Meet Brittany Naylor | Artist & Small Business Owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Brittany Naylor and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Brittany, how has your perspective on work-life balance evolved over time?
I spent the last 12 years of my career in tech, working as hard as I could to grow as fast as I could. I don’t feel like I had a good sense of work life balance until the pandemic. Turning my life space into my work space made me really realize the importance of boundaries because my work was so accessible to me now. I used to think about boundaries as something I set between other people, but I learned very quickly I needed to set boundaries with myself too! My philosophy on this balance and boundary setting is rooted in the belief that we have a limited budget of energy to spend in a day. There isn’t a separate “work budget” and “life budget”. So these two need to be in a balance that makes sense for you personally. The biggest change in this balance structure for me was learning exactly what I needed to maintain a healthy baseline, and how to prevent my “budget” from going negative. My approach is to anticipate and plan a budget for what will be needed of me. As a small business owner now, I am doing markets every weekend, selling on line all week. I know what is coming before it hits me. I started taking a week day off on weeks that I have a 2 day market to make sure I am still taking care of myself. I also invested in a second computer so I could keep my work and life digitally separate as well. This really helps me stay on track and not get accidentally distracted by work or personal life even.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
The Makeshift Crafts origin story is something I am most proud of! It all started when I got into beaded bracelets in anticipation of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. I bought a bunch of beads to make bracelets with, and ended up being left with a bunch I didn’t need, and not enough of what I did need. I’d spend hundreds of dollars at craft stores buying boxes of beads only because I needed a few colors. I didn’t know what to do with the left overs. So they just ended up as a permanent fixture in my craft closet, and eventually got thrown away. I felt like beading should be better than that. I wanted it to be less wasteful, less careless, and higher quality. So I set out to solve the problem with my bead kits! I started with a few curated bead boxes that had everything you needed to make ~12 bracelets for a specific theme – like 4th of July or just summer time! I expanded into earthy tones because all of the bead boxes I found at craft stores were raging rainbow colors. I sourced focal and accent beads from all over the US and even other parts of world where I could buy fair trade materials. The concept was wildly popular, but one of the biggest struggles I have encountered is with pricing. It was not easy, and still isn’t to be perfectly honest! One of the biggest challenges has been trying to narrow down my target audience and find my place in a special niche. Selling at makers markets has been really helpful to see what type of people are buying which product and for what. This has helped me adapt my product, help me price my product, and ultimate make something that my customers are excited to buy! I feel like this is a really unique issue to anyone trying to solve a new problem. Breaking into the crafting market that has been this way for decades and trying to change it up has been really difficult, but rewarding when it just clicks! The biggest lessons I have learned so far are to start small, get a coach, and invest in anything you aren’t skilled at such as product photography, bookkeeping, or marketing.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Denver is SUCH a fun town to explore! There are so many great spots, but my favorite is Olde Town Arvada! I’d grab dinner and a beer at New Image Brewing, pop into all the cute, local shops, then sit under the stars and listen to the live music that’s always happening. Next I’d grab a coffee and pastry at Otis Craft Collective on the way to Boulder for a really scenic and not too difficult hike on Flagstaff Mountain. One of my favorite activities to do with people from out of town is take them on the train to downtown and eat and drink around the Union Station area! A few top spots for me are Pony Up for delicious cocktails and sandwiches, or Jovanina’s Broken Italian for a fancier dinner with a massive wine list. If there’s a big group with lots of different ideas for food, The Golden Mill in Golden is a go-to spot with a large tap wall of beers, wines, and cocktails, as well as many different restaurants all under one roof. There’s something for everyone there! As for activities, I love recommending Meow Wolf, Putshack, or a Rockies game! To give my guests a more local experience, I love doing brunch at The Delectable Egg or Doug’s Diner, and hiking around Nederland (Rainbow Lakes is my favorite!) For my more adventurous guests, hiking St. Mary’s Glacier followed by food and drinks at Westbound and Down Brewing is a recipe for a perfect day!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Jumping from a tech marketing job to running a full-time creative small business was very different and much harder than I thought it would be. I also had no friends that were entrepreneurs so trying to talk out ideas, questions, concerns, or decisions was difficult because they couldn’t relate. The best decision I made was to start working with a business coach – especially someone who worked with Etsy shop sellers since that was where I was really confused at how to optimize. Monica Little has been such an incredible mentor to me, helping me not only with the technical questions of running a small business, but also helping me overcome a lot of mindset issues I was having. It’s so easy to get lost in a spin out of ideas worries, then make reactive or irrational decisions you later look back on regret. I have been slowly untangling my business from my anxieties and becoming more and more confident in what I am doing and how much success I have coming to me. Mindset is most of the small business owner battle, so having someone I can lean on, and know she will keep me accountable and challenge my negativity is invaluable!

Website: makeshiftcrafts.co

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/makeshiftcraftsco/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittany-naylor/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/makeshiftcraftsco/

Other: Etsy: https://makeshiftcraftsco.etsy.com