Year 2

If you’ve followed along for a while, you’ll know that I try to write a blog post about once a month. I say once a month because I haven’t been able to stick with this schedule fully, but maybe 2022 will be different! Or it won’t be! And it doesn’t matter because I write these posts as a way to journal and document my small biz happenings. If I put too much pressure on myself to write them it takes the fun out of writing them. I can never tell how many of you read these (although you can always say hi and leave a comment at the bottom) but I hope that you find my ramblings interesting and you learn more about me when you choose to read them!

First Bay Area pop up at Redemption-Los Gatos after our move!

Since 2021 felt like my first true and full year of my ceramics business, I had a lot more meaningful data to sift through. I thought I would share some business stats and findings with you here!

I had >7.4K visits to my website this year (from all 50 states)! The top 3 states were: 

1. California

2. Washington

3. Texas

There were international visits as well! I even sent my first piece of art outside of the U.S. to our neighbor up North, Canada!

Between online sales and in-person events this year, I had over 250 sales! After looking at my books, I found that I kept my expenses relatively low and that most of my profit went straight into paying for my rent, healthcare, and supplies. So, I did more than break even in my second year of business which is definitely something to celebrate! 

Some favorites from 2021!

I sold 300+ pieces of pottery this year and made > 575 pieces alone in 2021. This was more than 4x the amount of pottery I made in 2020, although not quite as surprising since there was a very long period (stupid COVID) where I could not do any pottery at all and was only sewing masks for the shop! (Thank goodness I have not had to sew anything this year and also thank you mom for helping me stay afloat and stay motivated in 2020!)

My most popular collections in order are: 

1. Fruit Friends

2. Brunch Bunch 

3. Plant Pals 

4. Sea Shine

5. Good Vibes

This is based on sales and the number of visits to these pages on my website. I never would have guessed that the fruit friends and my little characters would be the most popular of my ceramics but I am all about it! I’m so glad you all love them as much as I do. 

My pottery was in four different stores this year! Three stores in California (Rootstock Collective, Hashimoto Nursery, and Giant Robot Gallery) and one in Oregon (Reclamation)! This was a new and challenging venture but I have enjoyed it so far and really look forward to (hopefully) continuing to collaborate with these businesses, adding some new collabs in the coming year, and refining the wholesale process.

My customers, friends, and support system.

I participated in 20 events, both virtual and in-person, in 2022 which resulted in meeting so many new customers and friends. Events are always where I feel I get to connect with you all the most and get the best feedback. The first words from passersby and customers at my booth are almost always…

• “OMG, your pottery is so cute!”

• “Everything is so happy!”

• “Look at the (insert fruit friends or brunch bunch character here.)!”

I feel an additional result of all the events this year was an increase in my Instagram following from <500 in February of 2021 to just over 1850 followers at the end of December. It might not seem like a lot but compared to my first year that’s a lot of new eyes! My email list grew 4x from 2020 and gained >1600 followers on Pinterest in 2021 alone. (I don’t really know how to utilize Pinterest but that’s definitely a learning goal for 2022!) I try hard not to dwell on these numbers (although it is difficult to not get sucked in) but I do think it is important to see how much changed when I focused on my artwork style. Doing this then helped me zero in on my brand and style. 

A large part of this growth also happened because I utilized a program (free at the time) called Amp Jar and invested in myself by taking a marketing summer camp with Mariah Stockman Creative. The summer camp was one of the best investments I made all year and because of the educational content, and community of talented women in business I was surrounded in, I was able to push myself to grow and try new things. Having other friends in business to bounce your ideas off of, trouble shoot with, and learn from is essential.

This exercise was so important for me to do both from a business standpoint (to better understand my numbers and money) but also emotionally as well. It is just as important, if not more important to recognize and be proud of my growth as, like so many, I do not do it often enough. Not shown in these numbers are the number of hours I put into making, thinking about, and painting my pottery, the time I had to take off to recover from my appendectomy, pieces that broke along the way, tears from being stressed out, feeling major imposter syndrome, pure exhaustion, and difficulty in figuring out how to do a lot of these business “things” on my own.

PC: Andy Putnam

Today, I am choosing me. I am choosing to celebrate my growth and feel good about it. Tomorrow I may feel differently, but at least I can always come back to this actual data, see it, and remind myself that I can do these difficult things. It also helps that once I get started, even on tough days, I still truly enjoy the path that I am on. Huge shout out to my family and partner for being my biggest support system and for always helping me out at events. Thank you all for joining me along the way, rooting for me, and continuing to support me and my business. 2022 has been off to a bit of a rocky start personally, but I’m hoping that it can only go up from here. Cheers to another year full of surprises and good things to come.