We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Greg Hill a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Greg , thanks for joining us today. How do you think about spending on the little things / small joys when finances are tight?
It seems that, especially now it is getting harder and harder to own and operate a business. We are seeing in the headlines every day that stores are closing or doing layoffs and cutting back on hours. For me personally, I have always subscribed to the notion that re-investing in your business and cutting out luxuries is essential to scaling. If you have a 5 to 10 year plan and you can live off of just enough to feed your family and pay your utilities and rent then any profit you make should be put back into either marketing, or some kind of long-term ROI investment, and I strongly believe that diversifying is the upmost importance. I think short term ROI’s are good, but sacrificing immediate wants for a larger and more substantial long-term goal of returns is more important. I am not concerned with traveling the country or the world and buying expensive cars right now. We are headed into a major recession, we have been in one, but it is going to get really intense very soon and so for the past couple of years I have looked forward into preparing for that, and basically setting up each year before the next. Each year is a launching pad for survival the following year. I think there’s a lot of business owners that take whatever profit they make, and use it to live lavish lifestyles, but we’ve all seen what usually happens in those instances. Suddenly, they’re wondering where the money went because they don’t have any kind of security or investments that are working for them to procure a long-term ROI.
Greg , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I grew up in Southern California, and I have always been interested in and fascinated with curiosity and creative expression. A few years ago I wanted to try my hand at business and I thought, what better way of doing that then trying to get involved with my community and offer some kind of place that people could go to express their creativity. What usually happens when you start a business though, is that pretty soon the demographic you’re in will tell you what the business needs to be in order to survive and thrive. My wife and I started the business together as an art gallery where we offered art classes. Before too long we discovered, though, that the art gallery was not going to make it in Corona. People were just not interested and it wasn’t the right time to introduce that sort of thing to the community. We started focusing more on marketing our art classes, and also taking the space we were in and turning it into a venue for people to rent. We also reached out to schools and wellness centers and started getting accounts teaching art to children and adults. we currently have several private and public schools that we teach art classes to the children at as well as some wellness centers, and this mobile side of the business is very fulfilling because it goes back to our original mission of wanting to bring art and creative expression to the community. Children are such an important role in our society, and they are developing at such a fast rate that is it is exciting to be involved with that burgeoning in some small way, and helping facilitate that growth. When I was young, there wasn’t really a place for me to go to create or get involved with other people that were creative and my wife had the same dilemma so that’s why we started the Artist’s Collective. The idea is that for anybody who wants to get involved they’ll have a place where they don’t feel the pressures of the outside world. I feel like we are starting to realize that vision and seeing it come to fruition.
How’d you meet your business partner?
My partner and I met a little over three years ago and we fell in love shortly after. We are both creative people and so it was only natural that we would start a business together in the arts. We get along really well and it has been going pretty good, there are always going to be bumpy patches in the road but I think we have a deep connection and respect for each other, which makes us able to tolerate each other. All kidding aside, I feel very lucky to be in a partnership with her because I have heard horror stories and I’m just glad that we are not only partners and husband and wife, but best friends as well.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
I think I’m constantly trying to unlearn this trait I have learned to react and try to control things. It’s all kind of driven by fear and so I’m trying to recognize that because falling prey to that old type of thinking is detrimental to the forward progress of myself, my relationships, and my business.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.artistscollectivedoslagos.com
- Instagram: @artistscollectivedoslagos