Andrew Dahlgren graduated from University of the Arts with a Masters degree in industrial design and a big goal: to promote Philadelphia workers and designers. He knew the city and had the right connections, but lacked a specific vision and a plan to make money off of his ideas. “They don’t teach business in design school,” he said. “People don’t realize they can make money off their skills.”

Andrew heard about Empowerment Group through a Green Village Philadelphia event, and began one-on-one business consulting in early 2009. Through meeting with a consultant, he learned how to calculate the feasibility of his plans, multi-task with his business and design ideas, place value on the information he was generating, and learn more about his personal strengths and weaknesses.

The original plan was to build a storefront. Andrew had hoped to compile designs and products from around Philadelphia to sell in a physical location. Empowerment Group’s business consulting helped Andrew realize that he could achieve his goal of promoting these products without the added startup costs of rent and utilities. With some additional advice, the website Made in Philly was born. “The way we’re building a site, we can add a storefront later,” said Andrew.

The most valuable lesson Andrew has learned through his business ventures is that, “All businesses really come down to marketing. It’s understanding that in order to make any venture work, it’s focusing not only on what I’m doing, but how to get the word out."

He realized that while Made In Philly was receiving press, the people who were reading about it weren’t necessarily his target market. While this venture wasn’t going in the direction he had intended, he applied the principles he learned to several other projects.

In order to stay afloat and continue supporting local production, Andrew continued looking for new ways to partner with Philadelphia’s creative communities. He’s currently working on several different projects that work toward his goals. “I’ve learned that the projects that involve more than one person tend to get further faster,” he said.

Andrew is currently building up Philly Works, a database and network of people in creative production. “It’s the Made In Philly idea, but there’s more context,” he said. He’s also formed various creative partnerships, hosted an event through Design Philadelphia, and worked to promote creativity in Philadelphia in a variety of other ways.

All of these side projects ultimately contribute to Andrew’s goal of promoting the people who are creating products in Philadelphia. Through all this multi-tasking, he’s continued to think about business comprehensively, “I’ve learned to treat it all like commerce,” he said, “You have to actually think about your life as a business.”

“There are opportunities to be creative about all of it,” he said, “If I keep plugging away, something will work.”