When I was young, I always dreamed of doing something I loved. The idea that people can build a life for themselves with their passion spoke deeply to me. I was around 13 when I first sparked the idea to start my own business, and that inspiration sat with me for about five years before I finally did it.
With the help and collaboration of my roommate, we opened our small online business, Celestial Creations by Artsy and Reneé. We connected with the duo of the sun and moon and ran with it, selling crochet and jewelry sets that fit that theme. We felt as though the sun and moon matched our opposite personalities while still complimenting each other.
But starting our business wasn’t easy. From the planning to the actual implementation of everything, there were some hiccups along the road.
Kickstarting a Business
The first major hurdle, like everything, was just getting started. For me, it was my biggest roadblock, and a many months-long process. I decided to commit to the idea of starting my own small business right out of high school, but running a business alone would be tough to do on top of my college coursework. So, I reached out to one of my closest friends, Artsy, who also happens to be my roommate. Artsy already did their own commissions for their art, so they were the best person to ask to join me.
The next step was the business plan, the hardest step of them all. Artsy and I had to build our marketing strategy, social media strategy, find our target demographic, and decide what items we were going to sell. To do this, we took each of our strengths (mine being crochet and theirs being handmade jewelry) and formed Celestial Creations.
Beginning Stages of OUR Social Media Presence
We struggled initially to get sales because we didn’t regularly create content to post on a fixed schedule. However, it’s hard to run a small business without having the social media part down. I mean, if I didn’t have a social media presence, how else would people know I’m selling things?
Building the presence up was, and still is, a major goal of mine. We now post on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook to maximize our reach and show our creative processes. While my following on the Celestial Creations account is still really small, it’s slowly growing because of my new strategy: making as much content as I can while also scheduling the posts around buzz times in the algorithm. We’ve found that posting at least once every other day helps us keep a consistent flow of content to post on schedule.
Working in a Partnership
In order to make sure one person isn’t commandeering over the content, my business partner and I had to become just that: partners. Partnership isn’t just about merging, it’s also about showing individuality without hindering each other’s. We had to learn to work together.
We wanted to post content that merged in a coherent and seamless way, so we had to figure out what our individual content styles were. While my partner knows the TikTok algorithm better than I do, I know what works on Instagram. And with that comes compromise; I time out the Instagram and Facebook posts, while they handle the TikTok posts. We’ve now found a groove where we talk and bounce content ideas for each platform off each other’s heads. We discuss how to make the business seem more like there’s real people behind it rather than a massive corporation that’s just a name and a logo.
But there are some things that, if I could, I would go back and change.
What I’ve Learned
Right now, our business is a small one without much coming in and out, but I know it will grow to become more. Through my experience, I’ve learned some key tips that got Celestial Creations by Artsy and Reneé to where it is today:
- Don’t be scared to get started. I know it sounds obvious, but if I had just started without letting my fear of failure get in the way, our business might be bigger than it is now.
- Share it with people you know. My parents are my biggest supporters of my dreams, but I never told them I was starting a business with my roommate. I probably could’ve gotten the word out to friends and family if I had not been scared to share it with them.
- Find a posting schedule that works for you and your audience. Currently, Celestial Creations’s audience is smaller, meaning it’s a lot easier to find our ideal posting schedule. If my roommate and I figured it out earlier, we might have been able to regularly add content creation into our courseloads without feeling overwhelmed.
- Most importantly, be uniquely yourself. The hardest part is not falling into a persona that others want to see (or at least it’s the hardest part for me). I’ve had to learn the hard way to not become what others want me to be, and to just be myself. There is only one me, so I have to be the fullest version of myself I can.
All in all, I’ve learned a lot about myself through starting this business, and I’m glad I did. I get to make things I love and share my passion for crafting with others who love to support small businesses like mine. I couldn’t be prouder of that.
Our Instagram: @celestial.creations.by.r.a
Our TikTok: @celestial.creates.by.r.a