We were lucky to catch up with Derek Downing recently and have shared our conversation below.
Derek, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Owning a business isn’t always glamorous and so most business owners we’ve connected with have shared that on tough days they sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have just had a regular job instead of all the responsibility of running a business. Have you ever felt that way?
I’m definitely much happier being a business owner than working for someone else. I worked in the corporate world for almost 20 years. I was ready to leave that behind- although the regular paychecks were nice! Working for myself gives me the flexibility I need. In the beginning I was working on my business 7 days a week, up to 14 hours a day. I quickly realized that I needed a better work/life balance to avoid burnout. Even when I was working 7 days a week, I still didn’t miss the job I used to have. Working for yourself is definitely much harder, but also so much more rewarding.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Making baskets for a living was never on my radar- it’s just something I fell into. My mother was an artist. She was mainly a 2D painter- watercolor & acrylics. She took a class on basket making to try something different. I watched her work as she brought pieces home to work on. After her class was finished, I took her extra materials and made a basket one day. I sold the very first basket I made. So, it just kept going from there. I was juried into the Kentucky Arts Council’s Kentucky Crafted program. It’s basically an incubator for craft entrepreneurs based in Kentucky. I was 16 years old at the time. Basket making has always been a side hustle for me, but now it’s a full time business. I never would have guessed that I’d still be doing this almost 40 years later! My dad asks me, what if mom had never taken that basket making class? I have no idea what I would be doing…
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
My baskets are great quality at reasonable prices. I work out of my house to help keep the overhead low. I purchase raw materials wholesale in bulk so that I can get the best pricing possible. To me, it’s important to keep my prices of affordable so that more people can enjoy my work.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
The largest pivot in my career and in life is basically everyone else’s as well. The COVID-19 pandemic ended my corporate career. But that was a good thing, as I was ready to leave that behind. Luckily, the baskets have always been my side hustle, so I had something to fall back on immediately when my job ended. Unfortunately, it was a little bit of a struggle in the beginning of 2020 because a lot of the stores that I sold my product to were closed. Retail art fairs were not happening either. This downtime gave me the time I needed to experiment and try new products. Most of the time I’m not able to be creative because I’m too busy doing production work filling orders. This also gave me the time I needed to build my own retail website- a chore I had been putting off for a while! Once things started to open during the pandemic. I got more business than ever before both wholesale and retail. That’s when I decided to pursue my own business instead of getting another job.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.basketsbyderek.com
- Instagram: @designer_baskets_by_derek
- Facebook: Designer Baskets by Derek
- Linkedin: N/A
- Twitter: N/A
- Youtube: N/A
- Yelp: N/A
- Soundcloud: N/A
Image Credits
Images by Derek Downing