Handicraft Marketing, Handmade Product Development, Artisan and Microenterprise Development
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Expert, an arts and microenterprise development advocate, started her business in the classic entrepreneurial way: she saw a need others had overlooked, and she moved quickly and decisively to fill it. In 1982, a ceramic artist at a local craft show informed her about the lack of services and support for artisans desperately in need business education and assistance. Expert set out to learn more about artists’ and to discover a critical gap in business growth strategies such as access to market, marketing tools, cost of sale, wholesale markets and retail relationships. Expert uncovered a marketplace in need of handcraft quality, and thousands of artisans in need of business services, education and growth in the field microenterprise development.
Expert's company accomplishes it's mission through its trade show, two arts publications and its nonprofit trade association. The Buyers Market of American Craft (1982) is the nation’s largest wholesale craft trade show. Held biannually, the Buyers Market offers artists the opportunity to create long-term business relationships with more than 3,000 galleries, museum stores and luxury retailers. In 2010, the Buyers Market launched NICHE: The Show, a luxury goods and fine jewelry trade show, during jewelry week in Las Vegas.
NICHE magazine (1988) is a trade publication for craft retailers. AMERICANStyle magazine (1994) is the exclusive arts lifestyle publication for art enthusiasts, collectors and cultural travelers. The American Made Alliance (2005), advocates on behalf of the handmade movement to federal legislators and officials in an effort to create and enforce laws that promote, protect and preserve the American craft industry. In 2008, NICHE Marketplace, an online catalog of craft artists, debuted. Expert is a director at large of the Florida Craftsmen, Inc. She also serves at the North American Representative to the World Craft Council.