We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Bobbidee Evans a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Bobbidee thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Too often the media represents innovation as something magical that only high-flying tech billionaires and upstarts engage in – but the truth is almost every business owner has to regularly innovate in small and big ways in order for their businesses to survive and thrive. Can you share a story that highlights something innovative you’ve done over the course of your career?
I made up my own art classes for kids. I had taken private art lessons as a teenager but it was basically just a time to go work on my art and very little instruction or any involvement really. I came up with a way and a system to teach kids basic art skills while also letting them still be the creator and have involvement in the whole process of creating their own art. I just went out on a limb 15 years ago. I told a few friends that I wanted to teach kids art and I have been teaching kids art classes for the past 15 years. I have done very little advertising. It’s mostly word of mouth and I usually have as many students as I can handle. Even when finances are rough, like right now, I can always keep my kid classes full. That is not how it goes for my adult paint nights though.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I am a happy wife and very busy mother of eight kids. I love art, running and hiking and being outdoors. As a young mother I needed a way to provide some more income for our family but not work outside the home during the day and that’s how I came up with teaching kids art classes after school. I have found a love for teaching art and have been teaching for the past 16 years. I also do paint nights and paint parties with adults and/or kids. I would love to explore my own art more when I am able.
I feel like I offer kids a unique situation where they have to come up with their own projects because I feel like that is a difficult part of being an artist and then I help them achieve what look they’re going for with different mediums and different techniques.
I also love making flower arrangements with sola wood flowers and I probably dabble in too many different areas to really be good at anything. I would love to sell more of my own art. I would love to continue to teach as many kids and adults as I can.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
I’m still very small and I’m not sure what I’m going to do with all my creative goals because we recently moved and I have to find all new clientele. But when I started doing paint nights, I basically didn’t make any money from the first couple of paint nights and used all of that money to buy all of the easels and paint brushes and paint. And most of that stuff lasts for way more than one paint night. So after a few paint nights I eventually started making money.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
Just by being consistent and teaching classes over the past 16 years, even having moved twice in those 16 years, I have still been able to teach as many after-school classes as I can find time for in my schedule. Right now I’m in a very difficult situation because I don’t have a place to teach anymore and I’m in a new place again. I feel weird answering these questions because I’m barely doing any of what I’ve been doing the past 16 years, but I hope to build up my classes again when I have a place.
I do have a passion for helping people be creative and teaching others that everyone is capable of creating art and helping them find the joy in doing so.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @bobbideeart
- Facebook: Bobbidee’s Art and Classes
- Other: https://Bobbideeart.blogspot.com
