Pinz Reflection

This past winter I decided to start my own business combining digital art and marketing. I had a pinback button machine from American Button Machines at my house so I invested in the pieces needed to make buttons. Rather than starting with the software from American Button Machines, I used PhotoShop. I made a grid to the size of the 2.25” button and inserted my edited photos. However, I found that PhotoShop took too long for me to learn the program, edit the photos, and make all the pins in a timely manner. I purchased a one-month subscription for the American Button Machine Software and I couldn’t be happier with the results.

The American Button software is user-friendly, simple, and customizable. I researched some marketing strategies and found that people like anything that is cheap and custom. So, I used this in a Facebook advertisement “Jenny Penny Pinz, one for $3 or two for $5.” I posted the advertisement with my photography from a boys varsity basketball game to show I could use sports action shots for custom pins. That night I got an order for a basketball pin, and it just kept rolling from there. I had orders from the cheerleading squad, basketball players, and fans. I also designed pins for bands, memes, movies, shows, and quotes. One of my most popular designs was “It’s not Cool to Juul in School”. I marketed this design so all you can see from a distance is “Juul”, and “It’s not cool in school” was written in tiny letters. The design demotes juuling but students still like to wear it because they think it looks cool.

I went to various sporting events taking photos of basketball and cheerleading. I learned that I could promote my product by wearing it, so I would wear my buttons to photography events. I expanded upon myself as a photographer because I was taking photos all the time at and posting them to Bulldog Pride. I even got a pickup gig taking senior night photos for the cheerleading and basketball teams. Something I plan on changing is the way I collect money for pins. People tend to forget their money or not pay at all, which leaves me with pins I spent money on but didn’t get any return for. My new approach for the spring sports season is to take the money with the order, then hand out pins after. This way I’ll have the money in my hand before wasting money and time on pins people won’t pay for.

I am very happy I started my pin business and I know it’s worth it. One of the coolest things about my pins is seeing people wear my artwork when I walk down the halls. My next step for my pin business is selling magnets, along with pins. After getting some customer feedback, I found that people also want magnets so they can put them on their lockers etc. I still have a lot to learn about my market I’m selling to, but I plan to continue my pin business well into the future.