signing up! the Creative Conference of Entrepreneurs

signing up!, originally uploaded by schmancytoys.

Me at the Creative Conference of Entrepreneurs!

I met so many inspiring and amazing people, learned a lot (I spelled entrepreneur correctly!) and they served coffee and amazingly delicious cupcakes from Trophy cupcakes. (Along with lots of other delicious foods.) There were so many talks with panels of great business folk/crafters...check out creativeconferencewest.com to see all the super fantastic and accomplished speakers, and the topics they spoke about. They're planning on having another conference next year!

Of course, it was very interesting to hear Lauren Venell of Sweet Meats talk about getting into manufacturing and distribution of her plush toys. She took a leap from making them herself when she got a lot of nice press, and started the learning process of getting her line streamlined into a profitable venture with minimal work on her part. She now offers her custom plush services to help get your plush manufactured - so you can skip all the mistakes of starting out clueless. I feel slightly less bewildered by manufacturing, but I'll have to save up many bear monies to start doing it.

Being someone who has always been shy, I definitely exceeded my goals for introducing myself and talking to people. With minimal awkwardness (I hope.) Hooray! ...I still need to get my notes organized and get everything all sorted out, use my brains to keep my learnings inside it, make improvements and keep my business going :D!

As soon as I got back I cleaned up my workroom and started selling off the fabrics I don't use. There may be a few things left! I've always kind of neglected by Etsy shop, but over the last month I've put effort into keeping up the listings and promoting them, not to mention finally switching my username to TylerPoncho - which I should've done years ago...but I've raised my sales from 2 a month ago to 27 now! Definitely reached a goal. I sold 17 things just today, and not all were destash items :)

Jon and I LOVED Seattle - there are so many trees! The best part about the trees is that no one cut them down when they sprang up somewhere random, like an alleyway. A three story pine tree behind a building, next to a trash can. And the mountains...and the oceans....It's all so beautiful. Jon got to see a lot more since he had a citypass for the time I was in the Conference. He came back with the cutest zoo map I've ever seen! That Emu just kills me, and the squishy looking smiley face next to "giraffe feeding." I wish I could've fed those giraffes.

I also visited my fellow Plush Team member Becky's solo show Scrumdiddlyumpitous -- it'll be open all month and everyone needs to see it! All new designs and variations on classic Scrumptious Delight, they're all available at Schmancy! (1932 2nd. Ave, Seattle)