What makes a home? For many Americans, it’s all about the art. A painting can pull any room together; a well-placed photograph can create...
What makes a home? For many Americans, it’s all about the art. A painting can pull any room together; a well-placed photograph can create a sense of calm; a framed print can manifest personality using color, texture, shape and more.
For others, home is not just a decorated haven, but a workplace. In fact, 69% of entrepreneurs start their businesses at home, and about half of small businesses are home-based firms.
For Colleen Williamson, home is all three things: a place for living, a place for art, and a place for work.
“I’ve always been a creative person,” Williamson said. “Whenever I have downtime, I’m typically creating art.”
Williamson’s split-level home in Denver, where she lives with her husband and her daughter, is full of vibrant wall hangings and decor, much of it created by Williamson herself. It’s also home base for her two businesses, Kisco Print Shop and The Union, which she runs from a charming office and studio on the ground floor.
As an entrepreneur, Williamson is an advocate for pursuing meaningful work. As an artist, she believes everyone should be able to purchase and display art that they love. The key to both is accessibility: of affordable art, naturally, and also of resources that allow small-business owners to grow and thrive.
Williamson decided to start her first business, Kisco Print Shop, in 2014, after the birth of her daughter. It hasn’t always been easy, but her motivation made it more than worthwhile.
“I wanted to continue with my creative work but also be able to spend time with my family,” she said. “I was able to control my schedule and hours, but still be able to delve into my creative passions.”
Kisco Print Shop specializes in vibrant, modern prints, which Williamson creates digitally. Last September, Williamson launched The Union not only to add new artistic mediums — including painting and photography — into her repertoire, but also to address issues she saw in the art world by offering digital downloads for just $12.
“I wanted to make art more affordable and accessible to everybody,” she said. “Sometimes people don’t have that budget to have art in their homes or even have it framed.”
One wall in Williamson’s workspace has been transformed into one long, spacious desk, light pouring in from a window on the left. This is where the magic happens. But for business owners like Williamson, the magic is more than the art itself.
That’s because life as a working artist isn’t painting all day. Far from it. In fact, Williamson spends most days working on her businesses and reserves art-making for nighttime hours, when inspiration is likely to strike.
“It’s more of the business side of art during the day,” she said. “I’m more creative at night, so that’s when I will usually develop most of my artwork.”
This means networking, marketing and finances are liable to take up huge chunks of her time. Not all artists are business-minded, but, unlike some creatives, Williamson has a knack for finance. She said it helps tremendously that she uses tools like Intuit QuickBooks Online to manage invoices, track income and expenses, and get ready for tax time. That way, she doesn’t have to spend more time than she needs to on repetitive financial tasks and can feel confident that nothing is slipping through the cracks and that she has a single source of truth for her business.
“Before QuickBooks, I was spending a lot of time managing my finances,” Williamson said, “and while that’s the number one important thing for my business, it wasn’t necessarily the number one thing I enjoyed.”
Much like Williamson’s art, QuickBooks is accessible. Its user-friendly interface lets Williamson view big-picture finances and set up automation for recurring expenses, freeing up time for her to create and network.
“With the automations that QuickBooks has, it gives me the ability to set up expenses that occur every month,” she said. “It allows me to be proactive about my finances and be more confident when it comes to tax time that I’m in a good place.”
After all, the most fulfilling part of being an entrepreneur is getting the opportunity to do what you love — not getting caught up in the monotony of financial tasks.
For Williamson, entrepreneurship is even more than that. Yes, it’s allowed her to work from home so she can spend time with her family. It’s allowed her to do what she loves: creating art. But it’s also allowed her to give back, not just through The Union’s people-oriented mission but with her decision to bake in a meaningful charitable component. From every print sold from The Union’s artist-curated collections for charity, $2 is donated to a cause of that curator’s choice. As for those prints not in a collection, a portion of the proceeds are donated to the ALS Therapy Development Institute in honor of Williamson’s father, who was recently diagnosed with the disease.
Of course, owning a small business brings new challenges every day. For those interested in turning their creative passions into one or more businesses, like she has, Williamson has a few words of wisdom. The first? Don’t quit your day job.
“It’s just easier to be passionate and motivated when you have a cash source coming in at the beginning than it is to quit cold turkey and go out on your own,” she said. “It’s a lot less stress that way.”
Second, once you’ve reached the status of small business owner, quality financial tools for your business are a must-have.
“When you’re starting, you want to focus on what your talent is; you don’t want to be bothered with the details of the finances, which are really important,” Williamson said. “QuickBooks will take that one thing off your plate and do it really well.”
“I should have started using it years ago,” she added. “As soon as you start your business, start using QuickBooks.”
Last but not least, don’t forget to network.
Williamson said one critically important thing that has helped her get to where she is today is “networking: meeting the right people and helping each other.”
“Running a small business in the digital age makes it a little more convenient,” Williamson said. “It does take time, but you are able to do it.”
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