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Courtney Brewer & Scott Pierce | Episode 997

The Clay Warehouse was founded in 2021 by Courtney Brewer and Scott Pierce, two strangers who shared a passion for pottery. We offer a safe and inclusive environment for aspiring artists and those interested in the craft of ceramics and pottery, from supporting those already working in the field by offering supplies, advice, and services such as kiln rentals to those who have never worked with clay by offering instructed workshops, open studio time and memberships.

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When you guys were first starting out did you put together contracts that had to be signed?

Courtney: No. We shook hands and we trusted each other and , I mean there was a contract signed when we made it a general partnership but no, we just trusted each other.

Do you have  a planning calendar that you guys go to organize six months out for things for your customers?

Scott: Oh man, you give us too much credit. It’s a little less than six months, I would say about four or five days. It’s pretty much on the go, whether it’s a sale or classes. I guess the classes are a little bit more planned out.

How do you get the word out about classes? What is your marketing approach?

Courtney: Social media is huge. Instagram is our main source to get the information out there on top of email notifications. So subscribing to our email especially for classes is really the only way that you are going to get notified. But Instagram and using our website as well.

What are the main tools you use to keep the Clay Warehouse up and running?

Yeah, I would say going into it with a strong ecommerce platform obviously we have workshops and open studio so having a booking platform to be able to do that. And honestly a lot of the other businesses that do this don’t have that strong ecommerce presence that doesn’t let them push past the borders.

How did you guys fund the business both as a start up and now for growth? 

Courtney: We started with hopes and dreams and then we went into our bank account, so we both kind of put in some money. I was lucky enough to have some family help us out. The banks did not help us out at all. So we had to look at were we could grab some money personally on top of a small little funding from some family.

Scott: It was difficult. I would say that having a successful career and making a decent amount of money before this helped with certain things like the banks want to see numbers and all this kind of stuff. It definitely helped. I think with growing just really understanding what out capacity is, where our money goes, whether it’s inventory or into development of the studio, those kinds of things. I think finding that balance there and finding the right balance between selling a bunch of supplies and materials and also maintaining the studio. I think it does become difficult to grow but you know, it’s a lot of lost sleep but we are making it happen.

Book

The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer 

Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon

Contact

theclaywarehouse.ca

Instagram: @theclaywarehousebc