Hi Creatives, This is something I have been thinking about for a while.
I have always admired other businesses who run a gift economy and this seems to be the right time to jump in. From today all Makings and Musings online classes will be freely available to all and you will be invited to make a voluntary donation if the class was of value to you. You may wonder why? Well:
Firstly, I really want anyone to be able to join Makings and Musings classes. Especially now many of us are in an uncertain financial situation I would like to open my classes for those who otherwise may not be able to afford joining art classes. For that reason and to show you do not need to buy lots of extra things to get creative, I am looking at adding classes with materials that many of us will already own. One of the classes I am planning to run is Mindful Pen-drawing. I draw a lot in biro, almost every day. It is the one art supply I always have on me, it is cheap and you can create beautiful drawings using some simple techniques. I am looking forward to prove to you how versatile a simple biro pen is. Secondly, I believe people are happy to pay for products and services that they see value in. If you enjoyed the class, any donation you make would be highly appreciated and would help me create more classes going forward. Please know though that any financial contribution is completely up to you, there is absolutely no obligation to make a donation and you are very welcome to join any of my online classes either way. If a financial contribution is not an option for you, perhaps you would consider leaving me a review or recommending Makings and Musings to a friend.
Thirdly, I really want to build a business that reflects the values that I believe in. I do not want to get too political here but I am hoping to build my business in a way that contributes to society and the community. If I can offer classes for free and still run a sustainable business that will be another step in the right direction for me. Running my business as a gift economy will also motivate me to stay on top of my game and I will do the best I can to offer great classes for you all. I will be more open about my expenses and the time and effort that goes into creating my online classes and I want to show that 'free' does not mean no value.
Fourthly, I am hoping people will try out classes they may otherwise skip over. Perhaps you will fall in love with a craft that you never knew existed. Who knows, if this works well on the online classes, perhaps it is something I can start doing for my in person classes as well in the future.
Hoping to see you all soon, love, Irene if you would like to know more about running a business based on gifting, this article from Sharable does a great job explaining how it works.
