I am Samantha, one of the members of the Sweet Dreams Cooperative. I am 18 years old and in 12th grade at Lincoln High School. We are young women between the ages of 14-19 who live here in San Francisco. We work as a team to create several products: lavender eye pillows, dream pillows, yoga mat bags, sachet and zipper pouches. All products are hand crafted. We are a vendor to stores around the city, in West Marin and in Pescadero. As coop members we participate in all aspects of Sweet Dreams: product design, inventory, production, marketing, sales etc.
What inspired you to go into the craft business, do you still have a day job? Turning Heads Sewing & Fashion Design Program mentored students to start our sewing cooperative. The craft business is fun and it’s interesting to create something out of nothing. Attending school is our day job.
What do you like best, coming up with ideas or executing them? Executing the ideas.
What’s the best thing about what you do? And the worst? The best thing is working with others in a team. The coop is always fun and always challenges me to do better. The worst is traveling from school to the Turning Heads studio because Lincoln is across the city and buses are unreliable.
What are your creative influences? Making products that are useful, practical and needed.
What’s the best advice you have been given about your business or craft practices? The best advice was to make a business plan and the importance of market research. Before we developed our final yoga mat bag we went to Yoga Tree in SF and interviewed the retail buyer. This was very helpful! The best advice has been always measure – it is most important!
How do you stay inspired? Learning about business is inspiring. Also in the coop we are inspired to grow as a team and to grow productively.
We are passionate about what we are doing and thank you for this opportunity to be in Bazaar Bizaar
Learn more: http://www.sweetdreamscoop.org/
Learn more: http://www.keepturningheads.org/