We were lucky to catch up with Ann Peden recently and have shared our conversation below.

Ann, appreciate you joining us today. Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?

I love being a business owner! I was a cardiology nurse but I’ve always been obsessed with making things and art. I still cannot even believe my job is to be creative and inspire creativity in others! Looking back at my last 25 years (I quit my job, gripping with great determination a pair of pliers and wire cutters, signing up to sell my jewelry at my first art festival, hoping my new job title wouldn’t be ‘starving artist’). It’s been an amazing adventure- learning to delegate the things I’m not good at (numbers and money) and figuring out how to market what I do and how to bring others along with me by opening a gift shop that I had for 25 years (just closed it May 31st of this year) through having an Artist Marketplace in the store, selling the works of over 30 local artists including my jewelry. Although I closed my gift store, I still run Spark where I do art classes, birthday parties and art camp. Spark is my happy place! My official job title is CHO (chief happiness officer) and my priorities are straight (if I have any money I buy art supplies, if I have any left over I buy food). It’s been a glorious run!

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?

I didn’t start my own small business, I feel like it started me. I never really intended to open a store or get licenses to sell trademarked jewelry for universities and sororities but I’ve always loved a new challenge and when opportunities came up, I took them. And over the years, I’ve had many opportunities to sell wholesale at trade shows, sell to the public at art shows, have a showroom at the Atlanta America’s Mart and grow my store from a very small location, moving 5 times and growing with each new store, to finding my true niche, opening Spark where bring art to the community for both kids & adults.

Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?

As retail has changed over the years, selling my brand online has been pivotal in my success. I started with Etsy and EBay, then quickly realized Amazon was all of the other sites on steroids! We say www dot without thinking much about it but truly selling online is selling to the world! I have developed unique niche products over the years by casting custom charms and selling online gives me the opportunity to be searchable by people looking for these unique products. I remember very clearly when my first shipment went to the Amazon warehouses and I became a seller on Prime – my email was flooded with emails from Amazon that started with “Amazon has shipped the item you sold” and I was in awe of the opportunity that selling online on the Amazon platform gives a small business owner like myself. I still am thrilled even after all these years looking at the states and countries my jewelry is going out to everyday!

Let’s talk M&A – we’d love to hear your about your experience with buying businesses.

I have licenses to produce licensed sorority jewelry for 27 national groups. I have never been in a sorority and growing up in the northeast and going to college in the northeast, I was never exposed to Greek life. So it was especially fun to learn about sorority sisterhood and create the products they love! I was approached by another company making sorority jewelry to buy their molds, castings and inventory because they wanted to get out of the sorority business. I asked why and she said she felt she had aged out and felt too old to sell to this market. I was older than she was (at that time I was in my early 60’s) and I certainly didn’t feel like I had aged out of this business! Making jewelry, learning new things, keeping up with trends, being current- all of the challenges of being a business owner keep me young (and happy, my enthusiasm for what I do overfloweth) and I love that!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.sparkatannpeden.com
• Instagram: @annpedenandspark
• Facebook: Ann Peden – Artist Marketplace

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