The Launch (And Relaunch) Story of Just For You Studios | Part One

Hey, friends.

I feel like I ought to do some explaining around here. If you look through the blog, you’ll see some inconsistencies with my brand, and if you joined my email list from the very beginning, you’ll know that I’ve been very quiet lately. Y’all deserve an explanation, and I’d like to offer one. 

How I Started – The First Time

This business idea first came about purely from burnout at my job at a fast food restaurant. It was around Christmas time, so things were much, much busier than normal, and I became sick of it. It wasn’t that my coworkers were bad, or that customers were always rude. It wasn’t that I wasn’t making any money – I was. It’s just that I was tired. And I never saw my family because my work and school schedule didn’t align with anyone else’s. But in my freetime, I kept painting, like always. 

One day, I made some tiny watercolor paintings of dogs. I added some scarves, Christmas hats, and hot cocoa for the Christmas season. 

My family loved them, and my dad encouraged me to share some of my dog paintings with a local business owner. I did some research for a few weeks on the best way to make prints of my original paintings, made some more dog paintings, and prepared my pitch – I wanted to see if the owner would be interested in selling postcards of my paintings in her store. After all, everyone in my community loves their dogs, and Christmas cards were needed. 

She (the business owner) saw the paintings, and loved them. But, rather than go with my postcard idea, she gave me some “homework,” you could say. I was to come back in a couple weeks with the paintings she requested, and we would move forward from there. 

But I dropped the ball. Hard. 

I never got back to her with the paintings she requested. Instead, I used Shopify to build a site (this one, actually), and began writing blog posts and crazy emails for my email list of 7 people. I was essentially throwing spaghetti at the wall, spending money left and right trying to figure out the best way to make and sell my postcards, and basically trying anything and everything to get my business off the ground. But I had a problem, and didn’t even know it: I didn’t actually have a clear idea of what my business was. 

Then Summer Rolls Around The Corner

Five months in on my business experiment, and the school year coming to a close, I had a decision to make. I could either keep going, or shut it all down. I’d been trying to find a new part time job so I could continue funding my business, but after several dozens of rejected applications, I began to despair. I still had several months-worth of savings, but I knew that money would run out eventually, and I now couldn’t find a new job or make my business profitable. 

Before leaving on an art and architecture study trip to Italy, I went to my mom to tell her I was shutting down my site. “I just don’t have the time or money to make it work,” I said. But she, a successful online business owner of 12+ years, told me not to quit. To just give it a few more months. SEO takes time. Building a business takes time. 

So I didn’t quit. I overhauled my entire site after niching down to only custom watercolor portraits (for now), I sat down and really thought through what my business is and what I want it to be for my customers, and drew up a new, targeted, plan. And then the Lord helped me keep going. 

He gave me my second commission, so I had enough money for another month. 

He gave me an odd-job completely out of the blue, so I had enough money for the month after that. 

 

Then, he gave me the missing piece to the exposure I desperately needed but didn’t know how to get. 

I can’t wait to share the next part of the story, soon!

Until next time, 

Lydia