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Upstate Alliance for the Creative Economy

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LIVING ONLINE Series By Corey Aldrich

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The Loss of the In Person LIVE Performance on CapNY Creatives

For the better part of 2020 and the first quarter of 2021 we have been in a public event apocalypse. Now with the distribution of a vaccine and the onset of summer it looks like we may be cautiously moving forward with LIVE music and  performance based events. This has been a difficult time, to say the least, for creatives. Many of us are dependent on LIVE events for an important part of our income, and for keeping a sharp edge on our craft.

Personally, this has been a mixed bag of emotions and vocational direction evaluation. While I do enjoy the time to focus on passion based endeavors, I missed the interaction that spurs my creative ideas and energy. I am fortunate that my years as a freelance professional have helped me develop skills. As a result, I’ve been able to pivot and keep things rolling. 

In the spirit of collaboration and best practices, I thought I’d share with you a number of perspectives from our fellow creatives to see how folks are getting along, as we all discover new ways to practice in the ever changing tapestry of the new normal.

Be on the lookout in the upcoming weeks for additional perspectives from a variety of creative disciplinary backgrounds.

One of my most recent projects: self-portraits, to hone my photography skills.

LIVING ONLINE SERIES: Performer Ryder Cooley

LIVING ONLINE SERIES: Liam Singer, Composer | Musician | Venue Owner

LIVING ONLINE SERIES: Raya Malcolm, Actor | Musician | Devising Artist

LIVING ONLINE SERIES: SIRSY, Indie Pop Rock Duo

MORE ON COREY ALDRICH

A longtime ACE Contributor, Corey works out of Troy, New York. He runs a freelance consultancy for all aspects of brand development and business process management / development. Current projects include cash flow analysis, strategic market planning, 3rd party project oversight, public relations, event planning and front end visual brand design / design-build projects. He has a focus in not-for-profit arts and mission oriented organizations. In his free time he works on honing his craft as a photographer and guitarist. (corey@2440designstudio.com)

Insider Tip: Bear’s Cup Bagel Delivery

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The super-cute husband-and-wife Bear’s Cup team

I love bagels. A lot. Like a lot a lot. The crispy… the chewy… the toppings…the variety of flavors… I’m all in! So what I missed most during the shutdown was a fresh bagel with cream cheese, but sadly all my favorite places were closed. Commence the complaining. I complained loudly and frequently enough that my husband actually taught himself how to make bagels. They were delicious, but a lot of work and not something he could do every Sunday. Still the gesture was so amazing that I had to share the sweetness on the socials. And that’s when my public bagel bellyaching paid off in spades…

Bagels At My Doorstep!

Into my inbox came the answer. Jacob Hopper from Evander + Louise, a curated guide to Saratoga Springs with exclusive deals and access for members, sent me the goods: Bear’s Cup Bagel Delivery. Yes! Fresh bagels delivered right to your door. Naturally, I was all over it, much to the relief of my husband whose quest for more yeast could finally come to an end. (Who knew quarantine would create a new army of bakers and bread makers!)

Bear’s Cup is a café located in Bolton Landing, owned by a husband & wife team. They are serving up bagels with artisanal coffees and pastries made in-house daily from scratch. They are currently open for walk-up service Thurs-Mon 7am-1pm. Pre-orders required 24-hours ahead of time. BUT, like Jacob told me, they also offer Sunday bagel deliver from Bolton to Saratoga. Naturally, it was my duty to check it out.

Their weekly menu is posted Instagram (@bearscuptoga). The menu includes bagels, pastries (some of which are gluten-free), several cream cheese flavors and cold brew. Follow the online ordering instructions and – voila! – deliciousness shows up at your door Sunday morning. That alone is worth a round of applause but it really does come down to how everything tastes.

My Expert Review and Taste Test…

It’s all AH-mazing! No really. The bagels have that perfect mix of crunchy outside and doughy inside. The honey sriracha cream cheese blends spicy and sweet effortlessly. But let me tell you the biggest surprise: the gluten-free chocolate chip cookies. They weren’t scrumptious for a gluten-free cookie. They were scrumptious for a cookie, period.

Do yourself a favor and make your Sunday brunch an at-home hit with Bear’s Cup. You won’t be sorry.

Connect with Bear’s Cup!
Website
Address
Email
Phone: (518) 240-6086
Instagram / Facebook

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Unemployment Talks: Salon Owner, Jessica Shattuck

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Meet Jessica Shattuck, Owner of The Shop on 7 in Latham. Before salons were legally shutdown, Jess made the difficult decision to shut down her business for two weeks in order to protect the wellbeing of her clients and herself. She felt that despite losing the income, she had to do her part to stop the spread. A few days later, NYS shut down all salons. Unsure of how long this would last and if there would be any unemployment benefits for sole proprietors, anxiety ensued. Luckily, Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) was created to help people like her, but it took seven weeks of back and forth, answering questions incorrectly, and confusion before she received her first payment. Here’s her story…

When you did you first apply for unemployment and what was the process like?

I applied the second week of April, when I first realized sole proprietor’s could obtain some benefits. I spent one whole day filing and on the phone, I waited on the phone for seven hours. At this point, my employee who I had laid off when we shut down still hadn’t gotten through herself and she applied weeks before.

I finally got through and after giving some information, the person said my application was complete. Since I opened business Dec. 2018 and hadn’t yet filed for 2019, I got a letter saying I was approved for unemployment but for $0. Again, since I hadn’t filed for 2019 yet, my past four quarters showed I had no earnings. I filed my taxes the first weekend in April, right before applying, so I had to light a fire under my accountant to get those through and finally mailed, emailed, and faxed my 2019 taxes to the state.

What happened after you sent your 2019 taxes in?

One night, I got an email saying to apply for PUA. I started filling out the information and I felt like I was finally getting somewhere. I had gone six weeks with no pay at this point. It asked, “are you willing to work” and I said “yes,” then it asked if I was able to work, and I clicked “no” because legally, I could not work as salon owner. This caused it to automatically kick me out. Then, I got an email saying “since you’re not willing to work, you’re disqualified for PUA.” That obviously was not the case. There was no way to go back so I had to start the entire application process again and wait on the phone for additional hours.

Later on, I finally got call from unemployment and the way they were worded the questions was confusing and I kept answering incorrectly. The representative would say, are you sure you want to answer that way? The questions were ambiguous and I wasn’t answering the questions correctly to be approved. He was very helpful and patient. He finally told me I was approved, and I was coming up on seven weeks with no pay. He said I would receive back pay of unemployment and PUA in next 3-4 days, which I did receive in two separate waves. Finally.

People in my industry are resourceful and creative. We’re hustlers. We’ll bounce back.

Connect with Jess

Website
Facebook
Instagram

Cap Region Creatives in Quarantine: Konrad Odhiambo

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Creatives in Quarantine is a segment that highlights creative professionals across the Capital Region during this period of isolation due to COVID-19. We have developed some questions that will allow our community to share experiences and learn from one another during this time.

Allow us to introduce our first feature, Konrad Odhiambo.

How are you coping with this new reality?

Now that most of us are stuck at home with possibly no income, times are tough. But we can use these times to our ‘advantage’ and do things we normally wouldn’t do or don’t have time for. I have been finding time to work on self improvement and find a balance between family and work.  Looking at relationships between friends, parents and siblings and making sure no one feels left behind.

Have you started adapting and/or innovating your business model to operate under these conditions? Please explain.

Lots of us are super busy and often don’t have time to update our website. Now we do! Basic stuff like updating my site with most recent work and in general, make my website look good for potential future clients.

How have you seen the local creative community band together to support one another?

I’ve seen the community come together and do virtual meet ups as we normally would in person. There is a lot more communication happening online and people checking up on each other. The Power Breakfast Club has been holding its meetings online and using Zoom Cloud Meetings to keep the engagement going. I’ve seen the 10 push up challenge where friends challenge each other to stay fit while indoors. 

Are you thinking about ways that you’ll change the way you do business in the future?

For my business, I’ll be working on improving my internal processes when it comes to client acquisition, booking and follow up after the fact. In these times I’d like to start offering more tangible options such as albums, prints and gifts cards to keep a positive cashflow.

For printing, my online gallery has a direct link to my vendor. Once orders are placed, my printer will drop ship the order directly to my clients. Vendors include White House Custom Color and Nations Photo Lab.

Do you see any long term changes to the way people work coming out of this situation?

I believe it’s essential to start planning long term and make sure you have a six month safety net in case anything happens. Now more than ever creatives who solely rely on one stream of income will have to diversify and have multiple sources of income.

Now is a great time to sharpen your skills. There are plenty of tutorials online that you can use to improve your workflow in shooting and editing. With all the extra time, now is a good time for self improvement. I’d like to participate in tutorials geared toward post production and financial planning.

Get in touch with Konrad:

Konrad’s Work

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