On Dec. 20th, our friends from FreshBooks paid a surprise visit at our beloved STAR Company office to serenade us with some Christmas carols! 

The FreshBooks Crew with STAR Company staff members Judy Marcelline and Shirley Marquez.

Not only are they the # 1 cloud accounting specialists for small business owners, but they sound amazing too! Hear them in action!

And if we haven’t already said so, we love working with FreshBooks! They’re awesome at what they do, and they can sing!

Just like our clients, we enjoy working with Business Savvy and Creative/Artistic people. Looking for a Bookkeeper? Look no more. STAR Company CEO Sarah Hopen and Bookkeeper/Administrator Judy Marcelline are Certified FreshBooks Beancounters.

Check us out at : http://www.freshbooks.com/accountants/accountant-map.php#dialog3

STAR Company sends their best wishes of a healthy, happy and peaceful New Year to you all!

To a new year of joy, love and success —

Cycling in Toronto

STAR Company CEO & Founder, Sarah Hopen, shares her thoughts about why riding your bike is more than just an exercise. Not a rider? Read on!

Do you love to bike?  Are you a commuter cyclist?  Have you ever dreamed of a time when bicycling in Toronto is as commonplace as taking the subway or driving a car?

That’s great.  But you aren’t who I’m looking for.

Are you someone who thinks:

• “I find driving with cars on the road very stressful.”
•  “I like biking, but it’s impossible in this city.”
• “C’mon, this is Canada.  Biking isn’t an option in the winter – that’s crazy.”

Then you are exactly who I’d like to chat with! Cycling may not be for everyone – but it is an option that makes the city better for everyone.

Cycling offers:

• Easy, fun exercise
• Inexpensive, pollution free means of transport
• An opportunity to interact directly with the cultural and natural environment.

That means a healthier population, less crowded roads and subways, and vibrant communities.  That’s good stuff!

But to make cycling in the city a safe and healthy option requires the support of everyone who lives here – not just the most die-hard cyclists among us.  And there’s a long way to go before cycling in Toronto is an option for many people.

Cycle Toronto  is dedicated to creating a safe, healthy, cycling friendly city for all.  This includes:

• Advocacy – reminding City Council about the importance of Bicycling in a complete transportation plan.
• Education – creating safer, more informed cyclists through various education programs
• Resources– offering information and access to resource to make cycling fun and accessible.

STAR Company staff at Cycle Toronto’s Bike Valet, June 2012.

This fall, Cycle Toronto is once again running their Refer-a-Rider campaign.  Check it out.  Take a look at the work they are doing.  If you are currently riding your bike in the city, or are thinking of getting started, there are lots of resources that I’m sure you’ll like.

If you never plan on riding your bike, still take a look.  You’ll find a place to express your thoughts and concerns about cycling in Toronto. ‘Cause we’re all in this together.

Creative thinking, along with a solid financial picture, fuels creative business. The latest in an ongoing series from STAR Company Bookkeeper Sue Merakian  looks at finding the time and tools to explore your own creativity.    In addition to being a financial wizard,  Sue is  also a visual artist and jewellery maker. 

TA DA!  I just finished my fourth masterpiece this month!

In my head, that is.

They emerge, full blown, from the murky depths of my right hemisphere, dazzling in their ethereal perfection. So brilliantly detailed and moving that I couldn’t possibly forget them.

Poof, there goes another one. Something in a gothic arch-shaped triptych with a carousel made out of spaghetti? No, wait. Blast! It’s gone.

T’would be so lovely if my reveries arrived whilst sitting in front my easel, paintbrush poised o’er blank canvas, but they usually show up when I’m poop scooping, or dangling off a sliding loop in a bus driven by Leadfoot Larry. Wandering around muttering daydreams into a phone recorder, or whipping out a petite journal and scribbling tiny feverish notes at inappropriate moments, seems a little affected to me. If the vision is that great, it will stick, right? Wrong. Somehow, the *feeling* of the thing is lost.

As yet, I haven’t figured out how to permanently capture one of these fleeting gifts from Morpheus, but I get some consolation from the fact that at any given time, any number of people in my vicinity could be experiencing their own instant masterpiece…TA DA!

 Shirley Marquez, STAR Company Bookkeeping Assitant and singer/actor offers three useful strategies to help you make a living from your art…see her tips below. 

Shirley and the STAR Company team will be at the Toronto Fringe Festival Tent Talk “Business of Being an Artist” evening, one of the ways that STAR Company is supporting the Toronto Fringe as a Community Partner.  So if you are an artist with a headful of questions about making a living from your art, then come by.  We’d love to meet you and answer your questions.

“The Business of Being an Artist”

Saturday July 7, 6-9pm

outdoors at The Fringe Club at Bloor and Bathurst.

One of the most commonly asked questions by artists and creatives alike is…

“How do I turn my creativity into a career?” Having been a performer in my twenties, I realized there was a lack of proper “business training classes” in theatre schools. Quite interesting, since as a creative artist you are self-employed. Yet there no core classes specifically addressing the step-by- step process of self-promotion – how do you produce, where do you get the money to produce a show – Just how do you start? How do you keep afloat?

There are many ways to go about this issue, but here are some basic beginner steps to take note of:

1. Have a Business Plan:

Yes artists – have a business plan. As creative people our first main focus naturally falls on the artistic side of things (deciding which plays to do, how many shows to do in a season, which directors to consider, etc.). While those are very important (of course!), realize that you need to have a business plan to bring it into fruition. Start with your wish list – where would you like to be in one year? How much money do you think you’ll need to accomplish that goal? Where do you think you can get help? What resources do you have, and how can you expand them?

 2. Create a List of Actions.

One of my instructors at NYU, James McGarry who taught a course called Financial Management for the Arts, said that starting a career in the arts is like planning a vacation. You plan in advance (at least a year in advance, not two months before you wish to open your show!) Assign specific dates to achieve a certain goal and make each step goal-oriented. Simply writing down “look for a venue” is not definitive enough. Something like, “1. Narrow down venue choices by July 15th, 2. Select a venue by July 30th, 3. Deliver venue deposit by August 5th “ initiates and demands action and planning, rather than simply stating what you wish to happen next.

3. Think Long –Term.

In the book “Yours for the Asking” by Reynold Levy (President, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts), one of the lessons that struck me the most is the idea of planning for long-term survival. How many times have we focused on how to have a successful first show with no plans on how to continue this success into the following year, the next five years, ten years, etc? Remember the old saying back in elementary school? Getting an A is easy, keeping an A is hard. If your goal is make your passion a career, you need a business plan and a list of actions that does not end after your show wraps up.

Some Helpful Links (grants)

Theatre Ontario – Professional Theatre Training Program Grants are given to professionals who wish to gain professional development within their own discipline or a “change of direction” within their careers (examples: an actor wants to become a publicist; a stage manager wants to become a producer; a technician wants to become a designer.)

Ontario Arts Council –  OAC offers grants to individual artists (Project Grants) and arts organizations (Operating Grants).  

Toronto Arts Council – TAC provides grants to outstanding artists and arts organizations that contribute to the cultural life of the City of Toronto.

Canada Arts Council – Provides funding to individual professional artists and arts organizations.

Metcalfe Foundation – Provides grants to registered charitable organizations in three areas: Community, Environment, and Performing Arts.

Recommended Readings

Management for the Arts Byrnes, William J. Focal Press; 4 edition. 2008.

Yours for the Asking: an Indispensable Guide to Fundraising and Management  Levy, Reynold, John Wiley & Sons, 2008.

Winning Grants Step by Step Mim Carlson, 2nd. Edition, Alliance for Non-Profit Management, John Wiley/Jossey-Bass, 2002

The second in our series of monthly STAR Company ‘Client Snapshots’…a chance to share, learn, explore and find creative and business inspiration from our STAR Company client roster.

Cheryl Bouzide-McKee, from the STAR Company team,  sits down for a virtual chat with STAR Company client  John Calabro from Quattro Books to learn more about this literary creative business.

Tell us about who you are and what you do?

Who is the Quattro team?

Clockwise from top left,  John Calabro, Alan Briesmaster, Luciano Iacobelli and Beatriz Hausner.

How did Quattro Books come to be?

Four of us are partners in WordStage – a a very successful reading series.  We saw the publishing business as a logical extension of that partnership and  came together to create Quattro Books.

What are your greatest joys in running your creative business?

Finding new authors that merit publishing.  Seeing the joy on their faces when we launch their first books. Taking a fine manuscript and making it better.

What about your biggest challenge as a creative entrepreneur?

The greatest challenge is to balance our financial books at the end of every publishing season.

A Quattro Books publication - Romancing the Buzzard, by Leah Murray

Any big lessons learned along the way?

What’s next for Quattro Books?

A Quattro Books publication - Nevermore: A Book of Hours by David Day

What business tool can you not live without in your day to day life?

 What do you wish you had more of?

What made you take the leap and turn your creative passion into a business?

Anything else you’d like to share?

The first in our series of monthly STAR Company ‘Client Snapshots’…a chance to share, learn, explore and find creative and business inspiration from our STAR Company client roster.

Cheryl Bouzide-McKee, from the STAR Company team,  sits down for a virtual chat with STAR Company client  Olivier Berger to learn more about Olivier’s work with Wondereur, a truly 21^st century creative business.

Wondereur Preview Spring 2012 from Wondereur on Vimeo.

What is Wondereur?  Wondereur is a weekly iPad magazine. But there’s more to us than that… Photojournalism: each week, we unveil a photo essay on a new contemporary artist and give you three weeks to discover the artist’s life and work.  Mobile Shopping: Along with the artist’s story, we unveil a storefront. When you’re captivated by what you see, click “buy” to bring a piece of art home.

How did the idea for your business develop?  It started by a kind of frustration with how art is sold online and offline. So we thought there was something else that could be done, something that would bring a simple way of exploring what is behind contemporary art. To us, artists are adventurers, so we were excited to find a way to show the adventurous ‘journey’ involved in the creation process.

Olivier, 3rd from left, and the wonderful Wondereur team.

Tell us a bit about the Wondereur team.  We are a small collective of journalists, designers, creative entrepreneurs and art lovers, with a special love for contemporary art. We are from Paris and Toronto.  We are bearded and beardless, glasses and no glasses, but with a shared passion to make things beautiful and simple.

How do you find the artists you showcase?  It starts with our talent spotters. Then our editorial team takes over.  Leading figures in local art scenes around the world agree to be Wondereur’s talent spotters, finding and endorsing artists who are under the radar. Wondereur invites the artists to submit work for display in our storefront and autobiographical material to feature in our story.  From there, it’s up to Wondereur’s journalists and designers. They shape the artist’s autobiographical material, the talent spotter’s insights, an in-depth artist interview and documentary-style photography into photo essays in the classic style.

Can you talk about some of the challenges of bringing Wondereur to life?  The concept went through a lot of iterations, even through big changes in the Wondereur team. It felt sometimes, often actually, like we were hitting the wall with our head… but at some point the wall broke.  For us, this is just the start. The development of the Wondereur concept will continue, and even go faster, after we launch…thanks to response from users.

What was the break-through in the creation of Wondereur?  The wall breaks when suddenly you find a way to bring big value to each of your key stakeholders. In our case, the artist, the art community,  art galleries, the photojournalist and the reader.

What are your greatest joys and greatest challenges with Wondereur?  The joy comes from working with people who are not like minded, but share a common passion for the project, and a group dynamic where ego can be left out… where stress is kept at bay.

Where are you headed?  Launch! After quite a few months of hard, hard work, we will finally see if what we’ve built is meaningful or not.

What has been the most important lesson so far?  That surprises are always around the corner, even if you are very well organized.  So just be prepared for the unexpected.

What business tools can you not live without in your day to day life?  Basecamp.  Email on ipad.  Skype.  Home-made organic 1k calorie chocolate cakes…yes it is a business tool!

What do you wish you had?  More time.

How does STAR Company help with your life/work?  The backbone of any business, whether it’s for-profit or not-for-profit, is money and compliance toward government agencies and various other stakeholders. Without it nothing can become real or sustain itself. STAR Company is key in making this manageable and ensuring that things are done right.

Was there something/someone/a moment that propelled you to take the leap and turn your creative passion into a business?
Yes, finding the people who accepted to take the risk along with us and join our Wondereur team.

Bookkeeping and house concerts….odd bedfellows you say? 

Maybe so, but we are top-notch culture-soaked number geeks!  We do both pretty darn well.  Don’t take our word for it…come out and join us for some house-spun culture, and be on the lookout for any flying numbers, at our last STARRY Nights House Concert of the spring season.

Our April show with singer/songrwiter Soozi Schlanger  and our May show with writer/actor Alison Wearing were both sell outs;  fun, moving and intimate live performances.

Join us Saturday June 23, 8-10pm for ‘Home is Where the Heart Lives’.  A live theatrical performance by actor/writer/director Judy Marcellline.

For more info, and to buy tickets…click here.

STAR Company is a left and right brain phenomenon …In addition to our socially-minded financial management, and all things bookkeeping, we also produce unique art and culture events.  As part of our ‘Sparking Your Own Creativity’ series, STAR Company bookkeeper Armen Karapetyan muses on his connection to photography.

Moments preserved in time…

Toronto is smack in the middle of the 16th annual CONTACT Photography Festival, a  manifestation of human creativity and beautiful moments preserved in time.

I got my first serious, professional camera when I was visiting the great New York City for the first time.  In a city like New York, you have to have a camera.  First of all, it’s a visible sign on your chest screaming “I am a tourist”!  There I am, one of many thousands visiting the Big Apple daily and successfully annoying the hell out of locals with over-the-top excitement and a slow walking pace, especially when it happens during rush hour. For me, the camera and the pictures I took during my travels serve as a portal in the space-time continuum.

I have traveled a lot since my initial trip to New YorkCity.  I am happy that I managed to create many memorable moments, along with some artistic expression, with the helpof my reliable companion, my camera.

Every year over 1000 local, national and international artists get together during the annual CONTACT  Photography Festival in Toronto. CONTACT is the largest photography event in the world. Quite something, especially when you consider the consistent whittling away at art and culture funding in Canada over the past several years. The festival is exhibited in 200 venues during the month of May and  attracts over 1.8million viewers!

You just might catch some CONTACT photographers exhibiting in our upcoming CSI Art Lounge.  The STAR Company office is in the Centre for Social Innovation-Annex.  We are partnering with CSI to launch the CSI Art Lounge in the fall of 2012..stay tuned!