Beyond the Niche: Embracing Eclectic Business Approaches

Stepping outside your comfort zone might be the best business decision you'll ever make.

Have you ever felt the pressure to find your perfect niche and stick with it? That nagging voice telling you to specialize, specialize, specialize? In this refreshingly honest episode, we challenge that conventional wisdom and make a compelling case for embracing an eclectic approach to your creative business.

From the celebration room that hosts birthday parties to after-school programs and homeschooling activities, Brewtifully has deliberately diversified its offerings to serve different segments of the community. This episode unpacks why this approach works and how it creates multiple touchpoints for people to connect with your business.

The fear of branching out often paralyzes us—what if it doesn't work? What if we seem unfocused? We tackle these concerns head-on and offer practical advice for testing new ideas without significant financial investment. Start small, gauge interest through signups or polls, and give yourself permission to explore.

At the heart of any successful business is genuine care for the people you serve. Whether you're teaching an art class or selling a product, customers want to feel seen, heard, and valued. This customer-centric approach, combined with a willingness to diversify and admit you're still learning, creates an authentic business that continues to evolve.

Ready to break free from the constraints of a single niche? This episode is your permission slip to explore new avenues and embrace the beauty of an eclectic business model. Subscribe now and join us on this journey of creative entrepreneurship!

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Brutally Made Studio
• 1:52 Embracing Eclectic Business Approaches
• 4:02 Try Something New Without Fear
• 6:08 Caring About Your Customers Matters
• 8:26 Upcoming Art Shows and Guests

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:06

Hey y'all, welcome back to a new episode of Brutally Made. I am still here in my studio recording, so just thought I would show a new perspective of this beautiful celebration room that everyone gets to consider when they want to have a birthday party, a private party, a meeting, a shower, anything that they want up to 20 people to come in this cute little room and celebrate. So I'm really excited to be back with you. This week there's been a lot going on with people popping in, visiting for classes. In Ohio we've had the last two weeks as tax-free shopping and so that's gone on really well. Today was the last day for tax-free shopping for back to school, so had a really good day. Kids are getting ready to go back to school, if they have not already, so that has had a lot of kiddos coming in for some last minute crafting and just saying, you know, goodbye or hey.

Speaker 1: 1:13

I've signed up for after school activities, which I have on my website on the calendar. I'm very excited about those. There's homeschooling programs. There's also all the days off for our local schools, whenever those are closed. I have a program here that includes lunch.

Speaker 1: 1:31

So just a lot of fun things in the plaza happening and just wanting to offer up the space for the community, and so I think that it leads me to kind of discuss what maybe we've talked about a couple of times before on, you know, finding a niche or a niche that you fit in. And is that a requirement? Can you explore different things that you do and diversify your opportunities for your space successfully? And I am here to say yes, you can. You absolutely don't have to follow the normal routine or what is expected. And the word eclectic should be beside my name because it is something that I embrace fully. It's okay to want to try new things. If it comes to being creative, business interject creativity. That's the goal. That's what I'm here to promote and share and encourage is that try something that isn't expected in what you're doing to see how it goes across. It comes across to the community and to your shoppers or people that you know spend time in your studio.

Speaker 1: 2:50

It's okay to try a new medium or offer a new class or explore new teachers. You don't have to do it all. I know I can't do it all. I encourage people in the community to bring what they know how to do here and explore, maybe offering that as a class. I will put that out there as much as I can and hopefully it does take off. Sometimes it doesn't. Maybe it's cost prohibitive. Maybe sometimes it is so successful that you become way in demand and that wasn't what you were expecting. That's happened to. So it's just trying to find that nice balance and you're never going to know unless you try.

Speaker 1: 3:37

So I really want to encourage you to figure out a way to stop being afraid of not trying something new. You're never going to know if it's going to succeed. You can always outthink or out. I guess not outthink, but you're going to second guess yourself to the point where you're just going to tell yourself you're not going to do it and don't do that. Stop listening to that voice. It's okay to be cautious.

Speaker 1: 4:06

It's okay to not invest a bunch of money into something and you could sign or create something for people to sign up. And when you get signups, then that's when you put some money into, maybe materials. You don't have to just go in 100%. You can explore, you know, put a pole out in the universe. What would you like to see happen at this location? What are we missing? What do you like to do with your family and friends when you're out and about. Maybe you have a restaurant and you want people to use the. You know there's a standalone room and you're not getting reservations for private parties. What if you held your own events? And what kind of creative events or events that would, you know, appease your clientele? Create those and offer those and see how it goes.

Speaker 1: 5:00

You never know and start small. You don't have to start like I have to have 50 people. You know it's okay for 10. It's okay for five, it's okay for two, it's all right to explore. And that's the whole beauty of creating your own business and not having to follow some kind of rigid outline. I have a guidance outline but I don't have to conform to anything. It's not like I'm in this, I don't know, check off list, that okay, I haven't done this yet and so I'm failing. I hope I'm not failing. I'm trying really hard to work at this every day and I try to be very creative and mindful about it and respect people's time and money and resources and offer a variety of availability and I'm very flexible with that and I try to make everyone feel heard and seen and welcome and that should be the basis of any business If you're in some sort of service or position.

Speaker 1: 6:08

While you're working with the public, you want them to know that you care. Your investment isn't just in that dollar, it is in them, and it will show if you're sincere about it. And so you want people to walk away with a good sense of they cared about me in that situation, and I don't care if you're serving them a cup of coffee or if you are, you know, babysitting their child. It's got to come across that you care, no matter what. You know someone cares about your car when they're working on it to you know someone cared enough to bag your groceries where it didn't smash something precious, or someone cared enough to help you if you're shopping. You know you just want to feel like you were seen and heard, and that's what's most important.

Speaker 1: 6:56

And it's okay if you don't get it right the first time. It's okay to apologize I know I apologize all the time if I'm not, you know, getting something correct. It's okay to make mistakes. We're all human and people on the it's okay to make mistakes. We're all human, and people on the other end need to remember that too. We're all trying really, really hard, and so it's really important that you keep that in mind, whether you're a consumer or you're a business owner, and so offering everything that I can in a very diversified way, and a variety of things that I offer doesn't mean I'm an expert in all of it, and I readily admit I'm always still learning along with you, and I love that exploration. So giving me the grace to do things right and wrong as I give you that same grace, is really important, and so I just wanted to remind you that it's okay that you're only you're not only doing one thing. You can do multiple things. You can explore and enjoy that process, and please do that. Please don't feel like you know your space is only one thing. That that is not. I think that you'll get bored fast. I think that you need to look into diversifying what you offer and expanding on what you love, and then, if you've hit that plateau, then start exploring something new and learn something new. So just a little encouragement from me today.

Speaker 1: 8:26

It has been a very busy month. I will get to see our grands and family soon in Seattle, and so I'm very excited for the next month ahead. So watch for details on our exhibiting artists coming up next month. So I'm very excited to have him on the podcast, because he will be on the podcast and we do have Melissa Bittner's art on the walls right now. Her granddaughter inherited all that art and is having a show and her open house is next Friday.

Speaker 1: 9:03

So a week from today, from 5 to 7 in the evening, a Friday night. So I'm really excited about sharing that information, that process that she learned from her grandma and appreciate that she has the artwork on the wall. So hopefully you've seen that on my social media all of the beautiful paper mache masks. So have a wonderful weekend. Thanks for tuning in and listening and supporting me and to Jane Bell Lasseter for visiting me this week. It was wonderful to see her and from Washington DC area and her beautiful abstract art is always on my heart. She does a beautiful job and sent me a beautiful care package not too long ago. It's so sweet and just love when artists visit and she will be on the podcast soon so you'll get to hear her about her process and what drives her art, and I have other artists that are going to be guests just working out schedules. Take care, have a wonderful weekend.