Today we’d like to introduce you to Maya Kern
Hi Maya, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I originally worked as a freelance comic artist and illustrator, and I sold some small products (prints, buttons, bookmarks, etc.) at conventions to supplement that income. I tried skirts first on a whim—in I think early to mid 2015 I had a friend who’d found a print on demand site for them so I made some patterns and ordered a few and they sold pretty well. I already had a little experience in this area—I’d taken a product design class and interned with my favorite illustration teacher, who had a small product design business—so I knew just enough to stumble my way through this. Then towards the end of 2015, my arm gave out and I wasn’t able to draw for about two months. I was living paycheck to paycheck, so not being able to do client work was super scary. Devin, my now wife, had moved in with me a few months earlier and they suggested taking the various products we already had laying around (some skirts, pins, prints, buttons, etc.) and creating themed bundles at a small holiday discount. I wasn’t super optimistic, but I gave it a shot and was utterly blown away when people showed up. That was the first moment when doing my own thing, not working for other people, first seemed viable. After that, I just kept following what seemed to work. I found ways to improve the product (moving from a print on demand site to a proper manufacturer and later adding pockets), to improve my craft (getting better at designing for skirts) and at presenting my products (better photography). In 2017, Devin and I got married and Devin joined me full time and became the co-owner of the business. I think it’s important to say that without them there, this business would never have succeeded. Even before Devin joined me full time, they were working with me part time just to fulfill the orders people would place. We kept all our inventory in our apartment (it was very crowded) and while I drew or advertised on social media, Devin was packing orders and taking them to the post office. It doesn’t sound like that big of a deal, but it is a huge amount of work and the more successful you are, the more work it becomes. I was only able to succeed with online sales at all because Devin was there to make sure orders got packaged accurately and within a reasonable amount of time.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
There’s always so much more paperwork to do than you think. And also random fees you never think about, including more types of taxes than I previously knew existed. I largely stumbled into all of that blind and it was a very harsh learning curve. ALSO when you sell online, every US state has a different threshold for when you need to start paying individual sales tax to that state. Some go by over all gross sales to that state, some go by volume of orders, and every state’s filing system is different and stupid. Some of them make you file by county which is just insane. Basically, finding a good licensed CPA is really important. Also, as it concerns my business specifically, a big challenge for me is finding a balance between my personal identity and my identity as it pertains to the business. Because I never planned or expected this to take off, I just used my real name for all my business things and this whole business became very tied up in my identity and how people perceive me. This makes handing off certain jobs (mostly social media) really difficult, which means I either have to work three jobs (advertising/social media manager, artist/art director, business owner) and try to find a balance there or I have to risk handing some of that work to other people and hope that customers won’t be put off if I’m doing less art or if they have less direct contact with me on socials.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m best known for my size inclusive illustrated skirts and their huge pockets, as well as my other clothing. I started out creating fat and body positive art over a decade ago and that gradually grew into the apparel business I now co-own with my wife. Some people may also know me as the author of Spitfire, a queer and polyamorous romance fantasy series or from my webcomic Monster Pop! or my song Haunted, which was featured on Welcome to Nightvale.
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
Luck has played a huge role for us. First off, if I hadn’t met my wife when I did, I don’t think I would have made clothing for very long and I may have even had to quit art all together. At the end of 2015, my arm gave up and it was Devin, through their support and guidance, who helped me get through that time and who showed me that any of this was at all viable.
Additionally, in 2020, when everything shut down, we thought we were done for. We had just signed our first commercial lease just two weeks prior and then we got word from our factory, which at the time was in China, that they were shutting down. Suddenly we had this new huge expense and no inventory to show for it. We somehow eked out a living those first couple months and then, thanks to everyone else also being stuck inside, suddenly everyone was online shopping and we were able to run an incredibly successful round of preorders. In the span of two weeks, we made more sales and more gross profit than we had in the entire previous calendar year. It was insane.
Then, a couple years later, when the quality from our previous factory had deteriorated, we lucked out and found our now COO. I had posted on social media complaining about the issue and about being on the hunt for a new primary factory, though I did not actively ask people for a solution, and Ash’s sister saw the post and she reached out to us. At the time it didn’t seem likely to be fruitful, but after talking to her and then taking a chance and contracting her, it quickly became apparent that more than just being a great supply chain manager, Ash had pretty much all the skills that my wife and I lacked. Finding her and working together has had a huge impact on the business as a whole and what we’ve been able to do and I cannot believe the absolute serendipity it took to facilitate.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://store.mayakern.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mayakern/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MayaKernArt
- Other: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/mayakern
