We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Cassie and Tanice Johnson and Coates a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Cassie and Tanice , thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

The biggest risk we took was becoming business owners and pursuing our dreams. Then taking that dream to the next level. We definitely took a risk at the height of the pandemic we decided that we were going to take what was a hobby and turn it into a business. Trust me when we say we have been facing all kinds of uncertainties and more but we keep in mind our end goal and completing our dream with opening a store. We all know art is more of a luxury item to most it isn’t something that people buy on an everyday basis. Especially CUSTOM art. We love what we do and will keep pushing through every risk, failures, and fears to reach our dreams.

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

Certainly, my name is Cassie and I am part owner of Niecey’s Crafts and Things along with my daughter Tanice. We are in the art’s and crafts business. We do a lot of wall art and home decor pieces. We got started during the pandemic, I was sitting back watching my daughter follow a Bob Ross tutorial and she has some real skill. From there we started following other tutorials that we seen on YouTube and just kind of started from there. We would post things on our personal Facebook and Instagram account and people started inquiring about what we were doing and wanted us to make pieces for them. We solve problems a lot of times with showing people what they can do with an empty space within a space they have or even showing people how they can refurbish old items and use them throughout their homes or office spaces. Our proudest moment was our first commissioned piece and being able to execute that for our client and then receiving our next client which was a family member of our first client. One thing our business really take pride in is being able to give back, with each sale we make at the end of the month we always take a certain percentage and donate to a charity.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

Our business is still I guess considered a side hustle. Though it brings in good revenue it’s not enough yet to sustain living completely off of. This industry is a tricky one and trying to stay true to the reasons we started and the direction we want to go in hasn’t always been easy. We are however always growing and expanding on ideas and ways to scale to that sustainable lifestyle. I am confident that as we keep pushing forward we will be able to hit that mark within the next 2yrs max. I always tell people always stick to your plans and really learn that every failure isn’t a fail but just a lesson to learn so you can pivot your business.

We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.

This is an easy one (laughing). My business partner is my daughter and we work very well together. She pushes me as well as I push her. We are always continually growing and seeing where we can expand on things within our business. I’ve always had a dream of a family owned business. I never thought that it would be my daughter but it definitely works. I am proud of her and the woman that she is growing into and I can’t wait to and my son into the mix soon as he gets a little older.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: www.instagram.com/nieceyscraftsandthings

Image Credits
Cassie Johnson and Tanice Coates