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Among challenges faced by entrepreneurs, that elusive work-life balance is one I hear time and time again.

Drawing the line between life and work is especially difficult for family businesses and those operated out of the home: kitchen tables overrun with production samples, packaging supplies overflowing from closets, after-hours conversations always circling back to the business. It’s a tough habit to break.

For Gotamago owners, Lichia Liu and her husband Christopher Guest, work-life balance isn’t black and white.

The lines are so blurred, it’s impossible to tell where one ends and the other begins. But for them, it works. Their business occupies a 2-story live-work building in an up-and-coming Toronto neighbourhood. Everything happens under on roof.

We visited Lichia and Christopher in the multi-functional space that serves as their HQ, warehouse, retail shop, event space, design studio, and home.

Unite is Shopify's annual Partner and Developer conference where we celebrate the Shopify ecosystem and make our major product announcements for the year.

In this two-part takeover of Shopify Masters, we’ll unpack what went down at Unite 2017 with behind-the-scenes interviews with our Chief Product Officer Craig Miller, VP of Product Satish Kanwar, and other guests.

This episode will explore the thinking behind two major product announcements—the New Chip and Swipe Card Reader and Shopify Pay—as well as the powerful story of Mohammadu Mifras, a Shopify Partner based in Sri Lanka.

The superheroes have cornered the market on multi-tasking. A newspaper photographer by day becomes a flying strongman by night. A millionaire playboy moonlights as a crime-fighting rodent. And they still find time to squabble with each other.

Multitasking gets a bad rap these days, as the kryptonite to mindfulness, but for working moms it’s their lifeblood.

Batman v Supermom? Place your bets, folks. My money’s on the real heroes. Read the stories of 9 amazing women simultaneously nurturing small businesses and small humans – both 24/7 jobs. And they’re killing it.

Kylie Jenner emerges from the double-doors of her brand’s Manhattan pop-up shop into a street filled with her fans. Beside her is Laura Thomas, a name and face likely unknown to the masses who came here for the lipstick. That lipstick, though, is the result of a collaboration: Kylie’s vision and Laura’s 17 years of experience in the beauty business.

In 2014, her own business sprung up, seemingly out of nowhere, and here, just three years later, she’s standing beside one the biggest celebrities of the moment, sharing in her glory.

This is the story of Seed Beauty.

A line-up snaked out of sight through the wide walkways of LA’s Wakefield Mall. Hoards of people called in sick and skipped school to be the first to experience their favorite cosmetics brand in the flesh.

Until that day in December, Kylie Cosmetics had never lived outside of a website.

In November, her people called our people, and the idea spun into motion: Shopify would help Kylie Jenner bring her online-only brand to life. The embodiment of her brand—ultimately the embodiment of Kylie the person—would teach her so much about her fans.

And, it would teach us a lesson in the power of experiences.

The Shopify team that built Kylie's pop-up share their IRL insights and tips for ecommerce brands of any size.

Imagine for a second that Walter White wasn’t cooking meth in that RV in the desert, but rather screen printing t-shirts or developing apps. It’s suddenly a very different story, one familiar to many entrepreneurs building a business with limited resources.

For him, the RV was a last resort, and the conditions desperate. In reality, merchants and makers are intentionally ditching traditional workspaces in favor of offices on wheels. 

I think they’re onto something.

Recently at our Unite conference in San Francisco, we announced, among many other exciting things, that in the coming weeks, we’ll be rolling out improved discounts within Shopify. Soon, you’ll be able to create, manage, edit, and track discounts more easily. 

To complement the native discount functionality in Shopify, our App Store contains dozens of discount-focused apps that plug seamlessly into your store. The right app can help automate your processes, letting you focus on the areas of your business where you shine.

We’ve handpicked a cross-section of top-rated discount apps to suit a range of budgets from free to premium. Whether you’re running a BOGO (buy one, get one) deal, trying to grow your student audience, or counting down to a massive site wide sale, there’s a niche app to help you do just that.

Let’s make a deal!

Facebook ads in ecommerce are often product focused. And, for the most part, being direct works. But what happens when you focus your ads on your story instead?

On this episode of Shopify Masters, our guest explains how she saw 8 times as many sales when she moved away from canned Facebook ads to more personal ads that resonated with her audience.

Alanna Banks is the founder of Fridays Off, a Canadian online fabric shop based in Toronto, that sells high quality 100% cotton designer fabrics for quilters, home decorators, and the budding sewer.

In most cases, resigning is an exciting but scary experience.

On one hand, you’re likely pursuing a better opportunity, such as starting your own business. On the other hand, letting go of a stable job is always tough. 

By resigning professionally, you can avoid harming relationships with your coworkers, so you still have the option of working together again in the future. Read on to find out how.

Geek culture is exploding in popularity. Every new video game, TV show, and anime has the potential to spark a brand new cult following.

But how do you license these properties to leverage them as products?

On this episode of Shopify Masters, Sarah Fetter from Sanshee, maker of premium merchandise for fans of video games and anime, explains how she finds and negotiates licensing deals to create and sell merchandise.

On April 20, a thousand Shopify Partners from around the world gathered together in San Francisco for our 2nd annual Unite conference: a two-day event to discuss all things Shopify, commerce, and technology.

Unite is about connecting with our partner and developer communities who build the powerful apps, beautiful ecommerce themes and stores for our merchants. Special keynote presentations from Shopify COO Harley Finkelstein, CEO Tobi Lütke, and Director of UX Lynsey Thornton presented partners with a challenge:

Help Shopify find new and innovative ways to make commerce better and easier for everyone.

Here are some of the game-changing announcements we made at Unite this year, and how it will benefit you as a merchant.

A plastic widget is born in a factory in China. Its life expectancy is roughly two human years. By the time it retires to a tropical island—the beautiful Great Pacific Garbage Patch—or is laid to rest at the New York city dump, it will have crossed one ocean by air and two countries by truck, thrice-repackaged.

At every junction in the life cycle of one plastic widget, there is a choice. Heads or tails? Each choice is one of trillions that can form one massive effort to conserve resources, protect the environment, and slow down the impact of consumerism. Or, they can buy us all a one-way ticket to the island of plastic.

In this post, we'll dive into quick, green ways to level up in four areas of your business. Plus, get inspired by 18 Shopify stores on racking up some serious good karma.