Kev asked me last night how the Berwyn Shops had been this weekend, which resulted in a good half hour of me talking through various elements with him, maybe of interest to some of you?
I told him about some of the fun bits of the weekend — the woman who came in and bought 7 flower bookmarks for her 7 bridesmaids, the mom and daughter (7th grade, I think) who spent half an hour making barrettes and keychains together, the pair of friends who made birthday barrettes together — I love that bit, helping people see how easy it can be for them to make something beautiful (and functional).
The most tedious part of the job for me now is event planning — it’s clearly necessary, and I like running the events themselves, but the mental logistics involved in planing, getting approval from the BDC, making digital flyers, setting up ticket sales, etc., is all very hard for me to motivate to do right now. I am good at doing events, but I don’t enjoy planning this many of them. I’d love to have someone take over more of that. I definitely need to do events, because they’re a significant way I get people to come to the Shops.
Media coverage is also big — the two times we were on TV news both created spikes. I should have Stephanie work on doing a press release and trying to get some more media coverage.
We talked about the ongoing problem of lack of foot traffic in that area (the Berwyn side of Roosevelt and Clinton) — there are some people who walk by, but really not that many. It’s tricky for people coming from Oak Park, because you have to cross a busy street without stop signs at our intersection, and if you’re thinking of stopping by on your way home from work downtown, our small parking lot is on the wrong side of the street, making it just that little bit harder to turn into it. It’s funny how much of a difference that makes, but it really does. Not much we can do about that, but if I were in a business on the south side of Roosevelt long-term, I’d probably be trying to figure out if the neighbors would want to press for a stop sign at the Clinton intersection.
Sales were slow this weekend (maybe due to the protests? Father’s Day? who knows…) — about $300 over the weekend overall, which is enough, but the lowest it’s been since we opened in May. $1000 – $1500 has been more typical, with occasional spikes to $2000 for the weekend.
Rent is $575 / month (subsidized by Berwyn since this is an incubator project), and then I’m paying for some staffing (because it turns out that at 53, if I work 3 8-hr shifts in a row, I am exhausted and just collapse when I get home). So if I were only doing $1200 / month, I’d be breaking even on space / staffing costs at best, and not covering my supplies costs or my crafting time. I probably should be applying for some grants to help with getting this project off the ground — they exist, but that’s another thing that takes time to research and apply for.
We ran some rough numbers for opening a storefront next year, and I think $1500 / month would be enough to call this a free hobby (and it’s certainly nice to get some of your supply costs covered for a hobby), $2000 / month would cover supply costs too, and $3000 / month would mean I’d actually make some profit and could pay myself.
I think around September, I’ll start looking at storefronts. I want to keep this minimal commute (the Shops are 5 minutes’ drive away from my house), which is key to my sanity. So realistic options are Berwyn, Oak Park, Forest Park, probably. Possibly Austin, but that’s starting to get a little far away. In Oak Park, the main shopping drags are Downtown Oak Park (closest to me, walking distance), Hemingway District (slightly longer walk), or the Arts District (would probably drive over, 5 min.) I think in all of them, I’d get more foot traffic than I do now.
I’m leaning towards it being Serendib House, with space I rent to other artists, rather than a full-on artist co-op, just because it’s much simpler legally / financially to do it that way. I’m also a bit of a control freak, and I’d like to make the design coherent overall — give artists some room to design their spaces, but in a way that fits into the whole.
Part of what I love about my Shop is the interior design aspect, as it turns out; I’ve loved curating a space that feels welcoming, with a natural, forest vibe. Stars in the sky, mossy carpet under your feet, peaceful, full of beautiful things. I’d be looking for at least 1000 square feet, I think, so there’s room to do 8-person workshops around a table or two, and possibly with a kitchen, so it’s feasible to teach occasional cooking classes. If any realtors or landlords or local shop owners are reading this, input welcome! I know I have a lot to learn in this arena.
The other thing I’ve been thinking about a lot is staffing. I have various people who help me out, and I tend to use them for different things, based on their availability and their strengths / interests. I’ve been recently thinking that what I could really use is an actual apprentice (or a few). Someone who wants to learn how to do what I do — all the different crafting things, cooking, gardening. Could be a precocious high school student, a college student, a young adult, or maybe a stay-at-home parent whose kids are in school (or are chill enough that they can come work here without being too disruptive)?
It’d be a relatively low-paid ($20 / hr) position (as with a traditional apprenticeship), but the work would be varied, and hopefully interesting. Some of it would be traditional apprentice scutwork, though — washing out resin-covered silicone molds is a bit annoying. Working in the garden is sometimes clipping pretty flowers, but sometimes digging and planting and watering, and can be sweaty. No serious heavy labor, though — if we need that, I can hire someone to come move heavy items on occasion.
Apprenticing would also involve some computer work — designing ads, planning events, taking photos and editing them, updating inventory, printing mailing labels, etc. I think I could easily use 10-20 hrs / week, possibly more. Lots of people have been asking if I have an online shop, and right now, I just don’t have time to make enough stuff to fill one. But if I could teach apprentices to do some parts of the work…possibilities open up.
I’d want someone who could come by during the weekdays, which is when I mostly work, so it wouldn’t work for anyone with a traditional 9-5 job. And flexible enough that they can deal with my changing academic schedule, semester to semester — this fall I’m on campus Tues / Thurs, in the spring, Mon / Wed / Fri. Still thinking it all out, and I want to check with my current people and make sure none of them want to transition into that, but I don’t think it really meshes with their schedules and interests. We’ll see. I may be advertising that position soon.
And the last piece is thinking about whether this is all a for-profit enterprise, or if I want to separate out the teaching portion into a non-profit. (I could do it under the SLF umbrella, since we’ve shifted mission a few years ago to support writing and arts.) Probably I should, if I’m ramping up the teaching to a significant part of what’s happening in the space, and that would also let me apply for grants to support that, let people donate to support it, and all of that would hopefully let me offer discounted classes, or sliding-scale, even better. I get tremendous satisfaction from opening up arts (and writing) to more people.
This is what happens when Kev asks me a question — he gets an info-dump of everything in my head. He had some good suggestions, though. 🙂 We’ll see where it goes.
New in shop (which is really the most fun part for me, trying out new things, yay, ADHD and novelty-seeking behavior): citrus and bridal veil spirea charcuterie knives. Pretty pretty. I’m going to make some cheeseboards with those elements too, so people could theoretically get themselves (or someone else) a set.
