Get Crafty started as a small group of friends whom I’d invite over to my house to craft it up occasionally. Over time, I’ve taken my love for craft – primarily my illustration & jewelry design – and turned it into a full time business, the WilloToons product line.

As far as the craft days go, I still find time to fit those in. Instead of holding craft day at my home, I’ve recently been organizing public San Francisco craft-ups, in conjunction with the fabulous Church of Craft (who have chapters nationwide). It has been incredible meeting fellow crafters from all over the Bay Area.

On the business side of things, I’ve invested much more in my product line, and am essentially working on expanding its scope. In 2009 I was in a year long Incubator Program, where I partook in a 14-week intensive Business Planning class, and have clarified the vision of my business and what it’s going to take to sustainably grow it to the next level.

That said, in all honesty, growing my business thus far has been nothing short of blood, sweat & tears. I think while it may look like it’s been easy to some, believe you me, I’ve fallen flat on my face many times trying to figure it all out!

The one saving grace I had through it all, however, was that before I started my product line, I had a successful Freelance Web & Graphic Design business, and an incredible community – including being very active in social networking. Many small business owners out there don’t have this background, and find themselves lost on how & where to start. Which brings me to why I started this site.

While I was in the business planning class last year, I found so many people had awesome business ideas, but they were completely dumbfounded as to how to get it started online, let alone how to tackle the daunting task of promoting it through Social Media. So I figured, here I am – with skills that come practically second nature to me after all these years – and I can help!

Now, I realize there is a ton of information online – almost overwhelmingly so – especially for people who don’t know where to start. But everyone has a different way of doing things, and frankly, even with all these people asking me for help, there was no one website I could point them to with all the answers. Not to say this site will have all the answers, but I will aim to at least get you started. And I hope that you will communicate with me if you feel there’s anything missing, or if you have a specific question. While I’m no longer doing freelance full-time, I do continue to take on small design jobs, website/wordpress implementations, custom illustration work and consulting work here & there… so the first step is to just ask.

UPDATE 2010: I’ve updated a few of the the resources above, but this site has mostly continued to be a resource of information around the workshops – i.e. the video from last year’s SXSW convo – details about some workshops I’ve led around the country over the last year, and to notify you of this year’s Snappy Strategies Part 2 at SXSW.

Thanks for visiting & please feel free to leave a comment or email me with questions at any time!

All the best,
~ Willo
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Willo O’Brien moved to San Francisco at the dawn of the first Internet bubble. As a highly social individual, she has no trouble making new friends – whether it be at a rock concert or in line at Whole Foods. Her friendly, outgoing demeanor has allowed her to spend the last decade building long-lasting friendships with the entrepreneurs and trendsetters of the Internet 2.0 phenomenon, and she has become a dyed-in-the-wool early adopter of social media technologies. Her experience in social networking has fueled the success of her business as an illustrator and music lover who turned her lifelong passion into a unique, eco-conscious gift line for babies and toddlers: WilloToons.com – where geek meets rock ‘n roll.