of organic looking. Now we have moved over to black (from natural) because we like black. Whatever we do, when you think about marketing, everything has to be cohesive. So we have incorporated his drawings into a lot of the things we do, like the tags. The background is one of his drawings.”
Rich, like Thomas, knows how important attention to detail in every aspect of the business is.
“If you put as much detail into a cane and you don’t put that much detail into a pendant and then you don’t put that much detail into everything else, then it’s going to show,” he said. “So you want to put that much care into every single aspect of your operation and it will bleed through. If you make a pendant and she doesn’t put a good fitting in there, then people aren’t going to talk about the pendant, they are going to talk about the fitting.
We have ordered leather cords before and said we can’t use those because they are not up to our quality and that is what we continue to strive for. We continue to tweak our things so we can be the best.”
But with that attention to detail and cohesiveness, they also have to keep balance in mind.
“We don’t want the design to outshine the product,” Thomas pointed out. “A lot of people have the polka dots and the fru fru and we can’t do that because they will never see the product. It may attract people but that is not who we are. You don’t just go in a direction because everyone else is. You have to be sure to stay true to what your vision is.”
Do the duo worry about hitting a wall? “No,” Rich asserted. “Actually, we put that into our business plan. It looks big on paper but it is small. It is what we think we can handle right now, as far as volume and putting out with both of us working full time. It is sort of at the minimum of what we could possible do right now.
If we actually reach that goal in the business plan we will go in and revise and go even further.”
Another idea they have considered is creating a small craft show that would feature local Kentucky Crafted Artisans. “We really have been kind of throwing the idea around of trying to do something local but we have been so busy we really have not focused on that,” Thomas admitted.
“It would be cool to kind of have a small show that has local Kentucky Crafted people. But we will see. Maybe something that goes in the business plan for next year. You have to think about the venue and whether you can get people in there?
Out of all the places we have been to, you see the positives and the negatives. That’s why when we think of doing a show like that we have to think about the venue and the people we want there with us – they will have to like it too and will it be worth their time?”
And what does further look like? “We don’t have a five year or ten year plan right now,” Rich said. “Five years from now is beaches and sitting on the BSpoken Yacht.”
What could be next in the product line? Baby jewelry or dog accessories? We’ll have to wait and see.
Right now BSpoken Designs LLC is getting ready for the end of their fair season, with some of most in demand art fairs on their circuit.
“We have Woodland Arts Fair (in Lexington, Kentucky) coming up and they sell like crazy there so I am going to have to have the most I have ever had there and bigger pieces,” Thomas said.
Their most recent arts fair was in the artistic Central Kentucky community of Berea, which hosts the Berea Arts and Crafts Fair each summer. “Berea is a great location,”
Thomas said of woodland set up. “Fairs have been going on there for years.
It amazes me that we have done some shows with easy access and easy parking, then we do something like Berea, where it is out in the woods and more difficult to get to and that is where we have more people.”