We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Alise Brown a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Alise thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

My mission is to educate, motivate and inspire women in the craft community. Growing up, I have always embraced being able to unleash my creativity through arts and crafts. That is the area that I was most confident in because I knew that I had the gift of making a masterpiece out of scraps. Fast forward to now, I want to show other women that they too can make money doing something that they love. Women were born to create and my goal is to help more women see that within themselves.

Alise, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a carefree spirit so its only right that I own a business in the craft community. Canvas Bling started off as me helping people, mostly women, celebrate their life events. With the ability to provide them with beautiful custom party favors, I had the pleasure of being a part of their celebration. Fast forward to today, I now empower women by teaching them how to start, maintain and scale their craft business selling custom party favors.

Canvas Bling University is my virtual craft school. Not only do I teach women step by step how to create custom party favors, but I also give them resources and tools that they need to create full businesses. I have a library full of tutorials, webinars, e-books and freebies dedicated to likeminded crafters. It makes me feel good to know that I can make a difference and give back, doing what I love.

I am most proud of my ability to follow through with my dreams and goals. I quit my 9-5 with a plan and have not looked back ever since. What sets my business apart is the fact that my ultimate goal is to educate, motivate and inspire women to use their gift of creating to paint a life that they desire. I want every woman to know that they have the ultimate power to do anything. Canvas Bling is all about helping women shine.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I can remember when I decided to quit my 9-5. I had reached a point where it no longer fulfilled me knowing that I was working for someone else, building up their dream, wanting to meet their expectations even knowing it would never be good enough, being drained daily, and feeling underappreciated. I had had enough! I wanted to be free. I wanted to work on my own terms. I wanted to do something that I loved while helping others. I wanted to just be able to follow my ideas all the way through and create a life that I truly desired. For my own piece of mind, I had to do what was best for me. My husband encouraged me to follow my heart so that is exactly what I did. I am so happy that I made that change and decided to run my business full time. It was one of the best decisions I have ever made and I encourage anyone who is reading this to follow their dreams, whatever that may be. You can do ANYTHING!

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

The best part about a party favor business, is that it is a low start up. I initially funded my business out of pocket to get the supplies and materials that I needed to start. I was able to get my heat press, a circut, and a printer. I created a social media page and created sample items to show people what I had for sale. While being in business, I learned how to establish business credit and used those funds to level up my business through marketing. I go into detail and teach women exactly what steps I took to establish business capital. I also take advantage of any business funds and grants that are made available to businesses and entrepreneurs in my city. Starting a business can be challenging but the information is out there to make it happen. You just have to want it bad enough to seek the info.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.canvasbling.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/canvasbling
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ilovecanvasbling
• Youtube: Canvas Bling
• Other: Tiktok @CanvasBling