Starting Out: Why was it so hard?
Starting Out: Why was it so hard? Part 1
When I first started my online business is 2019, I felt like I was completely alone in that endeavor. Which is weird, because now I am surrounded by maker friends and businesswomen of all kinds. I was twenty-two and started my business because I was struggling to pay my bills on a teaching assistant salary (seriously the University needs to consider paying students more). I had zero marketing or business experience, and no real plans for what I wanted the business to become.
My business started slowly and I was figuring it out as I went, but here are a couple of experiences that stick out to me:
1) I hadn't thought at all about a name for my shop before creating an Etsy account. Before they let you finish setting up and listing products, you have to have a name. At the time I felt really presumptuous for thinking that anyone would be interested in buying what I was making, and I wanted to make sure that no one else perceived me as being presumptuous either. I had some other name ideas, but I chose Montana Clay Creations because at the time it seemed like the least controversial. I thought that having a flashy name meant that I was arrogant, and I didn't feel confident enough to have the name I wanted. In a funny way, I figured if "Montana" was in my title then at least some locals might want to buy my stuff. I still think about changing my business name all the time because I don't like its backstory.
What would I tell myself now if I could? Pick the name you like because literally no one is going to think twice about it.
2) Getting into markets and pop up shows was so intimidating. How it went in total honesty? I didn't know they were even a thing, and then when I found out that most pop up shows were invite-only, I felt super excluded. Now obviously I wasn't being left out. Very few people had even stumbled across my page at that point. But nonetheless, I felt excluded and I didn't have any idea how to get invited. Fast forward to my first market at Draughtworks and wow- I immediately knew that I had no idea what I was doing. My display was super minimal, my table was tiny, I didn't have as much stock as anyone else and also had no branding. I was embarrassed, but then I had an amazing night. I sold so many earrings and was on cloud nine, and it really changed how I felt about it. After that I was so hungry for pop up shows and markets that I started hosting them in my front yard, and inviting people like me (people who just started their businesses and were new to the game). It was still a super long road to how I go about markets and pop up shows now- from my display and set up to what shows I do and when I do them.
If I could do this over again? I wouldn't change a thing- except maybe remind myself that its okay to not know what you're doing when you're trying something new and you don't need to be embarrassed.
3) Branding. Is. Hard. Or at least it was before branding was so in our faces. Since 2019 the idea of having an instagram 'brand' has become super familiar to all of us, but it was a really difficult concept for me to grasp when I was first starting out. I made my first logo on Canva. It was blurry and the colors were bland and the only place it was visible was in my profile picture on instagram. Eventually I upgraded my logo, and then upgraded it again, and now my branding is consistent (though definitely not perfect).
Branding is important, but I didn't have the tools to really engage with it until I did. And at that point, I'd put a lot of time into learning about it. What would I do to change this? Build a time machine, go back to my undergraduate education, and minor in marketing. Besides that? Be more willing to invest in experts and spend the money I needed to to access their knowledge.
To sum this blog post up? My "starting out" time wasn't really all that enjoyable, and its crazy to me that I stuck with it. There were definitely high's and I was making enough money to close the gaps in my salary, so that was a factor in my motivation to keep it going. But was it easy? No. Is it easy now? Easier, but I wouldn't say easy. I still feel about 12 steps behind at any point. But now I know more about what I don't know, if that makes sense, and that's enough to keep learning and growing.
-Bailey, Montana Clay Creations
Starting Out: Why was it so hard? Part 2
As “part two” to this blog, I’ve decided to not read Bailey’s “part one.” I’m curious to see how similar/dissimilar our stories might be!
Becoming a maker was going to completely shake up my self-image in a way that was so impactful, I probably should have gone to therapy for it. I was scared. I was terrified. I worked so hard to put myself through further education in the sciences at the University of Montana and sacrificed more than I should have to acquire experience as a medical professional. After all that, I wanted to put time into silversmithing?
I had no training in the arts and ALL the training (and time and money) into what was supposed to make me “rich” in the long run. Making the decision to start being a maker (even as a small side gig) set the alarms off in my brain:
You can’t support yourself doing this.
You’re throwing away what you’ve worked so hard on.
No one will take you seriously.
You failed at academia if you don’t keep going.
Confession: I was so defeated by these thoughts I never took the first step of setting up a selling platform. One late night my incredibly loving partner set up an Etsy store for me. Everything was ready to go, I just needed to add inventory. It sat empty for a while. I still wanted to keep making things for fun because the second I decided to sell what I made I was facing 1.) potential rejection and 2.) transitioning from a hobby to some weird (maybe businesswoman?) limbo-land.
I made so many earrings that I had no other choice but to list them to get rid of them. Seriously, it felt like they were everywhere. Several months later, with a little advertising of Facebook and Instagram to family and friends… I DID IT! I opened my Etsy store with around 18 beaded earrings and a couple of copper shapes I cut out (I was beginning to dabble in metalsmithing at this point). I can’t stress this enough: If my friends and family didn’t rally for me the way that they did, I would have quit right there. I was so fragile. I know this little ego boost was critical for my path as a maker and my decision to keep teaching myself how to metalsmith.
Fast forward a couple of months…. I took a job bartending. In the middle of covid, I decided to (for once) pick up an occupation that wasn’t so damn heavy on the soul. This is when I met Bailey! At this point, I had started to sell my very first silver smithed rings.
She helped me realize that I’m not the only woman who fought for her academic achievements and then began dreaming about alternative futures. As if making it over this emotional first hurdle wasn’t hard enough… we then talked about marketing, finances, basically how to monetize what we liked doing. These were real, legitimate obstacles that she had begun to face (and beautifully tackled) with her polymer clay earring business, Montana Clay Creations.
Now that I was selling what I made, these business-y things posed a real threat to someone who honestly shuddered at the word “business.” Meeting someone who was experiencing something similar and who appeared to be pioneering her way through all the things I was scared to approach was MONUMENTAL for me. I needed that. I needed to know I wasn’t alone and that this was possible. More than possible, Bailey was doing it tastefully. She made people around her feel good, accepted, encouraged; and these qualities shine through Montana Clay Creations.
To conclude, this blog about “why getting started as a maker is hard” is a taste of MMC’s origin story. Accidentally finding a connection with another maker and having a strong support system saved my own business because it’s so easy to want to give up (or not start at all) without support. MMC intentionally embodies what got me started and kept me going as a maker through offering encouragement, support, friendship, and collaboration to local makers. Regardless of the direction you want to take your business, having a community is important and MMC wants to make it accessible for you.
