An ode to the little guy and finding the sweet spot.

My friend has an unusual business. She’s a fiber artist, designing and hand-making elaborately beautiful wall hangings out of multi-colored, multi-textured yarns. Each of her finished pieces is a unique work of art. Over the last year I’ve watched her social media following, which is her sole marketing platform for her business, bloom into over 10,000 followers. I was curious to know if her actual sales had grown proportionally to her increased social media reach. Her answer was Yes,…and No. Yes, as awareness of her business grew, so did her bottom line. But her business model changed as well. She was able to shift from small, more quickly available pieces, to more expensive and elaborate custom orders. In doing so, she has been able to truly showcase her talent and artistic vision in a way she couldn’t do before. Given that, I was curious to know what was next for her. Do you keep trying to grow? To sell more? To increase your marketing reach? In her case, she can’t grow much bigger without hitting some major snags. It takes a long time to create these masterworks, and there are only so many days in the year, so she can only produce a set number on a reasonable timeline for a customer. Too many customers and she’d be forced to start a wait list (not a great option because the customer can move on to another artist, or trot over to Target and buy a cheap knock-off) or sacrifice quality for the sake of quantity. Neither are great options. Growth comes at a cost.

I’ve thought about this idea of growth cost a lot lately. I speak often to women’s groups around the Houston area. I’ve been on several podcasts, I have a blog as part of a public website, and I’m currently working on a book project. My publisher’s marketing team has given me a variety of suggestions on how I can expand my reach, should I chose to do so. Some suggestions require simply an investment of money, but all require an increased portion of my time and effort. I have no doubt that I could grow my “brand” if I wanted to. The question is, am I comfortable with the cost?  Right now, I’m a small potato, happy to do my thing without the pressure to do more, travel farther from home, or produce more content. Is bigger really better?

For both my artist friend and I, we agree there is a magic to being a small fish. If you’re not driven by acquiring more and more money (or followers, or personal appearances, or ego or whatever) then you are free to continue to pursue what you love (weaving tapestries, writing books, recording podcasts, whatever) without the pressure to get bigger and reach farther. But that’s what everyone around us tells us we should want to do. The world says: Growth above all else. The pressure to grow isn’t just in business, we see this growth priority mindset in schools, churches, non-profits, sports teams, everywhere. If reaching 10 people is great, then reaching 100 must be ten times better! Expand until you run out of chairs! Until you run out of volunteers! Until you run out of space! Until you run out of people or money!  And while for some organization and businesses, mega-growth is beneficial, for many others, it’s the treadmill to nowhere. Most of us are not Amazon or Walmart in whatever sphere of influence we live in. We are the corner bakery, the local church, or a small moms group. Many organizations were forced to downsize because of the pandemic and that’s a good thing, because it forced them off the treadmill. It allowed them to focus again on quality instead of quantity.

So this is my ode to the little guy. To the small business, the passionate artist, and the small group. Don’t be afraid to stay small if that is what keeps quality and passion high. Grow to the point where those two elements meet, but then hit pause and get comfortable. This is the sweet spot.  You don’t need to take over the world. You don’t need to be the loudest, most well-known, or richest. You don’t need the biggest pulpit or the top seller award. Too often, the cost is too high, the quality suffers and this thing you once loved, takes over your life. Instead, embrace the handmade. Create in small batches. Stay local. Keep your group small but welcoming. Let’s all be artists in whatever we do, honoring our work for the unique and valuable thing it is.