Australian Shapes Crafty Shop During Lockdown

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

[Music]

The lockdown in Australia, the COVID-19 lockdown, of course, was officially the world's largest, longest and most comprehensive. And when they say lockdown, they were pretty serious about it there. Like they mean you can't even travel to another part of the country, like you're kind of locked down in your own city. And meanwhile, tens of thousands of Australians still haven't been able to return home. This is all the way at the end of 2021, going on two years here of COVID.

And so it's slowly getting better, thankfully, now that 80% of the population is vaccinated. What is the bright side of such a long detainment? Well, being shut in can induce more than Netflix binges, because I think we have had at least three or four listener success stories that have come out of this time, specifically from Australia. So people there who have put their time to good use and ended up starting a new business, I guess if you can't leave your house without being arrested, you might as well try making money online. And by the way, if I sound better, it's just because I miss Australia.

It's one of my favorite countries in the world. And I used to visit twice a year. So hopefully I'll get a chance to go back at some point. But for now, today's story, after falling in love with polymer clay, this woman creates a one-stop shop for materials. She's doing really well.

I'm gonna tell you all about how she got her idea and how she made it happen in this story. Stay tuned. [Music]

During lockdown in Australia, Katrina Bow wanted a creative outlet to keep herself busy. She began to experiment with polymer clay, making jewelry and trinket bowls for fun. Now for those not in the know, including me, of course, polymer clay is a pliable material, kind of like Play-Doh for grownups.

The main difference is that polymer clay becomes permanently hardened after it's baked in the oven, which makes it the perfect material for making ornaments, jewelry, figurines, and more. Now as Katrina discovered how versatile the material is, her fascination grew into an addiction. Her words, but I'm assuming it's a healthy addiction, she started an Instagram account to share other people's creations. The account was originally intended as a personal inspirational mood board, but it grew quickly with 300 to 400 new organic followers per day. Once she saw how popular it was becoming, Katrina put lots of effort into attracting more followers by sharing tips for working with clay or growing your small handmade business.

It became a community for clay makers to connect through tips and techniques while supporting and encouraging each other. If you'd like to check this out yourself, the account is called ClayCrazeCommunity. You can find it on Instagram at clay_craze. Through this process, Katrina discovered that most polymer clay suppliers had pretty old school websites, which of course is putting it charitably. She also realized that there weren't many tools designed specifically for makers who preferred this material.

Many of them would use tools made for the baking industry instead. For instance, they would use cookie cutters to create the shape of an earring. She also noticed that polymer clay makers had to buy from multiple shops to get everything they needed. Do you see where we're going here? Those realizations inspired Katrina to open ClayCraze Studio, a one-stop shop for polymer clay makers.

Her goal was to create tools which made working with polymer clay more fun and efficient. Using manufacturers from Australia and overseas, she made tools that helped shape the clay or print textures on it. And she just spent about $150 on stock and a Shopify website. But before launching any products at all, she spent months interacting with the members in ClayCraze community to understand their pain points. After going live in October, 2020, that's right, it's a pandemic business, ClayCraze Studio had its first sale.

Katrina had just put through a test order to make sure everything worked. So she initially thought the sale confirmation was part of that test. But after triple checking the order three times, she realized the sale was real and they kept coming. So let's talk about that, let's talk numbers. The shop started with 10 products, but it now stocks over 300, including products made in-house and supplies from other wholesalers.

It averages 300 to 400 orders per month. And during its first year of operation, the storage generated $113,000 in sales, primarily through social media. Katrina is forecasting 30% growth in its second year with over 40 new products in the pipeline. Now, one big challenge Katrina faces is shipping costs. Because platforms like Shopify make it easy to sell worldwide, but Australia is so far from other countries that shipping can be pricey.

Fortunately, she now ships in high enough volumes that she gets a big discount from her local courier. But she had to decide whether to build shipping into product prices or charge it separately. And polymer clay can be quite heavy. So she decided just to charge customers whatever the couriers charge her. And that approach is also more transparent.

ClayCray's community now has more than 50,000 followers on Instagram, as well as 8,000 members in a Facebook group. The shop also has an email list of over 2,000 subscribers and it offers those subscribers 10% off their first order. Katrina enjoys her corporate job managing and negotiating changes to legal contracts. However, she says that running your own business gives you an entirely different source of motivation, purpose and fulfillment. It's incredibly fulfilling to know that someone believes in your products to the extent that they are willing to part with their money for them.

She also loves how the project has enabled her to spend more time and support her family. In fact, she's even hired her sisters to source new products and pack orders while her fiance helps out with the website. [Music]

So here's a fun tip from Katrina. She says, you know, you always wanna find ways to stand out. So something that's worked well for her, instead of having a standard 20% off sale, for example, do an 18% off sale.

And this unusual number is more likely to catch the customer's attention and be more memorable. Better yet, have a story behind why it's 18% or whatever number you choose. Is it because your product is 18% more durable than your competitors, for example. Also in the early days of the Clay Cray's community page, people would DM Katrina asking her questions about how to use the clay. And she now realizes this was the byproduct and power of having a good brand.

People were coming to her with these questions. It also validated the need for a community where clay makers can ask and answer those questions. So all of these things together are signs that this was a good venture to pursue. And it certainly has been. So congratulations to Katrina and listeners.

Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. If you'd like to see today's show notes, including links to the Clay Cray's community, the Clay Cray shop, anything else I mentioned, just go to sidehustleschool.com/1786. Thank you for tuning in today. We've got a new episode coming up tomorrow and every single day. I hope you'll come back.

My name is Chris Guillebeau. You're listening to Side Hustle School. [Music]

From the Onward Project.