Hey First name / friend!

 

I'm sure your inbox is packed with people talking about holiday shopping deals this week. So rather than pop into your inbox to sell today, I want to share a business purchase that I seriously regret. 

 

It was a $5,000 mistake I made early on in my business, and  I'm going to share what happened, what I learned from it, and how you can apply it to your own business. 

 

It happened early in my career, back when I was selling my art in person at craft fairs in Kansas City.

 

Like a lot of artists, that’s one of the ways I got my start. And I was hustling hard. I spent my weekends doing craft fairs and selling through local boutiques on consignment.

 

 

I was juggling everything — inventory, booth setup, printing, pricing, sales tax — you name it. It was messy and exhausting, but also so much fun.

 

I loved testing and tweaking my booth setup. Learning what people liked, the best ways to display my art, and figuring out how to maximize my profits.

 

At my craft fairs, I started to notice one print that was selling way more than others. It was a screenprint of the Kansas state motto, “Ad Astra Per Aspera.”

 

Since my brain was in business strategy mode, I keyed in on this product's success and decided to make an accompanying buffalo print (the Kansas state animal). 

 

People love art that pairs well together, and the local focus of this art made these two instant top-sellers. I literally couldn't keep them in stock!

 

And because the two paired perfectly together, customers often bought both. 🤩
 

(Fun side note: this is a strategy I now teach in The Art of Collections — showing related pieces together to boost sales!)

 

After those wins, I started to feel confident. Maybe a little too confident.

 

I thought, If I just follow the same formula (same style, same metallic ink screen-print process) I can make another top-seller.

 

So I came up with my next design: a wolf illustration with a quote by Henry David Thoreau, “All good things are wild and free.”

 

It had the same illustrative, modern vibe as my bestsellers, and I was convinced it would fly off the shelves.

 

But instead of ordering 200 8"x10" prints like I did with the others, I decided to go big.

Really big. 

 

Too big. 😅

 

I spent $5,000 to print 500 full-size wolf posters.

 

 

Here’s what I completely missed:
 

My previous prints weren’t successful just because they were beautiful screen prints.

 

They sold because they were regional art for a regional audience.

 

My Kansas buyers loved seeing their home state reflected in my work.

But the wolf had zero connection to Kansas, and the prints didn’t sell at all.

And to top it off, within a month, I decided to stop doing local art shows and move to Thailand. 

 

So what did I do with those 500 wolf prints?

I boxed them up, put them in my parents’ closet, and didn’t look at them again for ten years. (They've since been donated and so there are 500 signed and numbered CatCoq screen prints out there somewhere in a Kansas City thrift store

😅)

 

 

There were a lot of little lessons tied up in here. And at the end of the day, I don't regret this mistake. Sure, I wish I didn't spend that money at such a crucial time in my young business. 

 

But the optimistic part of me likes to think that the lessons I learned were worth it.

 

And even better, that I'm getting the chance to share this with you so you can learn from my mistakes (and maybe it will save you thousands, who knows!)

 

Here were the top takeaways from this experience:

 

I knew I was about to head out on a 6-week backpacking trip through Southeast Asia, yet I still invested in this big purchase right beforehand. My goal was to travel, and this big purchase wasn't in line with that goal. If I had slowed down to think about it a little longer, I may not have made that decision in the first place.

 

Speaking of slowing down, I wish I had given myself some more time to really weigh if this was the best use of my hard-earned money. There are all kinds of things you can invest in, in business, and if I had thought about what else I could have done with that $5,000, I would have made a different choice. 

 

I also may have thought twice about whether or not this product was really a good fit for my audience if I took some more time to mull it over.

 

When you're just starting out, I always recommend staying lean and scrappy. Figuring out how you can produce more with less money up front is a great use of your time. It may be more of a time investment, but saving your money can provide a great business safety net - especially when you're brand new.

 

✨ Know your audience
This may have been my biggest mistake in this whole situation. I thought I made a decision based on what my audience wanted, but I didn't really put two and two together about why they were buying the Kansas prints until it was too late.

 

One of the first things I teach in The Art of Collections is to define your audience and learn what they want since this will impact all your business decisions moving forward.

 

✨ Test before you invest
Instead of ordering hundreds of prints, I could’ve gauged interest with pre-sales or small-batch runs. That simple step would’ve saved me thousands.

At the end of the day, mistakes happen. It's important to be compassionate and understanding with yourself when these things do pop up. 

 

When it comes down to it, I'm actually glad it happened, because it was a huge wake up call. It gave me some clarity and it showed me that my default in these situations is to beat myself up (sound familiar? 😅). 

 

Overall, I was able to turn it around and be more loving and forgiving of myself. I reframed it into a lesson rather than a mistake, and it shaped the way I approached my business from that point forward. 

 

In fact, it's part of why I chose not to pursue income streams that required me to hold inventory! That, and the fact that I never came back from my backpacking trip. 😏

 

The CatCoq Collective (my private community inside The Art of Collections) has been a great spot for my students to share their own mistakes and to help each other through those real-world lessons – the flops, the wins, and how both can fuel for growth.

 

I hope that this helps, and remember, every “mistake” can be a stepping stone when you choose to learn from it!

 

xo,

 

Cat

I know inboxes can get busy around this time of year. If you ever want to unsubscribe from these extra Art Licensing Insiders emails while still staying on the waitlist, just click here to stop getting these emails!