How To Build Your Business

[Hello! Jed here. Thanks for visiting. As you poke around this site, you’ll probably notice that it’s just getting started. I’ll be updating often and as we add more members the forum will fill out too. Sign up for the forum or the newsletter, or just come back soon!]

Welcome! You have just taken the first step on your journey to building your own company so you can take control of your career, work in your passion and earn a six-figure (or more!) income.

Getting started on Sketch to Shelf

What we are:

Sketch to Shelf is a website, a community, a guide, a mentor – it exists to help you build your business. Think of it as a business resource for creative people, and a creative resource for business people.

Join us to learn how to make and sell your product. Work with us to build your own company, for a rewarding, reliable and long term creative career.

Who we are:

I’m Jed Crystal – the founder of Sketch to Shelf. I am an industrial designer, and I’ve built a successful six-figure pet products business from scratch over the last 9 years.

Jed Crystal of Hepper and Sketch to Shelf — Hepper, Hudson and me, circa 2008

I’ll bring in my various cohorts from the worlds of Industrial Design, Art, Marketing, Sales, and Manufacturing to chime in on their areas of expertise, and how they can help you build your business.

Why we are here:

Even though I’ve always had the creative and business blend in my blood, when I launched my pet products company, I still had an enormous amount to learn. And learn I did. Painfully. And I continue to learn everyday.

I had always wished for a checklist, or a guidebook that could just give me the steps to take to get me to a six figure business as fast as possible. Sure, there’s plenty of business books out there and some are really great, but you’ll find that many preach high level concepts, or share the *amazingly* successful tactics of one individual.

Unfortunately, the perfect path does not exist. One person’s experience may be totally different than yours.

Finding your skills and interests and developing your best practices is what we preach at Sketch to Shelf. We are here to help you make those decisions. We can do that, because we’ve been there.

Sketch to Shelf is for Creative Makers. Whether your products are virtual or physical, we are here to help you every step of the way from, well.. your first Sketch to getting your product for sale on a Shelf.

How to get the most out of this website

1) Sign up for our email right now:

We’ll send you all our tips and tricks and keep you updated on news.

2) Explore the site. We have tons of info pages, blog posts, tool tips and more. Here’s the top sections:

About Sketch to Shelf

The most important things to know about starting and running your own business:
Design
Manufacturing
Marketing
Selling
Distribution
Finances
Work / Life Balance
Hiring / Outsourcing
(more and more coming everyday)