Hello Girl Gang Craft family,
I have some news. Girl Gang Craft is taking a pause on events for 2025. I know this may come as a shock to some of you and a bummer to not have our events on your cal for this year. Please know that it was not an easy decision.
Event numbers were not adding up last year. Some of our events were not profitable and we lost money. Our Sacramento event, for example, seemed like a success from so many angles– the vendors were happy, the attendee line was around the block. It was something to be celebrated as it was our first holiday event in Sacramento. However, when we looked at all of our expenses, our profit was just $132. And that was before I paid my team.
I can’t have a business that does not have a good profit margin. Running this business was EXPENSIVE. Paying my team was expensive. My venue fees and permits were expensive, and they kept on adding new permits and new costs (these cities that claim they care about small businesses, do NOT, my friends!).
In addition to the general lack of profit last year we had a whole bunch of venue issues.
As you know, we had two venues doublebook us last holiday season. Farm Fresh RI forgot they had a day time farmer’s market the same day as us, and told us about 2 months before the event. We were able to pivot and have an evening event.
Salem Old Town Hall (run by the city) told us a MONTH before our event that they had double booked us, even though we had requested the date first in 2024! They didn’t care, claimed our paperwork was not binding, and moved forward with the other entity. We were able to find a new venue, but the event was extremely stressful with the turnaround and trying to get the community to try out a new venue that is not typically a venue. We also lost vendors for both events because of the changes and lost those vendor fees.
Before we had changed our RI venue to the Farm Fresh location we were booked for 2 dates at WaterFire Arts Center. We had our spring/summer show there, but it was a challenging venue for us. It is not located near anything else that would bring in foot traffic and we were still new to the RI community. We also had a challenging time filling up the space and covering our venue costs. So we decided to try a new venue - Farm Fresh which cost a 3rd of the WaterFire rental fee and is a well-known space that the community comes out to regardless of knowing if a GGC event is taking place. We had put down a $3000 deposit for our December event at WaterFire as early as March and we were told we would get the money back if they rebooked the space for our date. They did not book that date, and we did not get our $3000 back.
Additionally, my team, which made these events and other GGC programming happen, was a huge expense. I had a team of 4 part-time contractors. Hannah was my vendor coordinator, and most of you had direct access to her. She’s my best friend and has worked for GGC in some capacity since the beginning, and we’ve also known each other since elementary school and our dancing days. Alyssa was our event coordinator. She navigated all those messy permits, communicated with the cities and the venues, and made sure the event was well curated and interactive for the attendees. Julianna was my podcast manager. She made sure the podcast went live on the internet, documented it on our site, and made us quippy videos for our socials. Frankie was our UK social media girlie, and she was a pro at understanding the GGC voice and making content that sold our products, promoted our events, and continued our feminist mission. These girls are incredible humans and made my job so fulfilling and full of joy. But my team payroll cost anywhere from $6000-$9000 a month, and it was no longer working for me.
So as of this year, I have also let go of my team, and GGC is just me again.
As always, the above info is my attempt at transparency. Since I am someone who teaches small business owners, I believe it is my job to peel back the curtain and tell you why I make these decisions, to show you what’s going on in my business, and to not just focus on fluff, but to also talk about money, numbers, and the reality/hardships of running a real business.
I have also planned on pausing the podcast for now. But I envision picking that back up at some point.
You might wonder why I wouldn't just scale back and throw the events that are working. Because I need a break from event planning, and also I don't think I could go back to throwing events alone. I need some time to figure out other forms of intentional revenue that I can bring in on my own.
Currently I am planning on focusing on the following for 2025:
E-commerce sales of our innovative physical products
Wholesale + Licensing for my collection + art
Teaching (My Brand Partnerships Course is being revamped and released in the next few months, and I will continue to teach here on the newsletter, on social media, and in future workshops)
Speaking (like at upcoming Alt Summit in Palm Springs in March)
Brand Deals (continuing brand deals with Adobe, Printify and new partners)
Plus, I quietly opened up a creative agency late last year where I represent creatives + talent in securing brand deals. This is in a beta phase and we shall see where it goes.
What you can expect from me, for forever, is transparency and teaching. I want to continue to be a leader in the small business space and I hope to offer support + guidance as I navigate my own business changes and help you navigate yours. I hope that perhaps this note (ok novel!) inspires you to audit your own business and make informed critical decisions about how to move forward.
Thanks for being here. I appreciate you being a part of this community and being patient and open to the changes we make here. I hope you stick around as we navigate this new economy together.
If you have any questions please feel free to reply to this email.
Love,
Phoebe
PS. This is why it is so important to actually stay up to date with your accounting. If you do your numbers monthly or quarterly you get lots of information about what revenue streams are working and what are not. This allows you to make decisions on how to move forward with certain programming and what to get rid of. I use Quickbooks, you can try it here and save 30% on Quickbooks for 6 months.
PPS I’m offering 5 spots for coaching at half price at $150 for an hour session. Let’s tackle your own decision making and how to maximize profits and expand revenue streams this year.
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