My Business Story
Hello & welcome to my blog !
Here at LuLu’s Leather Boutique the goal is to constantly provide an encouraging, engaging, and totally fun group of earring lovers. Who wouldn’t want that?! Well, to make that happen we always need YOU. So, thank you for visiting my page & reading this. It means the world.
I started this business under the name “LuLu’s Leather” in September 2017 as a 13 year old. I had been struggling the past years to make friends, as my dad was in the military so I was constantly moving, and the recent move was hard. I was battling depression with no friends when my mom not-so-subtly encouraged me to use my self-taught jewelry making skills to create some leather pieces. When telling my story, I say that & then follow it up with “& now here we are,” but in reality it took a lot more than that!
I started with a craft show that was not cheap for me, but was able to get by with a strangers donation of 3 FULL bags of leather. That itself was a total miracle. I didn’t make much $$ but didn’t get too discouraged. I kept on going and started selling via a FB Page. It worked well for a while, but eventually the Page was hard to manage & I moved to selling on a FB Group (which I also still have today!). created the group mid-2018, and it stayed steady for a while. However, in October 2018 my business started to grow pretty fast. I was continually making more & more until I couldn’t keep up with the “comment to purchase” I had in place. In the midst of all that I had tried my hand at Etsy, and well, majorly failed. I’m not a fan of selling on Etsy, and it’s gotten so big I don’t encourage new businesses to try it! So, late 2018/early 2019 I researched for long periods of time to try and build a website. I messed around with programs & googled until my eyeballs watered when I stumbled upon Shopify. It was so easy to use and seemed to mesh perfectly with what I was looking for! I pretty much immediately purchased the plan I wanted & launched my very first version of my website February 2019.
February 2020, as my 1-year website anniversary, I updated my logo and launched my first clay line, which y'all love/loved. I also had my website updated & had new photos taken. However, I just didn't feel "right" about how I was running my business.
Now, in May 2020, the changes I've been wanting to make for a while have been installed. "LuLu's Leather Boutique" became "Petals & Pieces co." Petals is derived from my love of flowers & my middle name (Rose). Pieces, obviously, is from all the jewelry pieces I make. The change was made because of "Leather" just not fitting anymore. I also changed my business model from mass production of one-of-a-kind pieces to making more detailed, artistic pieces that have a quantity upwards of 1. With my previous model I was too focused on mass production and pleasing everyone that I lost sight of the creativity. I had also lost sight of what I truly loved to make and sell, and with the business model switch I found that. However, all of this would be impossible without each and every one of YOU. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!
Other changes made from 2017-2020 (in somewhat chronological order)...
... I made the BEST switch to all genuine leather (I was previously using a lot of low-quality faux leather).
...I did pretty darn well the 2nd time around at that big craft show! Craftsmanship improved a LOT (in my opinion, hehe).
...I found quality suppliers & found my working/creating style
....I branched out into tassel, metal, and acrylic earrings. Then made some wood earrings.
...Made an Instagram account (@lulusleatherboutique).
...I started doing some pretty cool mystery bag sales regularly, which I will continue to do.
...I worked on my photography skills, and also hired some photographers to take model pictures (I’ve now done that multiple times!).
...I did some fun giveaways
& now, with YOU'RE help, I hope to continue to grow & change just as much as I have since 2017.