Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Brandon Petry. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Brandon, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.
Having come from a background in corporate customer service, I’ve seen and exercised the industry standard of customer relations and retention. What I’ve learned is if you want to meet the customers need, you first have to be equipped to do so. A lot of times I’ve seen companies focus so much on the number of customers served instead of the quality of service each customer receives. What has been critical for us to meet and exceed the need of each client is by limiting our service options and often limiting our clients. Clients will often express their appreciation of our honesty when we turn down a project that may be outside of our scope, and sometimes those customers will adjust their needs to work with a business who shows that much care for customer service.
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
My love for art and design didn’t come from a college text-book or a spiritual experience. It came from blood.
My grandfather Paul Petrykowski was born in 1925 Poland.
He survived the 1939 invasion of Nazi Germany when he escaped a labor camp and later immigrated to the United States.
Paul became a part of the SMWIA (Sheetmetal Workers International Association of America) where he worked on many large scale architectural projects in Chicago Illinois.
A notable project of his was the “Sears Tower” now “Willis Tower” in down town Chicago.
I didn’t discover my heritage of design and fabrication until I was already in my own carrier, honing my craft.
Learning my family history and uncovering the hidden drive that moves my passion for design was the capstone that solidified my decision to start Petrykowski Artworks and later, other brands inspired from American grit and industrial design.
In addition to metal sculpture, I do all my promotional media and digital artistry in house. I work with photography, videography and graphic design elements for print and digital use. Working in the digital media field, I get experience deep relationship with color and composition and light. More so than most single medium artists may ever get to experience.
We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.
Ever since I can remember I’ve always hated working for other people. I had no problem with working under a manager and I actually really enjoyed working with other people. So it wasn’t that I was non-social or didn’t respect people in higher-level positions. What bothered me was knowing all my effort and all my time was going to help grow someone else’s business and dreams while I was standing still. I guess my view of a job is a little different then most. Instead of only seeing my position, my tasks and my lunch break. I would notice how the business functioned as machine and I would think to myself, why couldn’t I own and operate something similar?
There’s nothing wrong with working for someone. There’s great success in starting at ground level and working your way up positions. And there’s great respect owed to those who have the patience and dedication to do that. After all, successful businesses have successful employees. But to me, I rather live on the other side of the equation.
All through high school and college I had plenty of jobs. Fun jobs and difficult jobs, clean jobs and dirty jobs. It’s definitely important to get that experience starting off. It allows you to see the dynamics of being an employee and the expectations that come with it. A successful business owner knows what their employees need. This helps them succeed at their job, which in turn makes the business grow. This all comes best from first hand experience.
Another positive aspect of being in the daily grind of employment is the amount of time you have. Time to think…. thinking about the job you’d rather be doing. This really helped me discover the business paths I chose!
When I worked in the back room of an old, dilapidated, small engines repair shop. I had plenty of time to think about how I loved working around these machines but hated being tied to a work bench, covered in oil and consistently cursed at by the management because I forgot to sweep the parking lot before opening. The store ended up going under. Not because of the dirty parking lot – they had much greater issues. I was actually let go because I wasn’t charging the customers for things that weren’t broken. Yes, you read that correctly. They wanted me to make up things that I falsely repaired so we could charge them extra. So you can see the vast amount of first hand experience I gained, how NOT to run a business.
On the list of good jobs I had, was a wonderful job in retail working for one of the highest awarded home improvement stores in the western district. Our store would win award after award and employees were sticking around like glue. Some over 30 years! So I got to see what good management looked like and how to properly treat your customers and workers. There’s lots to learn in the work field and for the majority of people, employment life is the way to go.
But not for me, my heart and head desired something different. I always felt like the square peg in the round whole, out of place.
Choosing to jump was probably the hardest part. I was safe, in a secure position with a great company for almost 6 years. My hours were perfect for growing my side businesses and still having my promised income from my day job. But being safe and content in my comfort zone wasn’t going to get me closer to my life long dream. July 2017 I was with my wife at a local pizza place where we both decided it was time to that I left my job and devoted my time to pursuing my dream. We had been watching what started as hobbies, turn into revenue generating businesses. We crunched the numbers and knew our boat was close enough that if we jumped off the dock we wouldn’t fall in the water. It has been amazing to see the growth and opportunity that has come since that day. I can’t say that I’m an expert in any of this as it has all been a learning experience for me. But hey! If you have that insatiable itch of wanting to pioneer your own path and start your own gig, I would encourage you to work towards that goal. Don’t be afraid of failure.
The job market will always be there. Haha!
Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?
I’ve sold on countless platforms along with vending to brick and mortar stores and in person events and shows. By far we’ve had the best success selling online. I think the reason for this is obvious… Selling online allows you to reach a larger audience along with targeted advertising to your specific customers.
Before posting a listing anywhere, your product and brand needs to have a home. A main point of contact if clients want to reach you personally and get more information about your product. That would be our website. And obviously this should be a point of sale as well. Having a beautiful and intuitive catalog of your products is critical along with the ability for a customer to purchase as quick as possible.
If a website is your home base, Ecommerce platforms are the launch pad for selling your products.
Imagine these platforms as busy malls or shopping centers packed with customers 24hrs a day!
Each platform comes with its own pros and cons. Platforms like Amazon are swarming with traffic, but competition and selling fees are high. Where smaller platforms like Uncommongoods, Redbubble and Etsy (probably not anymore), have less competition, lower selling fees, but less traffic. It’s best to research which platform fits your products and target customers.
Currently we sell on 2 Etsy shops. These shops pull large quantity of sales at lower ticket prices where as our website mainly sells to our corporate and larger ticket clients.
Contact Info:
- Website: brandonpetrykowski.com
- Instagram: @brandonpetrykowski
Image Credits
aleksandr sasha kuznetsov