BTW: Pricing & Purpose

Learn more about our priorities when it comes to setting our prices and how we pay our staff.

It’s not glamorous but we wanted to share a little bit of the how we asses pricing our offerings and the method behind our business structure to give some insight on how it aligns with our total mission and vision - creating a safe, supportive space for all creatives (staff and students).

By now, you probably already know Leighton and I began as art teachers in the public school system with full intention of that being our forever-career (when a life-long career was a thing).  While the majority of our experiences teaching were so worth it and invaluable, there were areas that we felt were lacking and unfortunately seemed unlikely to change anytime soon.

The biggest aspect being reliable financial support as art teachers in the classroom.  While some public schools benefit from strong PTO support and volunteer involvement, access to resources can vary widely. In many cases, art programs operate within the standard annual materials budget all teachers get (historically around $250 per teacher through BEP, now approximately $200 under TISA) while serving large numbers of students—sometimes hundreds to over a thousand each year. 

As many other teachers do, we supplemented these resources through creative fundraising and careful planning but offering more complex mediums like printmaking or sculpture would depend on the availability of specialized tools and materials built up over time.

Part of what we wanted to explore and are constantly reviewing is how do we price our camps, classes and events so that our services can be reasonably attainable but also allow flexibility for us to pay our teachers/assistants well and give us the ability to utilize materials or processes that were out of reach when we taught in the school system. In general, we also need to be able to cover overhead costs that are unavoidable as a small business.

We started super simple. Money in = money out was how we’d figure out pricing in the early days.  This was possible mostly because it was one room and three teachers majority of the year 😅.  That has become increasingly more challenging as we’ve grown to now be two brick and mortars, multiple third party locations and around 40-50 teachers/assistants throughout the year.  We also are still set up to franchise although that has also taken a back seat until we can figure out how to align our mission with what franchising requires.

With that, we continue to be fully committed to making these things work simultaneously.

• Pricing as affordable as possible with zero hidden fees

  This means no registration fee, no sibling discounts, rarely a sale.  We choose not to engage in the marketing strategies many use to make you feel like you're spending less. Although we get asked about discounts a lot, it still stands. We simply price everything as low as we can while still being able to run the business. This is coming from someone who LOVES a good deal or sale.  Ultimately though, it’s our clients who lose out if we increase prices just to be able to provide the feeling of savings.

• Pay as high as possible for all staff, teachers and assistants. 

  It takes a village to make all our classes, camps & events possible and we want the value to be reflected in not only the culture but pay for our teachers.  While it still may not seem comparable to some career paths, we still try our best to make sure staff pay is as much as we can do with our intentionally small classes/camps/events.  As owners, we get paid the same rate per service as our teachers - a tip we got from our grandfather who always said he’d only get paid as much as the highest paid agent in Farm Bureau when he was CEO of Farm Bureau TN for 20 years. 

• Balancing high quality materials and processes with recycled or low-cost processes as well as taking care of tools. 

  While teaching in the school system, we learned so many ways to do things on the cheap and while the student’s experience and needs are above anything else, we also still use some of these tips and tricks to save on materials when appropriate.  In our camps, you’ll see cardboard used in a variety of ways, oil pastels we work down to the nubs and little paint on palettes because you can always go back for more.  This is also a form of teaching responsibility as artists and attempting to be eco-friendly in a field that inherently creates a lot of waste. That being said, we do invest in many materials that kids may not get to use in a school setting because they are a higher cost (like foam clay, printing inks, etc.) so it’s a balance.

• Covering overhead costs. 

  Ultimately, we are a business and have overhead costs including rent, utilities and administrative work.  We can’t do the fun stuff without covering these necessities too.

We are consistently reviewing how things are going and assessing external factors (economy, community needs, etc.) to make sure our calculations are the best options possible.  This isn’t a perfect system but it does support our ultimate goal of offering artmaking to as many folks as possible, showing our teachers/staff they are valued through acceptable pay, and providing access to processes and mediums that may not otherwise be available or feel approachable!