Small Business Saturday: Why + How PFK Started
Happy Small Business Saturday!
A few days ago, I asked my Instagram audience to weigh in on some interesting topics related to our little business that they’d like to read. A friend of mine, Haley Varnum, was one of the first to respond, saying that I should write about how this business started and what it means to me. Then I received more very similar suggestions, and here we are! So sit back, relax, and read on.
how art “fixed” me
The year was 2015 and I was graduating from college that spring. I majored in architecture. We were used to long hours of work, constant criticism, and the desire to solve problems, beautifully. Throughout my years in architecture school, I worked. I waited tables in the beginning, then worked at a swimming pool company as a secretary, then as a BIM (Building Information Modeling) Specialist. Sometimes, I would take on jobs like working in the photography dark room (it lasted one month) and photographing an engagement party with my friend Stephen. My family didn’t have the means to send me to college, and I didn’t want to be saddled with a ton of student loans - so I spent most of my free time working.
The last year of college was also tough for me - mentally. I went through some personal problems and developed a horrible case of anxiety. I had panic attacks maybe every other week, I was stressed nearly everyday, and I had trouble sleeping. At the suggestion of my counselor/advisor, I minored in Fine Arts instead of Construction Management or Business, like most of my friends. I took art classes that I really enjoyed: visual art classes, photography, furniture design, French, and you guessed it - watercolor. I needed to relax and more importantly, find time to explore my other interests. It worked wonders. Suddenly, for several hours per week, I had to go to class and just literally make art, or learn about art. I was forced to make time to relax and to enjoy the things I liked.
from the college archives
After graduation, I had one 9-5 job. My days went from waking up to go to class, followed by work, followed by writing papers/working in the studio to just getting up and going to work. I wasn’t used to having just one thing. I joined a gym, started really learning to cook…but there was still a void that lingered. I lived alone with my dog, Sandy, and most nights after work, we just watched TV and went to bed. Frankly, it was dull. This lack of being busy really put me on edge and made me feel anxious - again. At one point, it occurred to me that since art classes “fixed” me before, why couldn’t it work again? I took my old watercolors and brushes and started painting. Slowly, I started to relax - and each night after work, I looked forward to sitting at the dining room table to paint. I haven’t stopped since.
my first client
As a reminder of something to look forward to after work, I would decorate my office with some of my paintings. They became little conversational pieces every time a co-worker would come in to talk about a project - it was a way to make friends out of co-workers. One day at lunch, a co-worker who is a single dad talked about how he’d like to send a holiday card with a photo of himself and his daughter to relatives, but had problems with scheduling a photographer. I’m not sure what prompted me to say this - but I offered to make a small illustration of them. He thought this was an interesting idea, so we proceeded (I really wish I’d kept at least a photo of this card, at this point!). In a week, the illustrations were printed into cards via Walgreens, and later they were in people’s mailboxes, then refrigerators.
The holiday card turned out to be quite a hit with my co-worker’s family, and it snowballed into request for a wedding invitation illustration. Through word of mouth, I made more wedding invitations (illustrations only) and more little portraits of families. This went on for about a year, until one day in 2016, I received an email from a woman in Hong Kong.
examples of my wedding work, from 2015 - onwards
The woman in Hong Kong, let’s call her JZ, contacted me about wedding invitations. I thought it would be a regular request for illustrations only, but boy was I wrong. She was getting married in Thailand, and requested an invitation unlike anything I’d done before - and wanted me to print them as well.
Talk about perfect timing. At this point, I’d done maybe 3 weddings, and each time I was a little frustrated with the way the invitations would be printed by the printers. I’d just come back from visiting family in Bali, and stopped in Seoul, South Korea where I bought some handmade paper. I had been experimenting with printing on these papers just for fun, and I figured out how they would work. I told JZ about this idea of handmade paper, and she was completely on board!
I then dipped into my savings and bought my first printer (still in use today!). My small living/dining room slowly became a work studio, and my bedroom became a bedroom/painting space. I bought a slew of handmade paper from the little shop in Seoul, and more from Thailand, and even some from India to do test-prints. JZ and I would text photos of the results and her thoughts back and forth, until we got it just right. In the year that I worked on this wedding, I had designed the wedding invitation, wedding website, day-of paperie, and goodie bags/pouches. I hired my first part-time helper and a marketing person who would help me market wedding services. I designed and built my website, my branding, set up email accounts, and even made my first wedding catalog. And I owed all of this to JZ’s confidence in me - someone with maybe 300 instagram followers and no website.
Throughout this process, JZ and I became friends. We still talk and tag each other on goat videos and Pete Souza’s photos of the Obamas.
A brief look into our “studios/offices” since 2015:
My apartment in college. In the last year of college, I lived alone with my dog Sandy. I somehow found this apartment about a mile from school which was super cheap. Every furniture I had I bought from Craigslist or was extremely on sale (or build…see the wood shelf to the left of the desk). As it turns out, it was in a pretty bad part of town. Whoops! To the right is the dining room area across from the desk area above. I used to paint in the dining room and basically, this is where PfK unofficially started.
I still miss this place, sometimes. Despite the drug busts happening next door.
This is a really bad photo, but this was the second apartment I’ve ever lived in alone, and the second PfK “office”. My “printing station” was on the floor, and “work area was on the dining room. IRL, this apartment was much cuter - this was taken on the first day of moving in. I finally left the bad part of Marietta, GA, and moved into a big-girl apartment downtown!
A year later, PfK got its own office aka the second bedroom of my next apartment. We moved in together and got the largest flat file cabinet/drawers from Keith’s old job’s basement…we literally dug it out of storage. All 300 lbs of it. This is where we launched our first stationery line!
Our fourth office in Midtown. We moved into a two story loft and lived downstairs, and used the upstairs as a studio space. Currently, we’ve downsized and the fifth PfK office fits into a spare room in our current apartment. We’ve edited out the business to the point where it is manageable this way (for now). Photo by Krys Alex Photography.
Cheerleader
There are people who believe in you, and then there are people who consistently believe in you. The latter, believes in you despite of seeing you fail multiple times, have meltdowns, and basically, seen you at your worst. He might absolutely hate that I’m writing this, but it’s my content and I’d be doing this story a major disservice if I didn’t write about my most consistent cheerleader.
From day 1 of meeting nearly 10 years ago (we met in college), Keith has never once told me that I couldn’t do something. Almost every idea (even bad ones, like the time I thought I’d become a photographer) had his genuine support. Even when I doubt myself or my own ideas, he’d throw out questions or suggestions to make things work. He’d challenge me to think bigger, to think about the what-ifs, and to dream and talk about steps on how this dream can become a reality. He’d also remind me to stop and rest, and that I’m not curing cancer, so there’s no urgency in everything I do. He nags me about drinking enough water everyday, and brings me snacks and drinks when I’m working late. He sits on the floor and draws stick figures and diagrams when I want his opinion on a project, he edits my writing (just not this one), and we have silly conversations that later makes it into one of our best-selling greeting cards.
Before JZ and any of the weddings, he urged me to turn my watercolor hobby into a business. Neither of us had any idea how, and I hesitated for months. But he kept suggesting, and by the time I came back from Seoul, he really insisted, and I went for it. I don’t think either one of us had any idea, when we sat in his living room that day in 2016, that in three years, we’d be where we are today.
If I had one wish for every person on Earth, I wish that each person has someone like Keith. Someone to push you and slow you down. Someone who makes you want more for yourself, someone who sees you like a gem when you feel like dirt, and someone who believes in you even after seeing you fail multiple times.
Basically - if you like any of the products PfK has, or just like the fact that PfK exist as a business, you have Keith to thank/blame. Without him, this wouldn’t exist.
Us in 2010 - just two friends getting tacos after summer Physics class
Us this past August in New York, celebrating my brother’s wedding
The Atlanta Artist Community
By the end of 2016, I had done enough weddings and event illustration and wanted to explore making a stationery line. In hindsight, it was an extremely risky (read: stupid) idea. I had a very tiny online presence, no publicized work, and nowhere to sell. But something felt right about it, and I just wanted to try. By mid-January, I had four greeting cards designed and printed, to sell on Valentine’s Day 2017. As a Valentine’s Day present (we rarely ever do presents for any occasions, but this felt right), Keith bought $50 worth of Facebook Ads to promote the cards. I printed exactly 20 cards - five of each design.
As of Valentine’s Day, which was 4 weeks later, I had sold 5 cards. Two were co-workers. The rest, friends. None were sold online.
Disappointed, I gave it a break. I realized how stupid it was to launch something like this and simply expect sales to happen. I took a break, worked on more weddings, until one day I saw an application for an artist market hosted by Root City. I signed up, not thinking about what this actually meant, and submitted a 3D computer model (in true architects fashion) that Keith and I built of what our booth would look like. Shannon, the owner of Root City, accepted us.
I immediately realized that I couldn’t just sell four card designs at this market. I got to work and made 20 different card designs, art prints, and postcards. We were given the grid wall panels by a friend who used to be a vendor at artist markets. And to attract people to come to our booth, I designed and built an 8-foot-tall photo wall, with leftover trash paper that I made into flowers.
Our first market experience. I couldn’t believe people actually bought our cards and art prints. To hear people say nice things about my work - it was humbling (still is).
Top row: Elizabeth Lang (Between the Evergreens) and me. Bottom, from left to right: Sarah Williamson (Sarah Williamson Art), Lacy M. Freeman, Tori Price (Luna Leigh Arts), and Krys Campbell (Krys Alex Photography).
I met my first artist friend at that market. She makes the best animal portraits, and her name is Lacy M. Freeman. She is the kindest and realest human being, and has been so dear to me, and introduced me to my other artist friends, like the talented Elizabeth Lang from Between the Evergreens, Tori Price from Luna Leigh Arts, Sarah Williamson from Sarah Williamson Art and Krys Campbell from Krys Alex Photography. I started getting into a routine of doing one to two markets per year, and aside from meeting clients and all the business stuff, I’ve enjoyed meeting new artists and business owners that later became friends, like Jay Carlson from Cluetown and Brittaney Owen from Brittaney Owen Fiber. Ps.: many, if not all of them are having sales this weekend, so go check them out!
The best part about the artist community, to me, is the support, camaraderie, and respect that we have for each other. In my day job, there is constant competition (I work in construction) and stress about things like the rising cost of gypsum wall, or arguing with contractors about the price of a building material. It’s nice to be a part of a community where we stress about rent, sales, and email lists, but still support each other in anyway we can.
what this all means to me and our current state of the union
It’s not lost on me that PfK is still in its infancy and that we are here by the combination of hard work, perseverance, the support of friends and family, and sheer luck. I googled this the other day, and apparently there are 6.5 billion greeting card designs in the world. I am a tiny blip in the radar. At any point, our light can be dimmed. Sales could stop and clients can seek other options.
But what won’t change, is how much I love this business and how much I love making art that make people smile. I love the thought that these cards are means of communications and celebrations. I love sharing my thoughts and perspective on cards and prints, and I love that I’m a part of this community of small business owners.
Small business owners want to support other small business owners, for the most part. Typically, we try as best as we can to source locally and from other small business owners. It is said that for every dollar spent, approximately $.67 stays in the local community (source here). We are proud of this badge that we wear, and we are proud of our community. We love meeting familiar and new clients, helping them solve a problem, or helping them celebrate a milestone. We care about your overall experience when it comes to purchasing and what you do with our work afterwards. Artists who are small business owners strive to create products that are special, unique, and inspiring. There is so much thought that a real human person put into products, how they are displayed, how they are being marketed…that it is truly a one-to-one interaction.
Photo c/o ICE Atlanta
This year, PfK has seen exciting growth like never before. We are currently in 10 retail stores (see our stockist page), are online, and I’ve been popping up here and there doing live portraits. I recently completed some fun projects, like branding for E Ramen + (you should all go there if you love ramen!) and the 2019 Holiday Card for Trees Atlanta. Our custom ornaments have been quite successful, and we’re continuing to get our name out there in the world. We’re hoping to continue down this path of exciting projects with great brands and increasing our brand awareness.
It means so much to me that I have the support of my family, partner, friends, and clients to continue to do the thing that twice, “fixed” me. It’s beautiful to know that my bad days led to something so exciting and straight-up awesome, that brought me opportunities and a seat at the table. It’s humbling to hear the positive reactions from clients. The best part is that while all of this is happening, the good and the bad, I’m not only learning to be better at my art and to be a better business person, I’m learning to be a better person and contributor to my community. I’ve found my voice, built the platform, and now I hope to use it all for good.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you. You’ve helped make the dream I didn’t know I had, a reality.