Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kayla Carreon. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Kayla thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Almost all entrepreneurs have had to decide whether to start now or later? There are always pros and cons for waiting and so we’d love to hear what you think about your decision in retrospect. If you could go back in time, would you have started your business sooner, later or at the exact time you started?

I started my business at the end of a bad break up back in 2014. I had been drawing since I was in middle school and I had dabbled in crafts while looking for something to distract me from the horrible situation I was in. I met friends who were doing artist alley/exhibitor stuff while at cons like Anime Central and I just didn’t think I was good enough art wise to be successful. I met my friend who helped me see my potential after we got to talking and she saw my polymer clay and felt stuff I had made.

I vended a small con in Kentucky out of a bookstore for my first con and ended up making $400 just with my simple little crafts. After that I wish I had taken the plunge sooner into selling my work. I feel like I’d be further in my journey if I hadn’t had an abusive ex and my own insecurities holding me back.

Now that I’m married, I’m glad I have a supportive husband who’s just as much of a part of my business as I am. He’s been so amazing especially with his art talents that our business has grown past where I started it into something better.

Kayla, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Lone Wolf Acessories was started in 2014 and has definitely evolved since then. I began doing shows starting with a one day show ran out of a Books-a-Million (I no longer support this con so I will not name it)with my fellow art friends I met. I would sporadically do shows over the years and after I got married I started doing shows full time and now average 8-10 shows a year.

Product wise I started with what I called “Felties” which were felt characters with bead eyes that I would pattern, cut, and assemble by hand. I made them into keychains and pins. Then I went to Polymer clay creations and made jewelry of miniature Mangas and video games. I stopped and started dabbling in digital art and prints once I got a Wacom tablet. That wasn’t exactly the most successful at the time. It took me quite a while to find my product niche and took quite a bit of trial and error.

My husband joined me in my endeavors in 2017 and started making pixel art for buttons and perler bead art and now (after a car accident in 2019 in which an airbag hit my hand and it made it difficult for me to draw a lot) he exclusively does all of our drawings for what is now our primary products; our prints, acrylic charms, and buttons. I do most of our physical sewn/resin products like our scrunchies, coin purses, dice bags, dice boxes, resin keychains, and screen cleaners. We recently added tote bags to our lineup of products that I iron on fun decals on using my Cricut. Most of my research came to the conclusion that when going to events people tend to almost always need something to carry their things around that can withstand moving around con and plastic bags just don’t cut it sometimes.

We wanted to make stuff that is both decorative and functional for people in the long term. Most of the previous products we sold were just purely decorative and definitely not functional for daily use except to sit on a shelf. Ever since we added more functionality to our products we started seeing sales rise which was a great motivation to start working on the business full time.

How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.

We used to sell on Etsy but the fees are what really turned us off for that. We then went to do these claim sales on Facebook/Instagram where we would post up photos of products we had ready to ship and people would comment to claim and we would send invoices via PayPal for a while till we could research and find what kind of website host would be best for us.

I kinda ran into Big Cartel via a Facebook group for artists and decided to give it a go and I absolutely loved how easy and affordable it was! Only downside is I haven’t gotten the hang of coding yet so I can’t make a custom code to make it look how i want (yet!). Best part about it is there’s just a flat fee and I can post up to 500 products and Big Cartel is made for artists so instead of paying to post products up like Etsy I get to keep more of my money from sales.

Do you have multiple revenue streams – if so, can you talk to us about those streams and how your developed them?

We have some of our products in a retail store in our town of Griffin, GA. The lovely folks who run Dan Wulf Games in town have our buttons, dice bags, and keychains! It’s helped us grow reputation with the locals and we even participate in Griffin’s Second Saturday events (when we’re not at shows). Dan’s lets us set up a table right outside their store so people can shop with us then go inside to shop with them. It’s definitely been a lovely partnership and we can’t wait to showcase some new products there when we are able!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://lonewolfaccessories.bigcartel.com/
• Instagram: http://instagram.com/lonewolfaccessories
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/lonewolfaccessories
• Other: Our portfolio site: https://lonewolfaccessoriesgallery.pb.gallery/

Image Credits
All photos taken by me or my husband