Accidental Entrepreneur?? [Part 2]

Here I am, stepping into my new role as a consultant, with my first paycheck in hand and feeling completely like a fish out of water in a new place. I suppose I’m used to this by now—it seems to be my usual way of operating.  Whitehall Products has been around on the Lakeshore since 1941 and their business has definitely shifted over the years but has primarily been focused on handmade, custom address plaques and signs for your home or business cast from aluminum.

I ended up getting them setup with Aspire by Vectric which is the professional version of what we used at the Lakeshore Fab Lab for the Shopbot CNC router, Vcarve. Aspire is a pretty standard program in the CNC router world. It isn't like engineering CAD that some might be used to. Everything is mostly done in 2D sketches although there is a 3D design aspect to the program but nothing like traditional CAD program such as Fusion 360, Onshape or SolidWorks. Aspire allows you to do 3D carving tasks, like the rowing boat picture below.

Around the time I started consulting out in Whitehall, I get an invitation from a friend, Joe Finkler, to attend the Michigan Inventor’s Expo that he runs each year. I wasn’t sure what I was going to show off at the event but I figured I’d go representing myself and just makerspaces in general, of which I had just joined the board for the Grand River Makerspace. Grand Rapids had 2 makerspaces up until 2018/2019 and some community members that had been using the Fab Lab in Muskegon decided to try to get a community makerspace back in GR so I’m on board for that!

At the Expo I set up with a banner exclaiming that I had just quit my job and was starting a school. Early on in the Fab Lab history, we had a pretty popular homeschool program and I saw first hand kids that would probably be labeled ‘problems’ in public school thrive. Could I start a school? Maybe… When I looked up various non-traditional school programs I found several around West Michigan, like a nature academy that connects kids with their environment and they charged a pretty premium. Could I make a school that is part Bill Nye part Mark Rober where kids can learn but not think they are? I started concepting some designs for logos and names around this time but didn’t have anything I fell in love with so I found a catchy URL and set up a landing page at www.LetsMakeSchool.cool.

Some notable things from the MIC Exp:

• Getting to meet the Founder of Phase 10, who is a Detroit native. I never played the game but I have seen it at stores for YEARS.
• Some West Michigan inventor’s that I know were there, EZ Banners, Link2Launch, and HyVida
• The Leafinator product was a new kind of rake that allows you to grab at the leaves with no hands
• The Oil Udder is a silicone funnel that magnets to your oil filter so when you take it off you don’t make a mess
• Cutz Concepts was a portable barber station that would allow someone to set up anywhere
• I wasn’t the only one reppin’ Makerspaces! The Lansing Maker’s Network had a crew show up as well!

So in the fall of 2023 I am working as a consultant, toying with the idea of creating a Maker School, and I even start to attend some craft shows and markets. Which is where I will pick up for Part 3 of my Accidental Entrepreneur journey.

Part 3 coming soon!