Tag Archives: baseball gift

The difficult thing about custom work

I started in the last few months taking on custom orders for baseballs- it’s fun and it keeps me painting which is the part of my business I enjoy the most. But here’s the problem- I’m a slow painter. Always have been, it seems the slower I am, the better the result is. Probably b/c my work is meticulous, it needs a lot of careful attention.

But whatever the reason, people who are looking for a baseball gift, for a baseball fan, love the idea of creating a personal baseball design. Which is wonderful, except that to create designs as detailed as what I sell on my site takes about 20 hours. The balls on my site are prints of that original painting, so I can sell them for $25, but the original would cost about $1100. Maybe I will put up a custom orders section where I can explain this on my site!

How to expand your business to something larger

So I am one of those people who is endlessly reading branding books b/c i am always eager to learn the latest thinking on how to best brand your business. The latest one I am reading is by Daymond John, from Shark Tank. He talks about going from a brand to a lifestyle. So I have been doing a lot of thinking lately about what my brand is and who it speaks to best. What makes my product unique is that it appeals to both men shopping for themselves, and women shopping for men. This makes it tricky to figure out who I am speaking to specifically- I guess maybe what unites them is just being a baseball fan!

How many times I can call FedEx

So I am waiting on all my preorder baseballs- and calling Fedex about 4 times a day.  My baseballs have been ready to ship for the last week, but I have had such a hard time getting info on where the shipment is, why it is taking so long to get picked up and brought to my ship warehouse- etc.  Why is it that you can’t speak to the same Fedex person twice?  Each time you start from scratch with a new person! Next year maybe we have preorders not coming in quite so close to holiday time…

Throwback to 1995

So here was my first big break- Hammacher Schlemmer put my baseballs on the cover of their catalog in 1995.  I think my mom ordered like 10 catalogs!  It was my first real lesson in the ways of the world- not 3 months before this happened I had contacted HS myself to see if they were interested in my baseballs… Read More

Pinterest Anyone?

Love how I jump on the bandwagon for the latest social media campaign only when I’m like 4 yrs late to the party.  But here is what I figure- Pinterest is a really good platform for my business because it is such a visually driven medium and my products can take great pictures (especially when I’m not the one taking them!) So here goes- I’m diving in- could be a great Read More

Painting the KC Royals Stadium Ball

 

IMG_2426

Kauffman Stadium

I was in a mad rush to paint the Royals stadium baseball knowing that they are in the World series- and all the fans would be so excited since the last WS win was 1985.  Funny how some stadiums are just a breeze to paint, while others get tricky.  The tricky part of this stadium was that I want to paint the name as it appears on the building, as the ‘outer panel’ on the ball.  But for Read More