Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast: Making Art Work
Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast: Making Art Work
#240: Susan Hazel Rich (Designer; Founder of Hazelmade) (pt. 1 of 2)
This week on the podcast is part one of our interview with Susan Hazel Rich. She used her experiences as a former logo and brand designer to create Hazelmade, a collection of illustrated paper and home goods. Each design in her collections is hand drawn and paired with environmentally friendly papers, fabrics and earth-friendly packaging. We know you’ll enjoy hearing Susan’s open and honest conversation about what it took for her to succeed. We’ll have Susan’s website in the show notes so you can see her creative designs and functional pieces of art.
In this episode:
Striking a balance between her passion and practicality, Susan talks about her innovative approach to inventory management by stocking her studio instead of bulk-ordering. This not only ensures quick shipments but also reflects her commitment to the environment. As the conversation unfolds, she shares insights on maintaining profitability while ensuring fair wages for her team. From forming partnerships with family and women-owned businesses to discussing the financial implications of entrepreneurship, Susan's story is an enlightening guide for those considering a similar path. So, tune in and take a deep dive into Susan's journey of building Hazelmade from the ground up!
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Announcer:Welcome to the Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast. Making art work. We highlight how entrepreneurs align their artistry, passion and vision to create and pursue opportunities to capture value in the arts. The views expressed by guests on the Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast are solely their own and do not necessarily represent the views of the podcast or its hosts. The appearance of a guest on the podcast, the venture they represent or reference to any product or service does not imply an endorsement or recommendation by the podcast or its hosts. The content provided is for entertainment and informational purposes only and does not constitute business advice. Here are your hosts Andy Heise and Nick Petrella.
Andy Heise:Hi Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast listeners. My name is Andy Heise
Nick Petrella:In this interview we're joined by Susan Hazel Rich. She used her experiences as a former logo and brand designer to create Hazelm ade a collection of illustrated paper and home goods. Each design in her collections is hand-drawn and paired with environmentally friendly papers, fabrics and earth-friendly packaging. We'll have Susan's website in the show notes so you can see her creative designs and functional pieces of art. Thanks for being on the podcast, susan.
Susan Hazel Rich:Thank you so much for having me.
Nick Petrella:Why don't we start by having you tell us why you decided to start back in 2014 and how you knew it was time to start the business?
Susan Hazel Rich:So back in 2014,. You know, I had graduated from Kent State with my degree in graphic design. I had worked a few different jobs, different design firms, things like that and I sort of was feeling that this nine to five traditional structure wasn't really the great fit for me. So I transitioned slightly before to having my own logo and brand design company and, just based on the community that I was in and the connections that I had, the referrals I was getting is I was working with these other small family-run businesses.
Susan Hazel Rich:They were often product-based businesses and I was helping them not only create their logos and their brands, but I was really interested in the storytelling aspect of crafting their identities, figuring out what was special and unique about their businesses and the products that they were creating, and that really started to inspire me to think about what if I did that myself? A lot of what I was creating at the time were digital components, so brands and logos aren't something that you can necessarily hold in touch, and so I was thinking about what if I made something that you could hold in touch? And also what if I was creating things that were more my own creative direction and less helping other people's visions come to life. So I knew that owning my own business was something that I was excited about, and I started to kind of take cues from these clients that I had and began thinking about what would later become .
Andy Heise:And so it sounds like most artists who have a portfolio of professional activities that they do to make up all of their income. It sounds like that was true for you. You had a full-time job, started doing some freelance on the side and then that sort of morphed into your own sort of branding and design agency that you of yourself, I guess not really an agency, but doing freelance work yourself.
Susan Hazel Rich:Yes, absolutely so. Alongside e in those early days, I did keep those clients that I had and I also added some freelance work, building websites and things like that. One thing that was important to me, and where I was coming from at the time, was that would need to be entirely self-started and self-funded. So I was using these skills that I had. The design work that I was doing was really low overhead. It was just me and my laptop and my ideas, and so I was able to use that to help fund these new products, which had that overhead and, of course, my personal finances as well, needing to make sure that I had that in place.
Susan Hazel Rich:So in 2018, a couple years into I really had an important moment where I had set this goal that I wanted to go all in on and really have kind of removed those distractions and that sort of safety net and say you know, this thing is going to work, I am going to go all in on it, and part of that process was actually having a party.
Susan Hazel Rich:So I got together some friends and family and some you know people that were related to professionally and I had this party where I was celebrating how far I had come in like year four or five of the business, and then announcing very publicly that I was going to go all in on and this was going to be my career. And that idea sort of came from a place of wanting accountability, because when you are an entrepreneur or in you own your own business, you don't have a lot of people looking over your shoulders, so it's easy to maybe second guess or distract, and I really wanted to have this moment where it was like this is what I'm going to do, this is the thing that I'm going to be putting my energy into, and that really helps me sort of switch gears at that point.
Nick Petrella:So in 2018, how much of your income had you replaced? So, from your income doing logo and branding, do they replace a whole thing, or just enough that you knew, hey, I could make this work?
Susan Hazel Rich:Well, I had been saving because I knew that I would need a little bit of money to help make that transition. It's not gonna just flip a switch, but I had seen enough growth and traction and and I had enough savings from just spending late nights building websites for so many years that I knew that I could take that risk.
Andy Heise:Yeah, great. So at that time, what did going all in mean, like, what was the difference between, you know, before the party and after the party?
Susan Hazel Rich:Right, it was just setting aside, kind of cutting the cord on those freelance gigs on. I was doing some adjuncting at the time, I had sort of played my hand at maybe going back to school a little bit and I think there were all of these pieces that I was putting around myself to just say like in the back of my mind if this thing fails, you know, you can kind of sidestep easily to teaching or freelancing and nobody will notice that it failed, and so this sort of public moment was really saying that I believe in myself and if it does fail, like everyone will see and that will be okay.
Andy Heise:Yeah yeah.
Nick Petrella:I think it's great that you use environmentally friendly papers and packaging. How much time do you spend sourcing those materials, and was that time accounted for when you started ?
Susan Hazel Rich:So this is a great question and I think it makes sense to sort of step back a little bit on where it started. So right out of college I realized that I could move anywhere and I was excited to move out of Ohio and never done that before, and I just applied for all kinds of jobs. I didn't really care what they were, as long as they were design adjacent at least. And I got. I landed this job at the Rocky Mountain Institute in Colorado and they are a sustainability sort of think tank nonprofit. I didn't really know what sustainability or any of that stuff was. We weren't really having as many conversations back then about that. So I moved there and it just immediately opened my eyes to this whole other level of problem solving and design. So one thing that I learned there was that environmental aspects or sustainability aren't, they can't be, about compromise, so there are more thoughtful design decisions that positively impact our environment, and that is something that just stuck with me for the rest of my career. Still today it just became part of my design process and something that I just really liked the challenge and the end results of.
Susan Hazel Rich:So your question about if the time is accounted for so it's a lot of time that goes into these details, and one thing that isn't really accounted for is my personal time. So as I built the business, I'm not really keeping track of how much time I personally spend on things. But the details really matter to me, whether it's the environmental component of my work, or just the way a towel feels or absorbs, or the way a pen rolls across a sheet of paper. The packaging, the presentation all of those details they all really matter to me. They're all part of the design process and problem solving for me. So they're things that I really value and I'm excited about, and so I think they just they drive the work that I'm creating in that way.
Andy Heise:Yeah, and as you were talking, I was gonna ask you if you could think of an example of a design decision that you had made based on your desire to be environmentally friendly.
Susan Hazel Rich:So you know it's thinking number one. I think it's thinking about the sheet size of a piece of paper, so stretching something to not just be the size that you think of it initially as a designer. But what size sheets of paper are we gonna print this on when we cut it down? Is there a possibility to stretch edge to edge? So there's not, you know, little bits of paper that are just thrown out. You know it's not always possible, but that's a great place to start, a really easy thing that I learned right off the bat when I first started that job.
Andy Heise:Yeah, so doing some quick math. Looking at your website, I figured you have about 250 products or more. Does that sound about right?
Susan Hazel Rich:Yeah, that sounds about right.
Andy Heise:Okay, so do you stock all that inventory or are products made to order?
Susan Hazel Rich:So, yes, everything is stocked in my studio, and the reason for that is really about the way in which I make the work. So partnerships are really important to me. I don't sew every towel, I don't print every piece, I don't make every sheet of paper, and early on I was ordering really small quantities. You know, hazelmaid was small and I wasn't able to order these larger quantities.
Susan Hazel Rich:So going to you know whatever it might be like tea towelscom or greeting cardscom they just they didn't have the quantities, they weren't the match for me, and so, probably more out of necessity than anything else, I just popped into my local print shop.
Susan Hazel Rich:I found a local person who would sew towels or totes, and those were the people that sat with me to have the conversations, to talk about what I was looking for and what I needed, and then also leading really hard into their expertise. You know they'd been sewing or printing or whatever it might be, for many more years than I had been in business, and so they really knew the ins and outs of how to get that quality that I was looking for. So as I've grown, those partnerships have stayed with me and they're people that are really the core of my business. So you know, when you purchase a piece of you're supporting anywhere from two to five other small family, often women or veteran-owned businesses, and because of these partnerships I've grown really well. But there's also this component of it being small batch, and so they are, these operations that are working in such a way that we need to stock inventory kind of consistently so that I'm able to also provide that quick shipment to my stores and other partners.
Andy Heise:Yeah.
Nick Petrella:Well, that's pretty fascinating and I hadn't thought about that, andy. But at 250 products, I mean, how much do you stock, how big's your warehouse and how many you know? How many turns do you stock?
Susan Hazel Rich:So my warehouse isn't really that big but we use a lot of vertical space. So I have a studio right here in Downpound, kent and A lot of the products are smaller. So greeting cards don't take up that much space. We keep about 100 single cards, maybe about 20 box cards per skew or design, and then about 100 to 200 of each tea towel design. So we just have a lot of bins and shelves and stacking and organization too.
Nick Petrella:Yeah, and then how much as far as turns is that? How many months supply do you normally keep on hand Three, six, nine, 12?
Susan Hazel Rich:I would say we're ordering about products about every two weeks, so that would probably be just so. It is a really short, sort of a constant supply of things coming in but and I've thought about having a warehouse, but right now the studio is pretty new to me, so that feels like the right step to be in. Of course, if I ordered higher quantities I would get better prices, but because of the quality that we're looking for, those small batch just really make a lot more sense for my business.
Nick Petrella:Yeah, and I was just thinking shipping and receiving the number of people touching the products each time and things like that?
Susan Hazel Rich:Yes, it's a lot.
Andy Heise:I just have a quick timeline question. You were at the Rocky Mountain Institute. You took the job there. Was that in person in Colorado? So you moved to Colorado, yes, and now you're back. When did you move back to Kent?
Susan Hazel Rich:I think that was about five or six years ago, so the Rocky Mountain Institute was back in 2005,. Six.
Andy Heise:Okay.
Susan Hazel Rich:There for several years, then a quick minute in Michigan and then back here to Ohio.
Andy Heise:So has been in Kent since you've been back in Ohio. Okay, yeah.
Susan Hazel Rich:It started in the very last few, maybe months or year in Colorado. It really got its start in Michigan and then fully back here.
Andy Heise:Yeah, gotcha Great.
Nick Petrella:In researching for this interview, I found an article where you said in the beginning you didn't think about margins. At what point did you realize it's an important metric and you better stay on top of it?
Susan Hazel Rich:So this has really been an ongoing lesson to learn and development. I'm really glad you're asking this question because it is something that's really important and not something that I thought about in the start. So you know, but one piece of that is that I'm really proud of myself for just diving right in in the beginning and letting the creativity and the creative process drive the business. So everything about my personality and my past work experience is just always about getting that information, figuring out the right steps. I'm a very organized person. For some reason, when I started , I just wasn't worried about that. I wasn't thinking about sales tax and margins and inventory management wholesale terms, any of that. I really didn't let that distract me and I think if I had, I wouldn't have started if I had thought about all of that.
Nick Petrella:You weren't encumbered with those thoughts.
Susan Hazel Rich:Yeah. So it was really that slow growth and that very intentional growth, allowing myself the space to learn bit by bit as I was able to. And so, like I mentioned, I had that freelance safety net in the beginning and that gave me the flexibility to learn about the business while I was building it. And then, in 2018, when I did go all in and make the full time, no other side gigs that was when I really I'd removed those financial backup plans and started to really understand okay, this is what a margin is. This is how I need to be thinking about these products.
Susan Hazel Rich:I've heard the rule of threes. So when you sell a towel, you need enough money to pay for that towel that you purchased, to buy the next one, and then a third of it is to come back to you or put back into the business to build it. So that just kind of rule of third was really where I started. And then, in 2021, when I added the studio space outside of my home, I also added a team and I had all of this new overhead that was creating a different need to make sure that the business was healthy financially so that I could pay these people very fair wages. They were relying on me.
Susan Hazel Rich:That was something that meant a lot to me making sure that I was able to pay my rent, those sorts of things and so started to really stretch into the margins of the products even more. And then this year we're in this recession and I actually sort of, for the first time, understand what that means and that puts some extra pressure on making sure again that the business is healthy financially. So I've been doing some coursework myself and learning about profitability margins, which is a new way of thinking about things as well, to make sure that those hidden costs of the business are being covered, and just really starting to say what we're creating has a lot of time and energy and experience behind it. We should charge what these things are worth, because I want to be able to invest that money back into my team, our space, paying my partners really well the production partners, that is and then, of course, focusing on making sure that I'm paid for my time as well.
Nick Petrella:Yeah.
Andy Heise:I see you offer some small business consulting services as well. What got you started doing that?
Susan Hazel Rich:Okay. So I have to admit that when I saw this on the list of potential questions for today, my initial reaction was just to email you and say let's just skip this one, because I'm actually incredibly uncomfortable with this idea of charging for my time and something that I'm just a little nervous about. But I just decided this is a great platform to talk about that and something that I think a lot of artists could potentially benefit from. So I have such a passion for teaching and educating and then in my early days of , I was teaching at Kent State and I've taught just numerous workshops and given lectures along the way. I really love that component of just sharing and teaching.
Susan Hazel Rich:So when others reach out to me with business questions, often by email, I really want to help them, and I've seen over the years that that quick answer, that quick email exchange, is often met with no reply. So either they aren't getting the information they need and, to be totally honest, I'm sort of left feeling a little shortchanged as well. So I've put a lot of thought into this and I think I'm just telling someone where I get my towels printed or where I order my envelopes from, it just probably doesn't solve their problem because it's not the right question. So my business has unique values and goals and interests and someone else's business is going to have its own version of those. So when I order my towels, that choice is made for my brands. Because I value USA, made those connections that I have small batch and this means my towels are more expensive and, yes, my margins are tighter. But that's something that I just don't really want to compromise on. It's important to who I am and what I'm building. So what someone else might be looking for these same parameters and what's important to them is going to be entirely different.
Susan Hazel Rich:But so I've pulled samples and research printing for over 20 years, so I bet I can make the right recommendation for them. But that's just going to require more of a conversation and it's just not that quick email exchange. So I've never known how to. I guess I felt like I've never known how to make that leap from a quick email to a better conversation.
Susan Hazel Rich:But that's not really entirely true, because my background is in design and brand consulting, so it's just been connecting that sort of past experience to who I am as and with these recent courses that I've been investing in for myself, I've seen the value in spending that money for that quality information. To also really say, okay, I've invested in this. I need to set aside the time to really do the research, have the conversation forcing myself to put that work into that question, that space. So when people first reach out to me, my recommendation is always those leaders in my industry or those courses that I've learned from. Those are people who are very much focused on educating entrepreneurs and product-based business owners. So I've started these services as a way to maybe fill in those smaller gaps and create a space where my time and experience is absolutely valued which is kind of where that uncomfortable component comes from but also where I can offer just better, more tailored help to those who need it and perhaps aren't maybe ready for those bigger courses.
Nick Petrella:Well, and years ago I had studied with a musician and he was going to give me free lessons and decided you know, I'm going to charge a little bit so that I take that more seriously. I think there's a component to that.
Andy Heise:Absolutely yeah, yeah, when I also think about you know that I think there's a graphic that I've seen or whatever you know it's like. It looks like an invoice and it says you know, tightening one screw $1, knowing which screw to tighten $999. And so the total you know. So I think there's absolutely putting a value on your experience, your skills, your knowledge, your time, all of those things I mean you have to do that right.
Susan Hazel Rich:Yeah, I think it's just. It is, you know, it is a little uncomfortable, but I think it's going to just serve everyone better in the end too. I hope so, because I do want to be able to share that information, but I want to do it in a way that I guess also we're creating a connection too and it's more of an ongoing conversation and just stepping outside of that quick email exchange.
Andy Heise:Sure, absolutely.
Nick Petrella:You know I was laughing at it because you had seen that in maybe a newspaper or something actually spoke with someone in the trades who came to my house to fix something. I was like wow, that's pretty expensive. He said, yeah, but I knew what to do.
Nick Petrella:Yes, and another one said I am YouTube certified, so there's that. So, susan, you and I were introduced by a student in one of my classes who works at . So shout out to Jake Can you take a few minutes and describe what you look for when you're hiring employees?
Susan Hazel Rich:So this is still something that I'm definitely learning and trying to figure out. I have only been hiring in that traditional sense for about two years, so before that it was family or friends, things like that, and this is one of the hardest things to figure out for me. I've actually done a few courses to try to figure out how to be better at hiring and asking for what we need for the team. I wouldn't say that I'm someone who was going after the idea of managing a team, but in order to grow and continue to move forward, needed that support. So here I am, someone who does hiring and managing, and that just isn't something I would have ever imagined, so I'm still trying to figure it out.
Susan Hazel Rich:The work that we do in the hours that we're looking for it's more of a part-time thing a lot of the times. My proximity to the university often brings students to the position, so I've learned that they're still building their resumes, so that's not as important of a piece for me and it's also, surprisingly, not a specific area of study or interest. So obviously, design students are a great fit, but I've had nursing, fashion, pharmacy majors, every type of major so it's also not really that either. I think that it's just extremely detail-oriented people who are really excited about creating different systems. So a lot of what we do is very repetitive. I'll say that 100 times in a job interview. This is repetitive. This is repetitive, but some people really thrive in that nature of work and creating different systems. I think I'm also personally really drawn to people who are just hard workers and have that initiative. So we're a small space, we're a small business, we're a small team. There's times where you just need to say, okay, this shelf needs to be reorganized. That's not in my job description or on my to-do list for the day, but I see that this needs to be done, so I'm going to do it, and those are the types of people that I really am looking for, and I think this is just such a good point to say that I am really grateful for my team.
Susan Hazel Rich:So, starting , it was just me for so long and I liked it that way. I like to work alone, I like to be in quiet spaces, I like to have my day sort of organized in a certain way, and so it was a pretty big adjustment for me to stretch outside of that and get a team, and there's a lot of people and things moving around the space these days, but we just get so much done and, probably more importantly, there's just all these different ideas and ways of looking at things that have come into this space, and is, for sure, better because of those different ideas, and that is something that I try to focus on in the studio is I don't really care what you're studying or how old you are, how much experience you have. You have thoughts and ideas that are welcome here. What are you excited about? What can we bring into the space that I wouldn't have thought of? That you are excited about and you wanna do, and I think that's been a really fun part of adding the team.
Nick Petrella:So it sounds more you tend to focus more on soft skills self starters, creative people, problem solvers than technical skills. You can train those, I'm assuming.
Susan Hazel Rich:Yep, yep, we can train anyone how to go into the backend of Shopify and update our website or folds a towel, or whatever it might be. But yeah, those soft skills are really the things that I wanna see you coming into the team with.
Andy Heise:Well, does your studio space include a retail space?
Susan Hazel Rich:No, so we have a traditional retail space. We're a design and production studio. We do welcome, we have a Google listening and so people think we're a shop and so we have a little setup to kind of welcome people in and we do private shopping workshops, things like that. No, it's just the production part of it from the day to day.
Andy Heise:Gotcha yep.
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