We recently connected with Lauren Law and have shared our conversation below.

Lauren, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you scale up? What were the strategies, tactics, meaningful moments, twists/turns, obstacles, mistakes along the way? The world needs to hear more realistic, actionable stories about this critical part of the business building journey. Tell us your scaling up story – bring us along so we can understand what it was like making the decisions you had, implementing the strategies/tactics etc.

I started off painting commissions for local friends and family in high school and college. Some of the first things I remember painting were windows, canvas paintings, wedding signs, and graduation caps. My mom had a booth at an antique mall and we decided to do a local craft fair and sell her thrifted items along with some signs I painted. My papa hand built all the signs for me and we ended up doing great! A store located a state over asked me to paint some signs and windows for them to sell in their store and this was my first taste of wholesale! I did these custom orders all through college and into my first year of teaching. Then, one day while watching YouTube I found someone making and selling their art on stationery, stickers and other items. I was hooked and instantly knew I wanted to try creating a business around my personal work rather than commissions. Every dime I earned from house portraits, pet portraits, signs and other custom work I put into creating my first sticker, first shirt and first art prints. I wasn’t selling any of these things but I continued to use my commission money to try new products and machines to help me create a stationery business. In 2022 I finally had enough items to set up a booth at a first Friday and sell my work. I continued adding and changing my product range until in 2023 I was able to leave my teaching job to fully pursue Painted Peony! To this day I still use commissions to help me scale and level up my business.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Lauren Law and my business is called Painted Peony art. It is a stationery and apparel shop with all original art and designs created by me. My husband prints my products and helps me manage a lot of the business side of Painted Peony. I could not do it without him!
I have always loved art since I was a kid. I had many sketch books and hoped to become a fashion designer when I grew up. My parents, grandparents and aunts and uncles were always very supportive of my interest in art and often spent time drawing with me. When I graduated high school I knew I wanted to do something with art but wasn’t sure what that could be. I wasn’t interested in graphic design because of all of the computer technicalities and the thought of working for companies designing logos. I enjoyed spending time with kids at the camps I had taught at in the past and absolutely loved school, so I decided to pursue art education and teaching. I loved my college experience and really enjoyed studying how to become an art teacher. I was so fortunate to get a job working at my hometown elementary school and dove into the work. I had so much fun planning and creating art projects with the kids and my favorite part was absolutely covering the school hallways with their sweet art. I put everything I had into my job and trying to be the best I could be at it, but a couple years in I realized I was feeling burnt out and struggling with the mental and emotional toll of managing 400 students each week. About that time was when I discovered artists on Youtube creating products with their original art. I spent the next 3 years coming home and working on my small business until I couldn’t keep my eyes open at night. I began booking craft fairs every free weekend I could and took on any project or commission that was asked of me. In 2020 I got an ipad for christmas and spent so many hours learning and practicing drawing on it. In 2023 I was finally ready to take the leap and pursue my business full time. SO scary but so necessary, something I knew I had to try or wonder for the rest of my life. Now I travel for markets and craft fairs, work with stores for wholesale, paint commissions and teach an occasional class or art camp. October-December you can find me painting ornaments day and night, still using those commissions to propel my stationery business forward.
Currently, Painted Peony offers 60+ shirts/sweatshirts, tons of stickers and sticker sheets, art prints, postcards, notepads, notebooks, mugs, totebags, tea towels bookmarks and more all with original art and designs. Our products have a whimsical, cottage core, cozy, animal/nature centered style. I focus on warm soft natural colors and celebrate the little things in life.
I am most proud of our stickers because I love how customers react to them and want to add them into their life, It makes my day when I see someone out with our shirt on, or sticker on their waterbottle. My business has allowed me to have so many great conversations with like minded people who have similar interests as me.
In my spare time I love being outside in my zinnia garden and playing with my husband, dog and chickens.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

In person markets and craft fairs have been the best source of new customers for me. I think when the customer can see all of the art work and products on display they can see the brand identity and understand the vibe of Painted Peony. Being able to pick up an item and see it in person makes the customer more likely to purchase. Also, they can meet me, the artist and see the face behind the brand. Often times, these customers will remember my shop because of our interaction and be more likely to return online to make a purchase.

We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.

Our favorite place to sell is our site on shopify. We had tried a few other website building platforms but loved how easy shopify is to use and maintain. My husband has a degree in IT so coding and website building comes easy for him, but not so much me! On shopify I can do most anything and only have to ask for help every once in a while :)
We also sell on Etsy, which isn’t our favorite but does well during the holiday season to find new customers.
The only con with selling on shopify is having to bring in your own customers. We are working on better SEO for our site and also try to stay active on social media to engage with our customers and pop up in their feeds.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://paintedpeonyart.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paintedpeonyart
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/paintedpeonyart/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkzG3Ct0HA45-mmSPS537KQ

Image Credits

Lissa Chandler Photography