You’ve been meaning to start your shop “someday.” This is the someday — with a plan instead of a guess. The Maker’s First 90 Days is a guided, week-by-week program that takes you from “I have an idea” to a real shop with its first customers, in ninety days, one manageable week at a time.
No fluff, no pep talk — a real plan with working tools. Four phases, thirteen weeks, each with a single clear goal, the teaching to reach it, a short “Do this” list, and a “Done when” checklist so you always know you’re finished.
What’s inside:
- A 40-page ebook (PDF) — the full 13-week program. Every week has the why and the how, a “Do this” task list, a “Done when” checklist, and a worked example, plus a startup FAQ and a mindset primer for the hard days.
- A 10-tab Excel workbook (.xlsx) — the working engine, with live formulas:
- 90-Day Roadmap tracker with a status dropdown and an auto progress bar
- Idea Validation Scorecard — score it 1 to 5, the verdict calculates
- Startup Budget Tracker — planned vs actual, with totals
- Costing & Pricing Calculator — materials + your time + overhead + fees → true cost → suggested retail & wholesale → the profit you actually keep
- Launch Line Planner, a Launch Checklist with a progress bar, a First 30 Customers tracker, Settings, and a Glossary
- Printable worksheets (PDF) — the same tools on paper, fillable on screen or printed: the validation scorecard, a name & brand worksheet, a weekly action planner, a product costing worksheet, and a customer tracker.
- A one-page wall planner (PDF) — the whole 90-day roadmap on one page. Print it, pin it above your bench, and tick a week off as you finish it.
The 13-week plan:
- Phase 1 — Decide (Weeks 1–3): validate the idea, name and claim it, register the business (entity, EIN, bank account, sales tax, permits).
- Phase 2 — Build (Weeks 4–8): source materials, learn your true cost and price it, build your launch line, make photos and words that sell, choose a sales channel.
- Phase 3 — Launch (Weeks 9–11): build the shop and its policies, soft-launch to a friendly audience, then go public.
- Phase 4 — Grow (Weeks 12–13): win your first 30 customers, and build the bookkeeping, restock, and review systems that last.
The working part really works: the Excel costing tab has live formulas — type a product’s materials, your hours and rate, overhead, and the fee percentage, and it returns the true cost, a suggested retail and wholesale price, and the profit you keep after fees. Set your rate and multipliers once and every product reprices itself.
Built for every pre-launch maker: craft-neutral by design — candle and soap makers, home bakers, jewelers, woodworkers, potters and ceramicists, sewists and knitters, leather and resin makers, and printables, pattern, and print-on-demand sellers alike. Selling digital products instead of physical goods? The whole arc still applies — Week 4’s sourcing becomes your design tools, and digital delivery replaces shipping. If you’re getting ready to open a shop, this is for you.
A note on location: the Week 3 legal and financial setup steps (business structure, EIN, sales tax, permits) use United States examples. Sellers elsewhere will find the structure directly transferable but should confirm the equivalent steps and authorities for their own country — and, as with everything in the guide, treat it as education, not legal or tax advice.
Evergreen — start any time: the 90-day arc, the costing math, the validation signals, and the systems are timeless, and every tracker and worksheet uses date columns you fill in yourself. Begin the day you buy.
Instant digital download. Nothing ships. The files are yours to use to launch your own business.
Created with AI assistance under Ardent Workshop’s creative direction, then reviewed and edited before release. This is a planning & education guide, not legal, tax, financial, or insurance advice. Business structure, EIN, sales-tax registration, licensing, cottage-food rules, and insurance vary by where you live and what you sell — confirm the specifics with your state and locality and, for anything you’re unsure about, a qualified professional (an attorney, a CPA, or your state’s small-business office). Pricing examples are illustrative; run your own numbers. Not affiliated with or endorsed by any marketplace.
