Etsy and the Workforce & Illinois Small Business Development Center (WISBDC) at Southeastern Illinois College are launching an Etsy Craft Entrepreneurship Program.
This free innovative program will provide micro-business training to underemployed, low-income adults with existing creative skills, to sell their product to new markets. This program will help give participants viable paths to supplemental income.
The Etsy Craft Entrepreneurship Program will begin April 5, include five classes total and will be led by Michelle Tackitt, an Etsy entrepreneur herself. Every Tuesday evening in April, the class will run from 6 – 8 p.m. There will also be one Saturday class on April 16, from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. All classes will be held at the WISBDC located at 2 E. Locust Street, Suite 200, on the second floor of First Mid-Illinois Bank & Trust, in Harrisburg. Participants are required to attend all classes.
Area residents will participate in a training program that will guide them through becoming craft entrepreneurs. The program utilizes Etsy’s platform for selling creative goods as the real-world learning lab and leverages the WISBDC’s small business expertise. Students will learn the basics of starting and running an online business, including pricing, basic accounting, product photography and marketing. Etsy sellers represent an encouraging shift towards new patterns of employment.
“The ‘traditional’ model of work is changing, and Craft Entrepreneurship demonstrates how workforce development programs can change with it,” said Lori Cox, Director of the WISBDC.
Seating is limited for this event and those interested are urged to sign up quickly. For more information or to begin the enrollment process for the program, contact Debbie Hadfield at 618-252-5001, ext. 5 or [email protected]. To learn more about the program, visithttps://craftentrepreneurship.com or for information on Etsy, www.etsy.com.
