In the final post in the “Lessons from Your First Job” series we hear from Tara Swiger. I met Tara in person for the first time at Craftcation a few years ago and we’ve since connected at several crafty business conferences. Tara is a down-to-earth, warm, supportive friend and business coach. She helps dozens of…
Lessons from My First Job: Stephanie Palmer
When we look back at our lives and trace the path that brought us to the work we’re doing now often we see early signs of our talents and interests. Although our current job might be radically different from where we began, as it is for our guest today, there are lessons that we picked…
Lessons from My First Job: Jacquie Gering
Very few people come right out of college saying, “I’m going to be a quilt designer!” and begin earning a living in the quilt industry right away. Most people who call quilting their profession started out doing something else – they worked in graphic design, or accounting, or marketing – and somewhere along the way…
Lessons from My First Job: Jenny Rushmore
Many people who have creative businesses landed in their current profession unexpectedly. Even if you went to art school or business school my bet is that it would have been hard to predict what your current careers would look like. In this series on my blog I’m exploring what that winding path looked like for…
Lessons from My First Job: Anna Graham of Noodlehead
My kids start school this week. I’ll have one in Kindergarten, one in 5th grade, and one in 7th (at a new school!). When I worked as a middle school teacher the coming of fall meant setting up my classroom, planning curriculum, and looking forward to greeting 90 new nervous, hopeful new faces. In honor…
Lessons from My First Job: Wendi Gratz
For many of us our first jobs were really eye opening. In those early employment experiences we learn how hard it really is to earn a dollar and how good it feels when we get that first paycheck. We learn that we don’t know everything, but we’ve got potential. In the next installment of…
Lessons from My First Job: Allie Olson, Indiesew
Allie Olson is the co-founder of the women’s sewing community, Indiesew.com. She’s passionate about garment sewing and keeping creativity the top priority in her life. Allie curates Indiesew’s sewing pattern selection and fabric shop. She also writes easy-to-understand sewing tutorials to to take the frustration out of sewing your own clothes. Here’s Allie: +++++ During…
Lessons from My First Job: Stacey Trock of FreshStitches
As the kids head back to school and make a fresh start, I’m going to be featuring a series of posts about the lessons we learned at the start of our careers. Specifically, I’m interested in those experiences we had in our very first jobs that we still carry with us today in our creative…
On Learning New Software
On the left, me and Roxanne a few months before I started this blog. On the right, Roxanne sewing in my studio last week. In the late winter of 2005 I spent eight hours learning how to use blogging software. Those were eight precious hours. They were spread out over two weeks and amounted to…
How Much Time Should You Spend on Your Business?
I got an email this week from a blog reader named Sarah who asks a really good question. Hey Abby, I’m curious as to how many hours per day you work and put into your business? I feel like the constant distractions from my kids doesn’t lend well to getting stuff done. I feel like…