During the 2020 lockdown, I got back into my long-lost passion, art. I turned our guest bedroom into an art studio, started a new instagram account, and began documenting my coming-back-to-painting journey.
Not long after, I started getting inquiries from people I knew if my paintings were for sale. It was something that never crossed my mind, but it opened a new door for me to explore.
I started reading books about starting a small business, watched a lot of YouTube videos, even called my father-in-law for advice on what type of business I should create. Sole proprietorship or LLC?
Four months later, I opened up shop on Etsy. I had a strong start. My family and friends were very supportive and they launched my online store with a bang that, soon, more and more people were finding my store organically and now selling to people from the UK, Germany, Australia and Canada!
It was definitely an incredible feeling!
When things started to open back up and people went back to work, including my husband and I, I found it more and more difficult to get sales. I started to rely on the same people I knew would always buy- my mother-in-law, best friend, and even a couple other friends. I would subconsciously launch products with them in mind…
Between then and the beginning of 2022, I’d updated my logo and website multiple times, re-ordered business cards and thank you cards, done a few pop-up markets, even joined local art exhibits. It was definitely not bringing in the amount of money I wanted.
By mid-2022, after having my second baby, I’d all but given up. I took a break from painting and showing up on my social media pages.
I ventured on to a new interest. I learned how to use a sewing machine, make cute baby clothes for my little ones, and quickly decided that this would make for a good business. Shortly after that, with barely a thought than making a few bucks, I launched a handmade baby clothing online store.
Much like my first business, all my hype and excitement went into this.
In my mind, I thought, This is it! This seems like a better business anyway since everyone is having babies. Right?
I was beyond excited. As with my art business, I created new social media pages, a new website and logo. I did everything myself.
The store launch was a success I would say. I didn’t sell out, but I had several orders from family and friends. That first year, I was invited to participate in an indoor holiday market, which turned out to be a flop. Vendors paid a hefty fee to get in (mine was over $300, and that was with a ‘new vendor’ and military discount, oof!), but they did a poor job of marketing it. I don’t even think I broke even that weekend.
I did a few more Saturday markets as well, with my “good” days being that I broke even or made just a tiny bit more.
I’d paid for an online business coach, pivoting a few times. I eventually stopped making baby clothes all together after that proved to be overwhelming. I was offering many different styles, in sizes ranging from newborn all the way to 7, all made-to-order.
The problem I faced was that I would only put one of each size available on the website because I didn’t know which sizes were more in demand, and I also didn’t know if the fabric I had in hand would be enough if I put more sizes available.
Whenever a size sold, another person would be asking when that size would be restocked. And then I’d manually add it back in just so they could make their purchase. It was overwhelming, to say the least.
I also felt like I got into the “wrong” crowd. My initial messaging was using 100% organic cotton fabric, with the cotton milled and dyed in the US using soy-based dyes. If I used linen, it was imported “ethically” from Europe. The thing was, these topics were completely outside of my scope, and definitely didn’t know enough about them to make it my main message.
Though I’m grateful for some of the online friendships I’ve made with some moms there, I definitely attracted majority of the people who weren’t aligned with my values. Many of them were traditional Christian wives, moms who only used all-organic and vegan for their kids. Nothing wrong with that, obviously! But some of them were very much on the extreme side of things…yikes.
I felt insecure, unconfident, like a fraud, because my home was definitely not all-organic. I felt I was being inauthentic, not “walking the talk”, and felt so undereducated in my field.
Also, upon learning about the other side of this industry that I hadn’t considered before, there was the whole certifying your products made for kids under a certain age (which was all my products) to make sure they were in compliance with safety. All the testing, mandatory tags, batch numbers, they all seemed too overwhelming.
I genuinely loved making baby clothes, and it hurt to set it aside due to all these things. But to be on the safe side, I pivoted to just being a mom accessory brand. I started making scrunchies, wrist key holders, and I introduced small bags as well.
The reception was nice, but I also felt like the audience I already had were there for the kids stuff, so my new products weren’t landing as well as my previous ones.
I did one final pivot, which is what I am currently trying to re-brand, and now I am only making handmade bags. This definitely felt so much more aligned with me. I’ve always loved buying and carrying purses. But when I had kids, I’d switched to just carrying backpacks for my kids’ things, with maybe a pocket for my wallet.
It allowed me to connect to a deeper ‘why’, which is to let my individuality shine even in motherhood, and for me that is my love for hand bags.
At the same time, in 2024, I left my full-time career and went back all-in on my art business. I have an art studio, a style, and a new body of work that are resonating with many people.
In 5 years of navigating the small business world on my own, I learned a lot of things. Most of them the hard way! Everything I am sharing here are my own personal experiences. This blog post is also for documenting my journey into rebranding.
I’m not at all where I want to be, but I have a clearer understanding and know what I would do moving forward. Let’s jump in.
Lesson #1: Invest in improving my skills first
I’d like to preface by saying that I don’t regret launching my businesses when I did, before I was even remotely ready, because if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t be in a place of growth I am right now with all the experience under my belt.
Besides, I’m a big believer in doing things before you’re ready. The only other option is analysis paralysis.
However, if I were starting over, I would have 100% bettered my skills first.
Granted when I launched my art biz in 2020, I was definitely painting more than I did before and had figured out a process that worked for me. But looking back, I didn’t really have a specific “style”, my subjects, while mostly wildlife, were still all over the place, and I didn’t have a “mission” statement or even a “why”.
And while I had some technical skills from drawing since I was a kid, my skills could have definitely used improvement.
I’m also not dishing someone who just wants to paint pretty pictures because they’re pretty. That’s absolutely fine; not every painting needs to have a deep meaning to it. But I still believe that storytelling is what’ll separate us from others. People connect to stories.
In 2024, when I ultimately decided that I wanted to become a professional artist, I made two big investments. An online program specifically for growing a sustainable art business, and the other a mastery program for learning technical skills in drawing and painting, and finding your voice and style.
Now, a year later, with everything I’ve learned from these programs, I have a cohesive style, a story, a process that I love and works with my personality, and pieces that are selling because I can tell better stories and collectors are resonating with them.
If I had done this right off the bat, who knows where I would be now five years later? But, no regrets, only lessons.
In my handmade business, if I had invested in learning basic garment sewing extensively first, I would have probably avoided the burnout of the learning curves I experienced and the stress that accompanied it when I was already making products for customers.
Lesson #2: Get clear on my “why”
The art mastery program definitely helped with this aspect. It’s incredible what you arrive at if you just keep going deeper and deeper into yourself. Turns out that I don’t paint just to paint pretty things, I am actually drawn to certain subjects and elements for my own specific reasons.
Having a “why” allows me to show up to my art studio consistently even on days I don’t want to. Knowing “why” I make bags allows me to show up to my sewing station even on hard days.
I think that having a reason for why you do what you do is the easiest way to market yourself and business. Your messaging will naturally show up in everything you create or provide.
Lesson #3: Decide on my long term vision
This is a huge lesson for me. When I started both businesses, I was short-sighted; only seeing past the initial launch, and then winging it the rest of the time!
I give the younger me a lot of grace, because of course I hadn’t known better.
This time, I am starting with my long-term vision, and then reverse engineering my strategies on how to get there.
My big picture, long-term goal is freedom.
Freedom of time, freedom of opportunities, freedom of wealth.
I want to be able to enjoy life with my family, free of the stress of hustling and grinding. I want to be able to book family trips on a whim, surprise my mom with a spa day, drop donations to my favorite charities without a second thought.
For my art business, my long-term vision is to be represented by higher-end galleries. I understand that it’s not for every artist; I was there, too. Why would I want to share profit of my paintings when I can sell directly to collectors and keep all of it?
Fair. But lately I’ve learned that the trade off is worth it. When I sat down at the end of the day, I knew I hated the business side of things (haha, any other creative biz owners out there?).
Working with a gallery will give me a partnership with organizations that are professionals and have been doing it a long time. They can handle marketing, promotions, advertising, sales, fulfillment, while I can just be in my studio and paint! That sounds like a win for me.
So, in order to get there, I am painting lots and lots of pieces to become prolific, and also when it comes time to reach out to galleries, I have a whole body of work readily available.
For my handmade business, my long-term vision is having a small team of diverse women who are aligned with my values, who will run the business like no one’s business! So I can be free of the day-to-day tasks and focus on growing it, giving me the freedom I am trying to achieve.
In order to get there, I am working to establish my business by putting in the hard work now by myself to get it to the point I want to get to. I am making the products myself, elevating the quality, and about to plan my big launch strategy.
While I am working late nights to achieve this, the payoff will be worth it and is ultimately working t towards my long-term goal.
Lesson #4: Nail down my target audience
In the business world, knowing your ideal customer is pretty big. In the past, I avoided this because the thought of “excluding” potential buyers scared the heck out of me.
But what I’ve learned in the last few years is that if you try to appeal to everyone, you will appeal to no one.
In my art business, my target audience are art consultants, art dealers, art gallery directors, perhaps even interior designers. So I am preparing my social media pages and websites to appeal to those people.
In the past, I was fine with doing pop-up art markets here and there, but based on my long-term vision, those things (while awesome) are no longer aligned with my goals.
In my handmade bag biz, I am aiming to attract working or professional moms who love purses and bags without guilt. Based on my personal experience, I used to be an avid purse-buyer (albeit not designer, but I still had a huge collection of different purses).
When I became a mom, that all stopped. Much like everything else that changes with us when we enter motherhood, I changed my priorities. I stopped buying or carrying purses, and would leave the house with my diaper bag because I need to be able to fit my kids’ things.
Now, I am embracing who I am as my own person without feeling guilty about it! My love for bags doesn’t diminish my love for my children.
Lesson #5: Get control over my numbers
This is huge! For years, I avoided looking at my numbers, afraid of it showing me my “failures”. Even though I made sales, every time I filed taxes for the year, I always ended up with a loss.
I was definitely a spender, often spending more than I had in the bank!
At the end of 2023, for my handmade business, I switched to an LLC and gotten a real business bank account. This was probably one of the more “adult” decisions I made that I was proud of, though I still sucked at managing it.
I still combined my personal and business finances, making tax season a pain the butt to do.
Now, I am definitely spending less than I am earning. I am learning to utilize materials I already have, and being frugal with my expenses.
I am tracking everything now, though sometimes it still hurts to look at, at least now I have a grasp on what the heck is going on with my businesses. This way, I am able to set sales goals and come up with a strategy on how to get there.
Lesson #6: Optimize my time wisely
Recently, I started paying attention to what things I am spending the most time on. I think we can all agree that many of us spend way too much time on social media.
In the beginning, all of my time was spent creating content, chasing the latest trends, praying to the algorithm gods that my next post is the one to go viral.
As I’ve matured in business, I learned that time is money.
Now, I am more strategic on what I spend my time and energy on. Instead of doom scrolling on my phone, I use my screen time to learn something new, whether that’s a marketing masterclass, money mindset practices, reading a book on business.
I wish that I’d learned about marketing as a whole from the start. I’ve definitely fallen prey to these online growth “gurus” who teach nothing but to be consistent on social media, post a gallizion times a day, engage with everyone and start multiple DMs with everybody.
While I am grateful for social media platforms and it is a big part of my marketing strategy, it is not the only thing. I’ve learned to scale back and focus more on in-person connections and opportunities.
For my art business, this is doing in-person exhibits, getting gallery representations, networking in my local community. For my handmade business, I am hoping to get into brick and mortar stores, and for both businesses, get media coverage and publications.
I am trying to expand my email list and focus on that as my number one online marketing strategy. I’d like social media to be only a supporting factor.
Once I learned that the return of investment from social media is actually quite low for me, I am learning to optimize my time on things that actually bring money in. This has reduced my online fatigue drastically.
I am still testing all of these and I am hoping to start seeing the results I am looking for soon. I am grateful for all the trials and errors, the mistakes I’ve made, and all the lessons I’ve learned throughout the years. It has made me become a better person, leader, and business owner.
