Craft Mafia - A Craft Business Collective

I was checking out my Google Alerts, and ran across a story about the Manchester Craft Mafia, a group of craft business owners in Manchester, UK. Here's their mission statement from their site:

Manchester Craft Mafia is a group of crafty businesses dedicated to supporting and sharing a creative, maverick spirit of crafting in Manchester, Greater Manchester and beyond. We’re craft and proud!

We want to help kick-start the new wave of . . .

. . . entrepreneurial crafters sacking the rat race and finding other ways to make a living . . . people crafting en masse and in public . . . anyone hiding an inner crafter . . . and everyone who just loves buying, finding or making something that bit different.

The idea for the Manchester Craft Mafia came from the original Austin Craft Mafia, who have now set up a website to explain what a Craft Mafia is, and provide links to Craft Mafia Familias from around the globe. In addition, they tell you how to start your own Craft Mafia Familia and share ideas with other craft business owners in your area.

This is such a GREAT idea! When you can get together with other craft business owners and discuss how to improve your craft business, you leverage the experience and creativeness of a number of individuals.

A craft business can sometimes be very lonely. When you are working in isolation, the tasks you have before you can be daunting - creating your crafts, going to craft shows, developing marketing, working on a web site, and more... - and a group of crafters going through the same struggles can be a great source of support and wisdom.

Check out the Craft Mafia website, and see if this is something you can create in your area.

Happy Crafting!
Chuck

What I've Been Up To

Well, it's been a VERY long while since I've updated this page. In fact, it's been almost a year since I've added any new contact.

The reason... I've been lazy. I spent all of my time and energy last Fall and early Winter in creating and launching "How to Start Your Own Craft Business" and I just kind of let things go on auto-pilot.

Well, I went back to the stats on the craft business site, and noticed that it's still making some very good sales, and people are very interested in starting their own craft business. So, I've decided to revamp the site, restart the blog, and really creating a community of crafters who want to turn their hobby into a full- or part-time business.

So, watch this space over the next few weeks. I'll be creating some new content, and also working on some new ideas for products. I hope you'll be able to participate and help drive the new direction of www.MyCraftBusiness.com, so please join in!

Happy Crafting!

Chuck