rowse’s take on Building an Editorial Calendar for Your Blog.

• If you haven’t heard it already, this podcast is a good companion to another one I did: Craft Blogging: What Should You Write About?

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

Image by REMY SAGLIER – DOUBLERAY, via Flickr Creative Commons

In this show:

• Tara Gentile and I talk about the power of personal stories – and why they’re such an important way to set your crafty business apart from the crowd.

• Where can you find the elements of story in your business? And how do you go about telling it?

• …And why can’t you just tell people about your product and be done with it?

Links:

• Check out Tara’s website to learn more about her web work and small-business consulting.

• If you don’t read Scoutiegirl already, I think you’d really enjoy it.

• …And here’s Tara’s ebook, Storytelling for Creative Biz Success.

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

Image by kiki99, via Flickr Creative Commons

In this show:

• I talk with craft-business blogger Megan Auman about a number of interesting ideas – most notably, that Etsy.com is a “pro-am community,” where professional crafters sell alongside hobbyists.

• We talk about how this “pro-am” landscape affects businesses that are trying to earn a profit, and how it affects side businesses (that maybe aren’t). We also talk about how this landscape affects Etsy.

• …And we talk about where Etsy really fits into a long-term, sustainable craft business.

Links:

• Megan’s blog, Crafting an MBA is a very valuable read for craft entrepreneurs.

• Here are some links to learn more about Long Tail economies: this entry on Wikipedia, Chris Anderson’s book on the subject, and his blog, The Long Tail.

• If you want some really solid information about pricing, read this post series by Charlie Gilkey.

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

In this show:

• Scott Belsky and I talk about his new book, Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality. It’s a guide to productivity written especially for creative people.

• We talk about the “double-edged sword” of a creative mind – on the one hand, we come up with great ideas. On the other, our creative natures sometimes hinder us in bringing those ideas to life.

• Scott offers up some tools for overcoming our derailing tendencies, and for keeping an action-oriented focus that lets us grow professionally.

Links:

• Check out Scott’s book, Making Ideas Happen. (That’s an affiliate link. The publisher sent me a review copy.)

• You might also want to explore the Behance Network, which is an online sharing and productivity network for creatives of all kinds.

• The 99% is both an annual conference and a great blog produced by the Behance team. Loads of thought-provoking posts every week.

• You may also want to check out Action Method, which is an online productivity tool from Behance. (Though it should be said, there are unlimited methods for managing productivity. A stack of index cards, a legal pad, a fancy planner, an online tool – the “best” one is always the one you like using the most.)

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

In this show:

• I discuss Creative Commons licensing with attorney Martin Ertl and crafter/Creative Commons enthusiast Kim Werker.

• We talk about why Creative Commons is relevant not only to crafters, but to anyone who shares original work on the web.

• How do your license your work under Creative Commons? What kinds of work can you protect? And what do you do if someone violates your license? All these questions are answered.

Links:

• Visit LexPublica online to learn more about Martin’s work, and Kim’s blog to learn more about her work.

• Check out the Creative Commons website for more information, and to try the license picker.

• Kim mentioned Rayna Fahey of Radical Cross Stitch, who uses Creative Commons licensing on the work she sells.

• If you want to use another crafter’s Creative Commons-licensed work on your blog, this post explains how. (Thanks, Kim, for that link!)

• You might want to use Feedburner to attach a Creative Commons license to your blog feed.

• …And as a little parting food for thought, you might like this post I wrote about original ideas, influences, copycats, and cross-pollination, over on Make & Meaning.

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

In this show:

• Marlo Miyashiro talks with me about building creative communities, and shares how she did it with Seattle’s EtsyRAIN.

• We discuss the most important elements of a thriving creative community.

• …And we talk about what a community leader can do when members express dislike for how a community is running.

Links:

• Visit EtsyRAIN online, learn about membership, and check out the Meetup group.

• Visit Marlo online, too!

• Learn more about the other members of the EtsyRAIN Leadership Team:

• Kayce Quevedo, Director of Treasury and Etsy New Member Liason
• Meghan Harrington, Director of Event Production and Planning
• Rosalie Gale, IT Director and Chief Web Designer/Webmaster
• Kelly Affleck, Director of Graphic Design and New Member Recruitment
• Heidi Kappes-Belinsky, Director of Miscellaneous Affairs, Research, and Records
• Marja Huhta, Director of Social Media/Online Marketing/Event Calendar
• Julia Jacques, Director of Charity Events and Message Board Moderator

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

In this show:

• Kari Chapin, author of The Handmade Marketplace, answers your crafty business questions.

• The conversation ranges from one-of-a-kind products to business plans to multiple income streams to various venues for selling.

• …And we we talk about how all that stuff is different for microbusinesses than it may be for “crafty empires.”

Links:

• Here’s the book: The Handmade Marketplace – a very flexible guide for the many forms crafty businesses can take.

• A couple resources you might seek out in your local community for general business help: The Small Business Administration and SCORE.

• Kari also highly recommends The Switchboards, an online community of indie business owners who share resources and advice.

Goals were a recurring theme in this show. Here are some interesting posts about goal-setting:

• A guide to SMART goals, from Goal Setting Guide

• Why goal-setting makes you cringe, from Lifehacker

• A Goal-Setting Toolkit, from Success Begins Today

(Huge thanks to Nichole for those links!)

• Chris Brogan on setting micro-goals

• Dave Navarro on making goals easier to achieve

• Seth Godin on the goals you never hear about

• Chris Brogan on redrawing your goals

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

In this show:

• Paul Overton and I are talking about Free again – this time, from a standpoint of service.

• We talk about how Free is just as applicable to a corporate job as it is to an entrepreneurial effort.

• …And we discuss where this discussion of Free should go next.

Links:

• If you enjoy this discussion, you’ll probably also like Linchpin, by Seth Godin.

• Paul’s blog, in case you’re unfamiliar, is the most-excellent Dudecraft.

• Here’s a roundup of recent interesting posts about Free I posted recently.

In case you’re new to this discussion of Free, here are some other posts:

• Paul shares his experiences with Free on Make & Meaning, with Free: a Case Study.

• Paul and I also did an earlier podcast about free.

• Here’s a piece I did on Make & Meaning, Free is Not a Marketing Tool. Some really interesting discussion in the comments.

• Kim Werker did an excellent post on her blog about how Free can lead to getting paid, but what you have to do to make that happen.

• We also did a liveblog event at Make & Meaning about Free. You can read the transcript here.

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

Image by TheAlienness Gisela Giardino, via Flickr Creative Commons

In this show:

• To further our ongoing discussion of Free and how it affects the craft community, I share my own story of Free. In some ways, Free has created my business. In others, it’s created big challenges.

• I talk about the most important by-product of Free: community.

• …And once again, I welcome your comments on this very complex subject.

Links:

Here’s the discussions we’ve been having about Free so far:

• Paul Overton shares his experiences with Free on Make & Meaning, with Free: a Case Study.

• Paul and I also did a podcast about free a while back.

• Here’s a piece I did on Make & Meaning, Free is Not a Marketing Tool. Some really interesting discussion in the comments.

• Kim Werker did an excellent post on her blog about how Free can lead to getting paid, but what you have to do to make that happen.

• We also did a liveblog event at Make & Meaning about Free. You can read the transcript here.

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

Image by Tara Swiger

In this show:

• An interview with Tara Swiger, an accomplished knitting teacher who has a lot of interesting things to say about teaching a craft.

• We talk about what it’s like to teach one-on-one vs. in a group setting.

• Some discussion of how different people’s learning styles affect their approach to crafting, and how a good teacher can help

• Some good ideas for starting up a teaching practice in your own community.

Links:

• Check out Tara’s online yarn store, Blonde Chicken Boutique, and her new brick-and-mortar shop, A Novel Yarn.

• Want to meet Tara on Twitter? Here she is!.

• And I highly recommend Tara’s Learn to Knit Kit of you feel knitting-challenged.

You might also enjoy this interview Kim Werker did with Tara about social media and crafty businesses.

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

Images by Kristin Roach

In this show:

• An interview with Kristin Roach, who turned a fun blog idea, Craft Leftovers, into a full-time business… one step at a time.

• Some discussion on the value of just trying stuff – and being willing to accept successes and failures along the way.

• Helpful ideas on the value of finding those intermediate steps between you and your big business goals.

• …And a really important emerging idea: finding ways to create small income opportunities for other crafters.

Links:

• Visit Craft Leftovers online, where you’ll find Kristin’s blog, shop, patterns and projects.

• Kristin’s zine, Craft Leftovers Monthly, is always a delight – and gives her an opportunity to pay her contributors.

• Kristin also runs a side business, K.r.o Studio, where she pursues her fine art, teaching, and community projects.

• Here’s that ebook we just released: Card. Paper. Ribbon.

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

In this show:

• Paul Overton returns to the show to discuss the idea of Free: how the internet’s abundance of free information both enhances and challenges our creative lives.

• We talk about lots of aspects of Free: how it builds community, how it challenges corporate interests, and how it launches crafty careers.

• …And we talk about some nuts and bolts of using Free in your own craft business.

Links:

We mentioned a whole lot of people in this show. Here they are:

• First, read Paul’s excellent post on Make & Meaning – Free: A Case Study

• …And this post by me, Free is Not a Marketing Tool.

• As you might expect from a discussion about Free on the web, we also mentioned Seth Godin, Gary Vaynerchuk, and John Jantsch.

• A really interesting book about the emerging economy of Free is (imagine this) Free, by Chris Anderson. You can get the book for free as an audiobook.

• Or, you can get the gist of the book via this blog post and video on Wired.com. (Thanks, Paul!)

• We also talked about some folks in the craft community who use Free well: Ann Wood, Lee Meredith, and Kathy Cano Murillo.

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

In this show:

• Hunter Coleman (a good friend of mine and a true accounting geek) helps us understand the tax side of a crafty business.

• Learn about what kinds of records you need to be keeping, what forms you need to fill out, and what to do if record-keeping makes your brain sad.

• Do you need to hire a bookkeeper, or should you do it all yourself?

Links:

Hunter was kind enough to link us to the appropriate tax forms on IRS.gov:

• Form 8829, Home Office Expenses
• Form 8829’s instruction booklet

• Publication 535, General Business Expenses (That link goes to the 2008 edition, btw.)

• Schedule C: Business Profit or Loss
• Schedule C’s instruction booklet

For more detail on the differences between hobby and business income, Hunter recommends these links:

• IRS’s 8 Important Questions for Hobby Income.
• Hobby vs. Business Income, from Motley Fool.

If you have royalty income to report on your taxes, Hunter recommends this article from eHow.

If you’re looking for accounting software, try these links:

• Here’s a nice, simple roundup of options from Mashable.

• This comparison of ten major accounting packages offers an in-depth look at what they can do.

• For a craft-focused take on this question, try this Etsy forum thread.

…And if you’re looking for tax preparation software, TurboTax and TaxCut are major brands.

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

In this show:

• Let’s look at Engagement Marketing, a very important tool for your crafty business in the internet age.

• We’ll talk about how blogging, Twitter and Facebook can help you reach new customers… if you use them wisely.

• We’ll also look at the most common online marketing mistakes I’ve seen crafty business owners make in 2009.

Links:

If you want to go deeper into these ideas, check out my ebooks:

• Making a Great Blog: A Guide for Creative People

• Creating a Blog Audience: An Unconventional Marketing Guide

• Social Media for your Crafty Business

You might also like these engagement-marketing resources from around the web:

• Trust Agents is a book well worth reading.

• Its co-author, Chris Brogan, writes a great blog.

• Another worthwhile book: The Whuffie Factor, by Tara Hunt.

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.