Growing Your Business in 2025

My business has been growing steadily since I bought the shop in 2020. But the pace was difficult for me and I was struggling with understanding how to speed it up. Well it finally happened for me in 2025. Its been an absolutely amazing year, despite the financial struggles of so many of us. My shops output has tripled this year, and its mostly thanks to one tool. 

Well just to start it off very directly, it was Instagram. Instagram is something that I’ve used for years as a photographer. I have a love/hate relationship with it. I do not at all support what the company that owns Instagram stands for, but I’m in a position where I have to use the tools I have available to me. With over 2 billion users, its a pretty massive platform. It used to be a portfolio site, but it is no longer. Its a portal to allow your supporters to get to know you. To connect with you. I enjoy sharing knowledge and teaching. So I make videos about that.

About a year ago I had a bit of an epiphany. The key to a successful business is standing apart from your competition. So I looked at the place I spent most of my time online, the one where I showcase my shop, and thought very hard about what I do different than the competition. What people are paying for when they come to my shop? Well aside from the obvious, prints, they are paying for me. I offer a very personalized service. I very much enjoy helping my customers navigate the very complicated path that can be coming into the world of print and using it to represent your work. A lot of artists know nothing about this complex world, and many don’t want to. Some want to learn from me and talk about how to best represent their work, and some want to focus on their creating and ignore all the other stuff. Thats where I come in.

So I made an ad. I noticed that none of the print shop competitors that come up in my feed, especially my local competitors, talk at all about his. They just show pictures of prints. But, well, most prints look pretty similar so that isnt really an effective form of advertising if you want to stand out. So my ad consists of me sitting talking about my shop and why you should support me. And it took off.

Instagram can be very frustrating. Difficult to understand. A lot of people are very against paying for promoting themselves. But I’m running a business and I need to treat it as such. So I push my ad out there, spend some money, and the return on my investment is incredible. It has grown my profile and my business dramatically. If I stop my promotion, my online growth slows way down. But my in person grown continues as at this point people in all parts of the city know me and refer me to their friends and colleagues. The people that follow me because of my ad want to connect with me. They often message me. They regularly come into my shop and mention my Instagram profile. At this point its where 75% of my business comes from. Its working, and I enjoy making the content. Win win.

I read every day how many people hate Instagram and how frustrated they are with trying to grow. So if you are one of these people I urge you to really think about how you approach your profile. How much work you put into it and the message you are trying to send. If you ever want to talk about my experience you know where to find me!