We recently connected with Stacey Sparrow and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Stacey, thanks for joining us today. One of the toughest parts of scaling a business is maintaining quality as you grow. How have you managed to maintain quality? Any stories or advice?
I don’t just work on my business. I very much work in it. I have my hands and every piece of my studio from developing new projects and techniques to cleaning the bathrooms. I think that as a leader it’s important to model best practice. As we have grown I have always promised myself that I would continue to work in the trenches with my team. I want to make sure that we create the best possible environment for our guests and in order to do so I think we need to make sure that we are present and involved. I make it a point to know my guests and what they are creating I want to help them to be successful and as we grow I make sure that all of my team wants to do the same.
Stacey, 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 graduated from art school with hopes of becoming an art educator in public schools or a museum setting unfortunately jobs were hard to find and I wasn’t willing to give up on my goal of helping others to create and have an option for relaxation. I truly believe that art is not just something for a special few people or only certain people should get to be creative. I opened my studio with the hopes of providing a place of Solace, creativity, engagement, and growth. That might just be learning a new technique or trying something you were afraid to do on your own. We pride ourselves on instruction whether it’s a brief experience during walk-in hours or a class or weekly Workshop we want to make sure everyone feels comfortable to try new things and is able to get creative without worrying about what others will think. We want to help children grow into effective problem solvers. We want adults to have a place to gather with friends and family and create in a supportive environment. We want retirees to have a place where they can relax and build on new hobbies. It’s important to me that everyone feels supported and educated through their creativity. I don’t think art should be scary or unattainable. Over the years how we’ve achieved that has changed and it always will continue to do so whether we offer painting classes, kids classes, pottery, clay or glass that doesn’t really matter and is secondary to the cause. I really truly want people to feel successful at something tactful and creative something you can do with your hands and try something new. I think this is important for all ages and all walks of life and art on the rocks will always be a place where you can meet with others and become successful while getting creative.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Right before covid hit I lost my 53-year-old mother to cancer. The governor then told us that my business needed to close its doors and people could not come inside due to covid. My business is the Sole Provider for our family and all I could think was I just lost my mother and now I’m going to lose my business. So like others we tried to think of what we could do to Pivot. We started to go live on Facebook and sell pottery and art projects to go so people had things to do at home. We continued our mission by offering free classes and lessons on Facebook that they could create with at home using our supplies or theirs. The community responded in a huge way and we had our biggest year in business during a global pandemic. We changed everything about how we did business from hours, to staff, to selling on Facebook lives. But why we do what we do never changed we continued to help people be creative and find a place of relaxation and safety.
Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?
At just 25 years old I decided I would open art on the rocks. I worked with a local business planner that tried to bring businesses into the area by offering free business planning services. I was relatively fresh out of college and had just had my first child. I didn’t come from a background of money and I didn’t have anyone to lend me money. I also did not have the best credit and could not get private Lending. I was able to secure a loan for $10,000 through our local Chamber of Commerce for startup businesses. Turns out $10,000 is not a lot of money to open a business and that was gone quickly but we were able to continue running on those initial funds while I held a full-time day job. I ran classes at night and workshops on the weekends for the first 5 years I was open I worked full-time. I did what I had to in order to get by and we slowly built our business and paid off our loan. We never took out additional capital and the initial $10,000 carried us through
Contact Info:
- Website: Www.artontherocksma.com
- Instagram: artontherocksmass
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ArtontheRocksma?mibextid=ZbWKwL