We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Summer Wyman a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Summer, appreciate you joining us today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?
During the Spring of 2020, school closures began and in person interactions vanished. In the midst of all of that uncertainty, my school district informed me that after five years as their STEAM+ Art Specialist, my temporary contract was not going to be renewed for the following year. Needless to say, I was devastated about having been let go and worried about the future.
My husband Jason and I discussed our options. He asked me, “When you went to art school and spent all of that time and money to become a fine artist, did you do all that with the idea that you would become a public school art teacher?” It was an easy answer. I said teaching art in a public school was rewarding, but it was not my dream job. In fact, I had a clear vision of what I really wanted to do. I wanted to own and operate my own private art school. I wanted to be my own boss, and share my love for the arts and creativity with students of all ages. I also want to resume my work as a fine artist, painting portrait and landscape commissions. As a full time teacher for the school district, I hadn’t had the time to paint at all, and I really missed that part of my life. This conversation and the desire to take charge of my own financial future inspired me to give my dream of starting my business a real shot. After all, what did I have to lose?
Jason and I met later in life. We dated for a year, had a brief engagement and got married in 2019. I have two teenage children from my previous marriage and I’d always wanted to have another one. We talked about the risks and rewards of having a baby in our forties and it really came down to an issue of money and childcare. If my business took off, we reasoned, I could work from home. Profits from the business combined with Jason’s salary as a teacher should be just enough for us to maintain our household and have a baby.
The very same afternoon when Jason and I discussed our options, I posted an ad for backyard garden art classes on neighborhood social media sites. Since we were in the midst of a global pandemic, I emphasized that our classes would be requiring masks and the classes would be held outdoors with plenty of physical distance between students. I advertised my credentials, teaching experience and a photo of myself with one of my recent paintings. Within 24 hours I had over 200 responses from local parents looking for a COVID safe, social and creative atmosphere for their children!
Personalized, timely communication with my clients has been critical to our growth. I messaged each parent, sharing my experience as a local STEAM+ teacher, and my desire to share my love of the arts with their child. After such a tremendous response to my post, we decided to transform our backyard into an outdoor art school. We bought tables, chairs, and umbrellas. My husband and I decorated our yard with flowers, and whimsical touches like garden gnomes, bird feeders, and decorative clay pots. We stocked up on a wide variety of art supplies – tempera, acrylic, oil and watercolor paint, printmaking materials, drawing supplies, and air dry clay. One of the hallmarks of our brand of art instruction is multimedia. We encourage students to build skills by combining a variety of media in each creation. The result is bold and exciting.
Division of labor has been critical to our success. I focused on teaching the classes, ordering materials, and contacting clients. My husband handled all of the back office duties – setting up the business entity, getting a federal tax ID, and obtaining liability insurance. My husband also teaches clay sculpture and leads our summer day camp offering.
In Spring 2020, we started with six students in one class. We’ve grown our roster to between 80 and 100 weekly students, with classes six days a week, Monday through Saturday. Because of our steady growth, we decided to go ahead and try to have a baby. That was also a success, and our daughter Madeleine is now six months old.
Having a baby prompted us to hire some extra help. We started hiring using my network of teachers from my years working for the district. We had good success with our first instructors, but then experienced a bit of turnover due to outside factors. We then used a third party online tool to get qualified candidates. It was about a month of sorting through resumes, conducting interviews, and background checks before we built our crew of dedicated professionals. We pay our employees well with the expectation that we will attract and retain the best of the best and they will reward us and our students with their efforts and creativity. We now employ four part-time art teachers, and three youth teaching assistants.
From the very beginning we wanted to run our business completely above board. We double checked that our neighborhood is zoned such that we could run a small teaching business here. We wanted to make sure we paid our taxes and we were well insured for general liability and workers compensation. With quite a bit of effort navigating vendors and the state and federal bureaucracy, we have built our back office systems and they seem to be working well enough for now. We are always seeking to do better.
That’s not to say there haven’t been bumps in the road. Many new small business owners may not take into account all of the back office overhead. When a business properly pays W2 employees, social security payments, and federal and state taxes take a big bite out of gross revenue. For the 2021 year, we did not plan effectively and we are now facing a federal and state tax bill. We’ve had to make plans to cut household spending where possible to account for last year’s taxes while staying on top of 2022 quarterly tax estimates. The burden and the benefit of running my own business is that I learn something new every day. Sometimes lessons are painful. We will get through it together and we will be wiser for the experience. I am sure there are many more lessons in store for us.
Our next great challenge will be our first public art show which will benefit Ukrainian refugee children. The show will be May 1st, 2022, 11am to 2pm, at The Village at Pacific Highlands Ranch. All proceeds go to UNICEF. We are looking forward to a chance to make a small difference in the lives of displaced children. Through the process of planning our event, we have learned that we can leverage our network of talented and generous friends, former colleagues, clients, and employees. One of my son’s friends from high school also happens to be a talented violinist, so she will provide music for the event. A local PTA has offered to locate a face painter for us. And a former employee has graciously offered her tent and display panels for the show. We are finding that a job well done is even more gratifying when we succeed with the help of our friends.
Starting and running my own business continues to be the greatest joy of my art career. I take a lot of pride in the happy faces of my students and the overwhelmingly positive feedback we get from our clients. It is a surprise to me that one of the greatest sources of pride is in being able to provide a good side income for our employees. It is tremendously exciting to think that we are only limited by our creativity and our hard work.
Summer, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I come from a long line of artists. My grandmother, my mother, my father, and my brother are all accomplished artists. My father was able to support a family of five comfortably in Malibu from the income he earned as a professional graphic artist and early innovator in computer animation. Having so much artistic talent around me at home gave me confidence to pursue my own passion for fine art. My father, John and brother, Marc are both Emmy award winning computer graphic designers.
Thanks to the generous support of my parents, I attended some of the best art schools on the West Coast including Art Center of Design in Pasadena. After a short period when I gave private lessons out of my home and did a few fine art commissions, I put my artistic aspirations on hold indefinitely. I devoted myself completely to raising my family.
As happens all too often, my marriage came to an end and I had to find a way to help support myself and my two children. With tremendous perseverance, I managed to get a teaching credential and a Masters in Education. As a STEAM+ Art Specialist for Del Mar Union School District, I was able to combine my love of art with my love for children. It was there that I met my husband, Jason. When we met, he was my substitute teacher and he is now an art teacher for Oceanside Unified School District.
For five years, I shared my passion for fine art with upwards of 1,200 kids per week. Just days after schools closed due to COVID, I was told that my contract would not be renewed the following year. My husband and I did our best not to panic. We discussed our options and then decided that I should get back to my dream.
I began Summer Wyman Fine Art, my backyard garden art school. My approach to art instruction is to provide students with the knowledge and skills to express themselves in a variety of media. We push students to grow and take chances artistically while ensuring that the end product still reflects their own artistic vision. We actively encourage students to do their best work, and at the same time, we encourage students to socialize and share among themselves. The atmosphere is fun and loose including visits from our friendly little terrier, Henry Pierre, and our handsome abyssinian guinea pig, Jeremy. The garden is a peaceful setting. We often have visits from wild bunnies, sunbathing lizards, song birds, hummingbirds, and even the occasional red tail hawk.
Classes range in size from five to 14 and we teach kids as young as three years old up to the 12th Grade. Our staff includes myself, my husband, three part time instructors, and three youth art apprentices. We have recently begun offering adult classes and art parties as well. All of our instructors are accomplished artists and teachers in their own right. Even our youth art apprentices demonstrate incredible skill as artists and as teachers. In addition to the classes we offer Monday through Saturday, we also offer a summer day camp June through August.
The culture of our school is inclusive and supportive. Some of our students are immune compromised so it is vitally important that we continue to maintain COVID safety protocols including mask wearing. We are as eager as anyone to get back to life as it was before the pandemic. With that said, while there are inherent risks with any activity, we are devoted to protecting the most vulnerable among us to the best of our ability.
Raising a family, going through a divorce, and teaching at the district meant I had no time to paint. After a ten year hiatus, I began painting again. My first piece was a landscape of my home beach, Point Dume – a hopeful scene of sunrise over small, clean ocean waves. My next two paintings were portraits of my teenage son and daughter. It was meaningful to me that I was able to capture that moment when a young person stands with one foot in childhood and one foot in adulthood.
I was thrilled when I then secured several commissions for family portraits. I think what they appreciate is my realistic style of portraiture. There are few artists who devote the time required to do classical portraits in oil on canvas. It is a painstaking, time consuming process. I love the challenge and I have been touched by the often emotional response I get to the unveiling of a newly finished piece. I am now taking a break from painting until my baby daughter gets a little older and isn’t quite so attached to mommy…and vice versa. I am waitlisted for new commissions, and I plan to resume oil painting in the fall.
How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?
I text all of my clients 24 hours before a class to remind them and I also remind them of our cancellation policy. For new students, I always greet them outside even if I’m not the one who will be teaching. After a new student attends a class, I always send a text to ask for feedback. When we take actions based on client feedback, we are diligent about following up to let them know the steps we have taken to improve. Our business is small with low overhead, so we are able to scale to a size that works for us even while maintaining that high level of personal communication. In this era of outsourcing and automated customer service, I think our clients appreciate the personal attention they get from me. All of the parents and students feel they know me and they are comfortable letting me know if they are happy with our service or if there is something we can improve. That kind of client loyalty is invaluable.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
We have been successful attracting clients through Nextdoor and by creating a local Facebook business page. Joining relevant groups on Facebook has been effective and I have been successful finding a few clients through our Instagram page. For our local art instruction business, I’ve found it is important to continue to keep it localized. The free services on social media have been most effective. When they began to run dry, we paid for advertising Facebook, Instagram, and Nextdoor. We were able to get many views and likes, but they were all over the country. The clickthrough conversions for the paid advertising on social media just did not come.
We are finding that we need to continue to create opportunities to reach new clientele. Channels for new students that were reliable for us can suddenly dry up. We are working on becoming more active in our community. For example, we are having our first art show to benefit UNICEF. Our primary mission is to raise money for a good cause. Secondarily, we want to raise our profile in the community and let folks know we are here offering a supportive and fun place for young artists.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.summerwymanfineart.com
- Instagram: @swfa_classes
- Facebook: @summerwymanfineartclasses