We recently connected with Holly Johnson and have shared our conversation below.

Holly, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?

One of the primary challenges of running my creative business is managing the sporadic nature of sales–fluctuating with the seasons, the economy and in response to how much effort and budget I can dedicate to marketing. Cash flow is always a challenge and the reality of how much of my time is needed for the business side (rather than creating) is often enough to make me consider how nice it would be to have a biweekly paycheck and a 9-5 job! But after working for non-profits for the first 15 years of my career, I get immense joy and reward from creating, and would prefer to experience the stress of running my own business over the void I would feel if I could not dedicate my career to making.

At times when balancing cash flow has been most difficult, I have in fact had to take on a part-time “regular job” while running Cheeky Monkey Home to make ends meet. While it enabled me to have some regular income, I was not able to dedicate enough time to Cheeky Monkey OR to my part-time job, and I felt constantly frustrated. My conclusion was that every ounce of my time and energy is needed to run my business, and I have to be ALL IN all of the time to succeed. And, I am clear that making a product AND selling it is significantly more work than any regular job I have ever had.

But alas, I am in love with the creative process and the empowerment of having a vision of something beautiful and the ability to make it a reality to share with the world. I love this work and I feel energized and motivated every day to get back to my studio where I can continue to imagine and manifest designs made with vivid color combinations of wool felt applique. My excitement and inspiration is only contained by the limits on my time and the competing need to produce, promote and sell the things I am making.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

1. How you got started as an artist + maker + entrepreneur

As a new mother, I found a lack of unique children’s décor and accessories in the marketplace (2003!). I was looking to create unique rooms for my children, but found mostly mass-produced options in stores. I was trained as a painter and grew up making my own toys and clothes, and I have always found handmade more interesting than anything purchased off the rack. This hole in the children’s décor market ignited my creative determination to solve the problem, and was my inspiration to create keepsake-quality décor for children’s rooms. I began to paint children’s murals and design pillows for my own home and for friends.

At the time my son was born, I was working in a stressful office job and I was motivated to find a way to have a creative business where I could work from home and have the flexibility to care for my small children. It was at this moment that I took the leap, leaving my office job and launching Cheeky Monkey Home–designing pillows and accessories using an applique technique with all-natural wool felt.

2. What type of creative works you provide
We create sophisticated and luxurious pillows, accessories and canvas totes embellished with wool felt applique designs. We have built upon the artisinal applique technique of layering fabric shapes to create images, by using vibrant 100% wool felt and decorative topstitching to create our signature style unique to Cheeky Monkey Home. This technique combined with our unique designs creates home decor and gifts that are like nothing else in the marketplace!

3. What problems do you solve for customers

Our customer wants to be unique. They are searching to surround themselves with meaningful, handmade and totally unique products that have not become trendy or ubiquitous. They want things that are one-of-a-kind and personalized, and they do not want to see their belongings mass-produced on the front of a catalogue that comes in the mail or in the window of a shop. Our customer is in search of connections and meaning in their surroundings and in the gifts they give. They want beautiful items in their home that have a story, that show the artist’s hand, that capture a memory or are personalized in some way.

Our customers want to know they are supporting a cause and businesses that give back in a meaningful way.
At CMH, supporting and mobilizing women in need is central to our mission and our operations. We proactively support women by providing flexible work, training, mentorship, community and options to work from home for recently resettled refugees in the Boston area. We are a woman owned and operated business dedicated to providing opportunities for women to have a positive, supportive work experience with fair pay and flexible hours to allow them to support families and life balance.

4.What are you most proud of, what do you want people to know about Cheeky Monkey Home
• I am most proud of the creativity and integrity of the work we do at Cheeky Monkey Home.
• I am fulfilled by the joy that our products bring to our customers and the people they give to.
• I am grateful to work with such committed, caring people whose loyalty and energy are extremely rewarding. I am energized by the chance to help women in need, and the opportunity to provide them with flexible work, training and community as they build a new life in this country.
• I am proud of being a woman entrepreneur and the pursuit of artistry and commitment to a thriving business from a small-batch model, not giving in to mass-production or overseas manufacturing.

Have you ever had to pivot?

We are at a very important and pivotal moment at Cheeky Monkey Home. For the last 10 years making and selling our products, every penny of earnings has gone into running the business. In 2022 we had to pivot in order to scale Cheeky Monkey, and to ensure we would remain viable and sustainable as a business. I engaged a business coach with expertise in retail, who has been guiding me through a rigorous and focused plan to gain efficiencies and significantly increase sales in 2023 (and ongoing). Perhaps the most difficult aspect of this shift as a creator is that I have had to completely delegate all of the sewing and making of products to my team–stepping out of production and focusing all of my time and energy on sales, marketing and building my network. This takes out of my comfort zone, but it is exciting and empowering to see the business shifting and my sewing team developing and stepping up to the challenge.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

For Cheeky Monkey Home the vibrancy of our physical products is best promoted through visual tools like Instagram and Facebook, and we have learned an incredible amount working with marketing intern grad students to develop a strategy for engaging our followers, with an emphasis on our current customers, creating a rich and engaging experience and increasing opportunities to buy. The social media puzzle is an ongoing challenge and one that we have not mastered and continue to dig into.

The biggest lesson I have learned around social media is that it has to be a multi-pronged strategy, where we are reaching new customers through social media but also actively engaging and taking care of our current customer base through newsletters and regular contact. It is tempting to focus on going for new customers but it is important to understand the value of current and converted customers.

We are also working with an SEO coach to help us optimize our website and set up tools to drive more people to our website and ultimately sales. It is a huge challenge to keep all of these balls in the air but I continue to see how essential it is to work marketing from all angles in order to grow!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.cheekymonkeyhome.com
• Instagram: @cheekymonkeyhome
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cheekymonkeyhomestudio

Image Credits
Rubi Lichauco