Being an entrepreneur takes courage and perseverance. Anyone who’s been in business for a while will tell you the reason they’re still around is because they pushed themselves to keep learning and evolving along the way. In celebration of the determination found within the Maker Movement and Black History Month, we’d like to recognize six standout businesses in Northeast Ohio who have caught our attention. At the core, they know WHY they do what they do and WHAT their brand represents to their customers. The Maker Town™ app is proud to feature the following businesses within our interactive mobile directory:

It’s make-or-break time for hundreds of local businesses, whose sales margins have sunk in 2020. But finding local makers, artisans and galleries, and browsing their goods, has never been easier in Greater Cleveland. The Maker Town App puts over 500 of them at your fingertips.

Cleveland artist Susie Frazier created the Maker Town app to help consumers find art-related businesses, boutiques and galleries.

The North Pole has nothing on the makers of the North Coast. This town is filled with all kinds of tinkering elves working hard in their workshops for the holidays. Although most of them don’t make actual toys, they do have a wide range of handmade goods that are fun for kids of all ages — even the grownup ones. Using the new Maker Town app to find ideas, I took a look around and made a list of six clever creations you can only find in Cleveland.

Adding some humor to the holiday is an art form, and nobody does it better than Clevelanders who never take themselves too seriously. All it takes is knowing the personality or lifestyle of each person on your list and finding a gift that pokes a little fun at it. To give you a head start, here’s a collection of eight locally made goods that say it with a smirk, so you can share a little laughter along with that #shoplocal love.

For friends and family who can’t be together this season, the holidays are especially hard. A simple way to keep those bonds strong is to send a little handcrafted happiness direct from The Land. Whether they’re selling from workshops or websites, garages or galleries, Cleveland makers find inspiration in the grit as much as the glamour, keeping their products as real as the people who buy them. Start with the six ideas below and search many, many more on the Maker Town app that you can download from Apple or Google.