We recently connected with Monique Capanelli and have shared our conversation below.

Monique, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?

Being a business owner is very fulfilling to me. Does it make me happy, that’s an elusive and slippery emotion to pin down. However, I knew from a young age of 10 that I wanted to work for myself – I didn’t know at that time what or how – but I knew I wanted to be a boss. Being a business owner is not for everyone, not for the faint of heart. It’s challenging in many ways. Some of the challenges are exhilarating, like meeting a massive deadline and knocking it out of the park for the client. Other challenges take your breath away and knock you on your ass, making you question all your abilities and knowledge.

Over the last 15 years of running a successful Botanical Art company that works nationwide, I’ve learned to take the good with the bad, daily. At times it is hard to separate me as a person, a friend, wife, yogi from an ambitious business women and creative artist. At those times, I really can’t separate the 2 fully from one another, they inform each other innately. But what is helpful, when I do fail at some point in my job, I say to myself that my failures inform way more of my success then my accomplishments. And that is when those 2 powerful parts of myself overlap. For in life in general, no matter where you are no matter what you lead or follow, the falls on your face are what define your character of bravery and strength. But you have to be willing to take those brutal falls.

Monique, 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?

I am a professional creative that currently specializes in botanical art and sculpture. I am most known for my vertical green wall art. I created this company out of my expertise in many art forms and my love of plants and nature. The botanical creations are consistently evolving and growing (pun intended:)) Articulture is a word that I coined years before I launched. It captured my work best in that was fueled by the principles of art and design and manifested in natures many forms. We launched in 2009 out of a 400 square foot studio. At that time we already were creating works for Whole Foods and the Four Seasons, maintaining 15 clients plants and green walls, and providing plant/floral and green wall rental décor for large events such as SXSW and weddings.

In 2016 we bought an acre in South Austin. It allowed us to expanded to a 1100 square foot studio, and add a 1000 square retail and garden store showcasing all my works and other curated lines and plants. This enabled more aspects of the business to form, such as botanical art classes taught in a garden, yoga and supper clubs on our grounds.

If you have multiple revenue streams in your business, would you mind opening up about what those streams are and how they fit together?

My business has multiple revenue streams. Which is essential for cash flow. For me that is vital, I have 13 employee’s, so my payroll is my largest monthly expense. If I don’t have revenue coming in weekly and regularly, that could be a disaster if I can’t pay my staff. I have my retail brick and mortar, a large online store, classes, rental decor, custom work, maintenance clients and my venue rental.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Classic response, but the Pandemic. That was a hard and fast pivot. Within 2 weeks, I had expanded my online store and put all my botanical art classes in virtual tutorials and kits, kept my store open by appointment only, and gave all my maintenance clients free virtual care, allowed some employees that could work from home, and did all my national travel by car! I never stopped working.

My first out of state job of the Pandemic was a fun trip in April 2020 to Chicago with my husband/business partner and our 3 month old pandemic puppy- a Border Collie named Oliver Escher.
Was one for the books!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.articulturedesigns.com
• Instagram: @articulture
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ArticultureDesigns/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/articulture-designs/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Articulture?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCl0IanyHtvx4yka9akcLgvg
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/articulture-designs-austin

Image Credits
Ryann Ford- exterior large green wall All the rest are taken by articulture