Painting goals for 2016

I have a confession to make. I am a terrible sales person. One of my first jobs was as a photographer at JC Penney. I was okay (not great) at taking the photos. I was decidedly awful at selling them. Also, just a word to you parents out there. Please be nice to your photographer.  **Side note: two of my sisters also worked at the portrait studio and one of them is extremely talented and runs her own photography business. Find her work here!**  Many a parent made me cry with their harsh words when I was a teenage photographer. I decided that I would not go into a profession where I had to sell anything.

Ha. Hahahaha! My job after that was working as a waitress at Olive Garden. Of course, managers want you to sell more (more appetizers, more alcohol, more higher priced items). I did better with job here since it involved talking to people (no trouble there), but I was the least pushy person when it came to selling anything.

Throughout those Olive Garden years I was in school for teaching. Where I didn't have to sell anything.

So you can see how shocking it was to find myself owning a teeny tiny business. Where I sell things. I strive to let my products sell themselves. I hope you never find me a pushy salesperson. I doubt you will, since I tend to despise those people. (No offense to those of you who are "good" salespeople, it's just not my thing.)

However, one thing that I realized is that my signs can't sell themselves if you don't know they exist. Which brings us to the point of this post. 

Facebook has been key to the building of my business. However, this past year they made some changes, that, from a business aspect I get. They need to make money to run their business, so instead of allowing free advertising which is what they had done in the past, they now would like you to "boost" posts to get people who already like your page to see your posts. So if you have noticed that you see less and less of pages that you "like" this should not be surprising. But there's some good news! You can make some adjustments to change this.
1. You can "like" and comment on the pictures I post. This tells the Facebook algorithm that you want to continue seeing my page.
2. You can go to my Facebook page
Make sure you "Like" my page. Then under like, click "Get Notifications". Also from this screen you can select "See First" instead of "Default". This SHOULD allow you to see all my posts. (see photo for help)

I know not everyone is on Instagram, but this has quickly become a favorite for me. The feed is a lot cleaner than Facebook and you follow who you want to follow and you see the things they post. I just joined Instagram a few months into 2015 and it's been a slow-growth for me, but I really like it and see a lot of potential for MamaHessPainting here. Following me on Instagram is really simple.  <<------- a="" click="" there="">


And of course, there's my Etsy Shop.

Lots of ways to stay connected with Mama Hess Painting this year.  

Some goals for 2016:
1. Do 3 to 4 shows. (Last year I did two)
2. Build the wedding/vow renewal/love section of my Esty shop. I have SO many ideas for this section.
3. Take better photos of my signs
4. Stay joyful

Number four may seem silly, but when I'm really really really busy, painting can feel like a job. It's good for me to keep in mind that so often my signs bring joy on people's happiest days of their lives (weddings, babies, new homes, etc.) and bring comfort on their hardest days and provide inspiration on the days between.

Looking forward to a beautiful 2016 with you all! Thanks for coming along and enjoying the beautiful ride with me.


xoxo,
Mama Hess

Time

One of my most frequently asked questions is: Where do you find the time to paint?

One of these days I fully intend to give you a "day in the life of Mama Hess", but for now this little snippet will have to do.

I love to paint. Truly. I love it. I make the time for what I love doing. I have two portions of the day which are devoted to my little painting business.

One part of the day is my girls nap/quiet time. This time is often interrupted with homework questions, so it's not as devoted as I would like to be. Baby Caroline usually starts her nap time between 1 and 1:30 pm. She usually gets up between 4 and 5 pm. She's an angel. I leave the older girls room between 1:30 and 2 pm. They are supposed to be in their room until 4 pm, but they usually end up coming downstairs to do homework around 3:30. This leaves me approximately 90 minutes to two hours to "work". But let's be honest, half the time I'm checking emails, wasting time on Facebook, and replying to messages about custom orders. If I'm lucky (or more purposeful) I get right to work on creating designs or sitting at my table to paint, spraying the clear finishing coat on painted signs, and adding hooks to the back of completed signs.

Caroline falling asleep in my arms.

The second portion of the day that is reserved for painting is in the evening after the girls are asleep at night. I like to start around 9 or 9:30 pm and depending on my work load will work anywhere from 11 pm to 2 am. And I will admit, there was a time when I got deeply involved in my work and lost all track of time. It was 4 am when I went to bed that night, I mean, morning. I typically leave my phone upstairs on silent during this time so that I'm not distracted by messages, Facebook, Instagram, and all those good things. I do not stay up that late every night. I always try to go to bed at a good time on Sunday nights, and on a rotating schedule of every-other night. I get too tired during the day if I stay up that late every night. I also will end up taking a short nap after I read to the older girls during their quiet time to make up for a really late night.

I almost always reserve Friday nights for a Redbox and wine time with my husband. Often he sits with me on week nights as I work and keeps me company until he needs to go to bed if I'm working late. He also washes all our dishes while I paint. Every night. He is a complete gem, and I wouldn't get as much work done if it weren't for him.

Time is something that is hard to come by. I really believe that you can make time for what is most important to you. It helps that I really love painting. It would certainly be harder if it were something I didn't enjoy. Also, I try to find ways to simplify the ordering process. This is not always possible but I recently spent a significant amount of time working out colors. I was having a bit of trouble getting colors right on signs which required me to go back and work on them again. I do that willingly because that is what people are paying me for. They want something that is going to fit just right in their home, and trust me, I totally understand!

I just finished my color chart yesterday.

I'm pretty excited about it. The only thing that I couldn't accurately represent was the stain colors that I offer. I would have liked to have stain samples on my paint sticks, but the paint stick absorbed the stain in such a way that I did not feel it was an accurate sample of what it looks like on the wood I typically use. That being said, I have done many signs in each of the colors I offer, so it is easy for me to pull up a photo with each of those stain colors.

Etsy offers this beautiful "Zoom" feature, so if you have trouble reading the color chart I would recommend visiting This Link, scrolling to the last photo and hitting zoom in the bottom right hand corner.

I hope that helps answer your time question. I thank you all so much for your orders. It has been so fun for me to create beautiful things to hang in your home. I'm honored.