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Donna Bordeaux tells pottery studio owners how to survive early COVID lockdowns: push pottery-to-go and take-home kits, offer Zoom classes, record technique videos, and use social media to market them. Focus on what you can control.
Donna Bordeaux tells pottery studio owners how to survive early COVID lockdowns: push pottery-to-go and take-home kits, offer Zoom classes, record technique videos, and use social media to market them. Focus on what you can control.
Hey studio owners, it's Donna Bordeaux with pyobaccounting.com I know these are some weird times and we've got a lot of issues going on and many of you are struggling at the thoughts of not being able to open your studios well. I want you to take a moment to refocus your energies on things you can control. What can you do in your studio to help make sure that you're able to weather this storm and keep your business alive and come up with new ideas that may help you earn more money in the future? Think of this as an opportunity. I know it's hard, but it is an opportunity to think about some things you can do in your business to create a revenue stream that don't involve people having to come to your studio. So the first thing I know, many of you are already on the ball and have done a great job of getting the pottery to go kits out there. Think of more creative ideas in that same realm, especially if you've got some clay or some other projects that would be handy to take home. I want you to also think about doing virtual classes, whether that be canvas or clay or bisque. Recording ideas of how to do projects for the stay at home folks from kids being out of school is going to be a really important and necessary concept. So here in our studios we use Zoom to help make sure that we do all of our web meetings and all of our webinars and can accommodate people joining us. So look@Zoom.com it's super easy to use. All you need is your phone or a webcam on your computer and you can be up and running. Also, take advantage of your staff who's probably already done a lot of this. A lot of your younger staff is already used to recording video all the time, so they can definitely be a good resource for you. So look at doing virtual classes. This can also be a great time to document procedures for your studio techniques. Right now, while you can perform different techniques, the bubble techniques, different painting ideas, even your glass, things that even you might not be doing through virtual right now, but you can document how to do these projects and use those in your studio later on when the walk in traffic resumes, you will now have a library of videos that people can use to help facilitate new projects and help make sure that your staff has more time to spend with folks and let them see how to do projects online at their own speed. So take this as an opportunity to think about your marketing, think about your operating procedures and also think about how you will virtually demonstrate some techniques, put those out on your website and entice people. People are going to be spending more time online here in these next few weeks than they ever have, so take advantage of that using your social media. Post some of those videos, even if they can't do them yet. Post those videos, your Facebook, your Instagram. You'll inspire people to think of you. Also, remind them that you have those pottery to Go kits and some other projects that you may be able to do. So if there's anything that you need to keep your business going that we can help you with. I am here as a resource to all of the members of CCSA and all of the PYOP studios across the country. So if there's anything I can do for you, please don't hesitate to let me know. I'm Donna Bordeaux with pyopaccounting.com Sam.
