We were lucky to catch up with Sara Quiroz recently and have shared our conversation below.
Sara, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?
Finding what works for you…
Finding your work flow and what works best for your business is an ongoing journey and one that, like you, will change through the years. In the beginning of my career as a silversmith, I was learning and growing by practicing, as any professional does. Your brain and body help guide you away from repeating past mistakes, and toward past successes and new ideas to explore. Seeking out new designs and techniques keeps that creative spark alive and drives creativity. Finding a work flow was hard for me in the beginning, especially working from home. The distractions are everywhere! Dishes to be done, laundry to be washed, errands to be run, all those little devils pulling you away from what you really want to be doing… playing with torches and hammers. Each day was its own adventure for a while, until I decided that I just needed to take care of the house during the day and work at night, LATE at night. For a couple of years, I dedicated my days to handling the household and business side of things during the day, enjoy the evening with my husband and dogs, and then work from midnight til around 5-6am. There were many times when I was going to bed as my husband was waking up to head to work. Finding a balance of business and home was essential for me because I knew if I focused all my energy on one then the other would suffer greatly. You can’t have one without the other. The support and encouragement my husband gives me with my business in unreal and I adore him daily for it.
These past few years, my schedule has changed, and I don’t stay up through the night anymore. I attest this to honing my craft and work flow. Some days are “bench days” where I create jewelry. Some days are business days where I reorder merch or silver supplies. Just about everyday is social media day, unfortunately ha ha! Small business owners are often one single person balancing work that should be completed by about 4-5 people. The important thing to remember is your day is still a success when you’ve accomplished something to further your business and keep it moving forward. You have to remember when someone is good at what they do, it’s not just the product they make or the service they provide, it’s how they manage their time, how they keep organized, and how they treat their clients that makes their business a success. Owning your own business is hard work and when someone makes it look “so easy” it means they’ve done a TON of work to get it there.
Trial and error…
So much of business (and life really) is trial and error. When my work doesn’t go in the direction I had originally intended, I try to pause and contemplate if I roll with the new direction or try to rework it to achieve my original design. Sometimes it’s not worth going backwards and I might end up doing something more creative because of it. Sometimes I make it worse trying to make it better. Either way, I’m going to do what I can to produce the best work possible, so if I have to scrap a piece I’ve been working on for hours, so be it. Thankfully sterling silver is easy enough to melt and use in new ways. In my almost 7 years of working with it, I have used ALL of my scraps, melted down and used again.
I think this type of flexibility is important to have in all aspects of business as well. You can’t dwell too long on your failures and feel like “this is the end” when something goes wrong. Art is all about being a creative problem solver and that same mentality can be used in the business side as well. Sometimes you set up at an event and don’t sell a thing, or run a sale online and it all sits and goes un-shopped. Take it as one of those “trial and error” moments and try to pinpoint what was different about this and other successful events. You’ll start to know who your crowd is, what kinds of sales people enjoy, and what typically works for your business.
Once you find your crowd or clientele, don’t be afraid to seek them out, it should only expand your business! My husband and I already loved going to motorcycle shows, so I put myself out there and started applying to shows in other states. It has been amazing to travel for work, meet SO MANY RAD PEOPLE, and build my business with folks all over the country. I am incredibly thankful to those who support my business and allow me to continue living my dream.
P.S. PUSH THOSE BUSINESS CARDS! You never know which of those cards will get you an order in the future.
Taking risks…
A common struggle for small business owners now is pleasing the social media gods and getting our content SEEN. Our world is growing ever more demanding to live the way we see others presented online, but that’s just it, it’s just a presentation, not often a reality. It’s almost a risk just to be your true genuine self anymore. I’m trying to keep my genuine self in both social media and in my work, and hopefully folks will still dig it! I believe when you show your genuine self, people see it and (hopefully) its appreciated. I have come to find a healthy balance of knowing what my customers want and knowing what I want in my work. Creating work that is almost exclusively one of a kind is a tall order, so I need to keep myself interested and excited about what I’m doing. When the passion is gone, it shows and your work suffers.
I experience a rollercoaster ride of excitement and stress with my custom work especially. I am so incredibly proud to offer custom work as it provides an opportunity for me to create specific and often sentimental pieces to my customers. It fills my heart with so much pride when I can touch people’s hearts with their one of a kind piece that they can enjoy for the rest of their days. In that same breath, customs can be really taxing because of all the communication back and forth, the sizing research, the stone shopping, the pressure with sometimes using a customer’s existing jewelry and so on. However, as much stress as customs may cause, I have LOVED working with so many different folks creating work I never would have on my own.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
Hey friends!
My name is Sara Quiroz and I am the sole woman behind Key Rose Customs. The name “Key Rose Customs” came from the (more or less) pronunciation of my last name Quiroz. I was an elementary art teacher for a couple of years and to help the kids (and adults) pronounce my name, I put “Quiroz” and “Key Rose” side by side in my room. Easy peasy, anyone can do it! Jump to when I was trying to come up with ideas for my business name. I didn’t want anything random, just something that was memorable and meaningful. What’s more meaningful than your name? You’re “pronounceable name” that is. Ha ha. I went with Key Rose and added Customs because I knew I wanted my work to be original and one of a kind, so my customers had their own unique piece of me…and them.
With Key Rose Customs, I create sterling silver and natural stone jewelry that is one of a kind, built to last, and made with love. My jewelry can be worn by whoever wants to wear it. If you dig it, wear it babe. The only thing you need to wear whatever you want is CONFIDENCE. My work is detailed and each piece has it’s own individual vibe. I love when a piece just speaks to someone and they make an instant connection. Gasps at my booth are much welcomed, ha ha ha!
To keep the hype going, over the years with my business, I have strived to make my work bigger and better. I have invested more time, energy and money into what I’m doing and I believe it shows. Anyone can look back at their early work (of any kind) and cringe at the earlier version of what they’ve done. I try not to do that, but appreciate how far I’ve come and strive to keep up the progress. In making my work better, I have used better and stronger materials, and invested in better equipment, which also means I have to charge accordingly. My mission in my work is to create heirloom quality pieces that you can wear and enjoy for many years to come, and pass it on for others to enjoy as well. This might lose me some customers along the way, but on my journey forward there will always be new ones waiting, and I’m excited to find them!
The other thing I absolutely adore and appreciate to no end is word of mouth. Sharing your love for your KRC jewelry with your friends, family, classmates, club, stylist, etc is truly incredible and keeps me going. I light up when past customers come by my booth at a show and I see an “alumnae” piece on them. Seeing my work being worn and loved, out in the wild, cranks up the fuel to my flame!
Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?
I think one of the strongest things I do to build my clientele, especially at shows/events, is HAVE FUN! I love having folks come and check out my work and we can share some laughs or find commonalities in just a few seconds. When we’re having fun, a sale is just the cherry on top. One of the things I’ve truly been loving lately has been when people discover my bowl of brass pins. They are something I only have at shows, unless you special order one, so it’s something I get to share with folks in person. Each one has a saucy, raunchy, or just down right nasty saying on them and they are SUCH a crowd pleaser. Knock on wood, I haven’t been “shamed” yet by anyone and have even been downright pleasantly surprised by some I would not expect who LOVE them. One of my favorite memories was a hot grandma looking through them with her granddaughters. They were laughing and pulling out their favorites, but when grandma found “It’s 69 o’clock” she was done looking! Ha ha ha! She was such a hoot, bought the girls their favorites and then sent me a message on Square saying they had THE BEST time at my booth and enjoyed the laughs. I think of her every time the clock strikes 69.
My very first pop up was at a motorcycle parts swap back in 2016 at Flying Tiger. It was in their tiny parking lot (4-5 spaces max) and I was so nervous. I had only been making jewelry for a few months, but I had a small collection and wanted to give it a go. I ended up selling three things and I was SO excited I took the picture of each of the folks who were so kind to support me. My mother in law, Hilda was one, Teresa the shop owner was another, and a total stranger who walked up was the third. While each sale is incredible and keeps you going, there’s something different about a “stranger sale” You don’t know this person, they aren’t just being nice and supporting you, they haven’t seen you grow and know your struggle, they just see your work and want it. It’s wild. So luckily, in my dorky new artist excitement, I have taken pictures of my happy customers from day one! It is a fun tradition I like to do to remember them and show appreciation for my happy new customers. I truly appreciate them/you all and love to see your smiling faces enjoying your new KRC piece.
Most folks in business know, but word of mouth is better than paid advertising. It’s gold. I have had shoppers come to my booth specifically because all their friends own my work and they hear my name all the time. Y’all, that’s incredible and I love you for it!! I’m here to make work that makes people feel good, makes them feel powerful and beautiful when they wear it. I want it to be meaningful and sentimental when it needs to be. I want to make work that people don’t take off, they love it so much. When I’ve done my job, that’s when the word of mouth kicks in and I can keep doing what I’m doing.
It takes some time though years of practice and much trial and error, but being able to figure out where your crowd is is so important. While there’s no guarantee and some shows might surprise you, figuring this out is crucial. You have to consider the type of event, the crowd that’s attending, the other vendors in the line up, the weather, the holidays approaching, etc. So many factors can lead to a successful show or a flop. Sometimes the show has all the makings of success and the crowd just doesn’t hit. You just have to know going into it, there’s always a chance of a flop and it’s out of your hands. Keep these as learning experiences and push forward. Once you find your crowd, be present for them and don’t be afraid to travel and seek them out.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
Although sometimes it’s hard not to see folks in your similar field as competition, it’s good to recognize that you probably have a lot in common and can appreciate what they have created. I love going to see the other silversmith’s work at shows and chatting about our experiences with the field. Whether it’s tools, processes, shows or clientele, there’s so much you can learn from each other. Each person has their own hand in their work, their own style and technique. Customers are going to gravitate to who or whatever they’re going to gravitate to, it’s (somewhat) out of your control. Being a super likable person or excellent sales person might help your case, but people like what they like, so make friends with folks who understand what you do. They’re probably hard to come by.
It’s also super helpful and important to show love to the folks who are organizing and helping out at your events. You will never understand all the work they put in until you host an event of your own. Hours, days, weeks, and months of planning, emailing, calling, meeting, measuring, shopping, and so much more goes into these rad events many of us rely on to make money. So make sure to thank the hosts and volunteers making it possible and appreciate them still even if there’s a few bumps. If the whole event felt like going down a gravel road at 60 mph, hey, that’s just not a show you do again, ha ha ha!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://keyrosecustoms.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/key_rose_customs/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/keyrosecustoms