Slow & Steady

Hope everyone had a great 4th if you're in the US, and a great regular weekend if not. June was month two of doing buddy beans full-time and so many things happened that I barely know where to start!

The Apollo collab is live

This is the one I've been teasing for months - I launched my first ever collaboration at the end of June! A collab with Rinihimme, whose character Apollo I've been a huge fan of ever since I laid eyes on him. It's been a full year since I first talked to her about doing this, so finally getting it out into the world felt incredible.

Rini is so professional, generous, and sweet. I genuinely couldn't have a sked for a better person to do my first collab with. The creative process was especially fun: Product photography, graphic branding, all of it came together in a way I'm really proud of. I'm so lucky to know incredible creatives like my photographer Heaven and long time graphic designer Jack who both helped bring my vision to life.

I've been spamming posts so I'm sure a lot of people have already seen it but if you haven't, go check out Apollo the Angel!

Slippys are back

My new batch of Slippys finally arrived in the third week of June after being sold out since early in the month. Which meant I had a mountain of preorders to fulfill all at once @_@

The packing day was... chaotic. Henry and I turned our entire living room into a fulfillment center. The day did not go as planned, but I have a bunch of footage from it that I still need to edit and post. There's something really satisfying about seeing all of those packages stacked up and ready to go! Every single order is hand-packed with love and it looks like they all made it to everyone safely 🐸

I'm almost halfway through this new batch already, which is wild. I'm actually forecasting that I might sell out of all my inventory again by August, which would mean a pretty skinny month income-wise. But I've placed a big restock order that should arrive in mid-September, so it's a temporary gap. I'll probably have to open up preorders again which is a little stressful because I get anxious when I feel like customers are waiting but it worked well with Slippy last time and everyone was so patient!

Oh, and our house is going to look like a warehouse when that September shipment arrives...

The Fan Expo Anaheim disaster

I attended my first convention with buddy beans this month! I built a whole new booth display for it, even made a short series documenting the process, which did pretty well. I was really excited!

And then I actually went to the convention. 

It was probably the worst first convention I could have picked 🤣 The organizers are known for hosting big comic cons across the country, and this was their first time doing one in Anaheim. They had some big celebrity names attached so I applied, and they accepted me, which could have maybe been a red flag considering I keep getting rejected from everything else, but it felt really nice to be chosen for once...

The attendance was just really, really low. I talked to ten or twenty other artists who were vending and everyone had the exact same experience. There were amazing booths, amazing creatives, just no foot traffic. And they were charging A-tier convention prices for the tables, which made it sting more. I don't feel entitled to sales, that's never been my attitude. But if I'm paying that much for a table, I'd hope there'd at least be people walking around.

I ended up leaving halfway through day two and didn't come back for day three. It didn't make sense to keep paying for parking and food when I was just eating into my margins. I barely made the table cost back. I did not make parking back. At least I can farm some content out of it and I'll be more picky about which conventions I apply to in the future!

New stuff in the pipeline

• Pajama update - I finally finished my CADs and shipped my sample pieces to the manufacturer. Each sampling round takes about three to four weeks, so we're in hurry-up-and-wait mode. I'm going all out with the details for custom labels, unique buttons, cute trims!
• XL buddy bean - Everyone's been asking for bigger sizes so I'm making it happen! Wider, heavier, and just as cute. I'm hoping to launch this one towards the end of the year if sampling goes quickly but my manufacturer is getting busier so we'll see. I'm deciding if I want to reveal what it looks like yet or keep it a surprise.

And for a fun little segment, here are

My favorite (and least favorite) parts of running a business

I'll likely make a video about this but I figured I could write it out first:

1. Customer reviews - This is the best feeling! When someone sends a kind message saying they're actually using their buddy bean in their daily routine or that it's helping them out, that's what keeps the fire lit.
2. Creative process - Product development, designing new things, making art. There's something really satisfying about ending up with a tangible, physical product at the end of the process. I'm still trying to get back into drawing more consistently but I need to take care of survival first :'D
3. Customer service - I know some people hate this, but I actually kind of enjoy it. I think I'm lucky to have a really kind and positive customer base! It's also helpful that it's just emails / DMs and not face-to-face which makes handling the few negative interactions easier.
4. Making video content - I enjoy the creative side of it, but the activation energy is so high! I have to do my makeup, pick an outfit, script the topic, film it, edit it, write a caption, as you can tell there's just a lot of steps. But I know how important it is for growing the brand, so I must push through.
5. Making ads - Very necessary. Really don't like doing it. It requires this diligent, thoughtful marketing brain that just doesn't feel like me. It's like pulling teeth to start, but once I'm in the flow it's doable. This was probably the biggest thing I was putting off for the past two years, and I'm finally doing it now because I can't make any more excuses 💪
6. Finance - I'm going to be honest. I don't really do this. I am vibes-based finance. As long as the number is positive (more than zero) we are doing okay. But I really should be more precise about it! I don't think it'd be that hard to just have a folder or an app where I log my business spend every day. I will try to be better about this. Because it is very important.

Thanks for reading & see you next month :D