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EAST LIVERPOOL - LEAP Entrepreneurial Hub is seeking makers, crafters and artists who are a home-based business or have had a storefront without finding the success they were seeking.
The businesses will be able to display and sell their products in the new downtown retail destination called the Makers Exchange being created by LEAP Hub to help makers reach new customers and grow their businesses by getting their products on a retail shelf.
LEAP Hub is looking for crafters of high-quality unique products such as original artworks, handmade goods, pottery/ceramics, jewelry, textile work, sewn goods, candles, home goods, functional art, and other unique handcrafted products.
Stu Wallace, LEAP Hub managing director, noted that the Makers Exchange is more than just getting products on a shelf. The Makers Exchange will provide makers with mentorship, an opportunity to test and sell their products while building their brands, the ability to develop an understanding of their customers, and allow them to track their sales/business performance. It will also provide them with the opportunity to develop and grow their businesses without having to take on the expense and responsibility of opening their own storefronts.
The Makers Exchange is intended to be a destination spot where customers can shop and find a variety of handcrafted items in one location while supporting local makers.
Wallace noted that the Makers Exchange can be a safe place for many makers to develop business skills and gain experience that could help prepare them to one day open a store front business of their own or it may be a place that becomes a long-term retail space for others.
Wallace also said that the Makers Exchange is ideal for those who have a home-based business but work outside the home or are trying to raise a family or have any circumstances that prevent them from fully starting their own brick-and-mortar business. It's also a chance for previous business owners who didn't find the desired success they looked for with their business to try again in a no-risk situation.
There is no monthly membership fee or booth rental fee to be a part of the Makers Exchange, and makers do not need to be present and minding their retail areas. The Makers Exchange will operate on a commission basis, with a percentage of the sales going back into Leap Hub for overhead cost and investment into additional projects to benefit the city. Makers will receive 70% of every sale they make.
The Makers Exchange will operate as a professionally managed retail space with professional inventory and sales tracking and will offer makers the opportunity for business development, growth alongside other regional entrepreneurs/business and business development and support through LEAP Hub.
The Makers Exchange, which will be located at 105 E. Fifth St., East Liverpool, in a building owned and renovated by ELI Murray, is anticipated to have its soft opening mid- to late-November.
Applications are being accepted for makers with work to be reviewed. LEAP Hub is looking for approximately 30 makers for the initial launch of the Makers Exchange. Due to the desire to make a destination that people will want to visit and shop at, the Makers Exchange will be curated with applicants being reviewed for "quality, presentation, retail potential, variety and overall fit within the marketplace," Wallace said. Applications can be submitted at www.ourleaphub.com/makers-exchange.
"LEAP means Learn. Empower. Aspire. Propel. We are building an entrepreneurial ecosystem that can meet people where they are, from someone with an idea to a maker ready for retail, to an established business ready for the next stage of growth," a media release from LEAP Hub said. "The Makers Exchange puts that mission into action. We believe there is incredible talent throughout East Liverpool, the Ohio Valley, and our surrounding region. Now, we are building a place to showcase it."