Pinot's Palette West Chester - Meet the Owner
As the owner of a paint studio you might be surprised to learn that I’m not a profound artist. I love what creating art does for my outlook and my mood – it’s like magic. I can be having the worst day, I can be grief struck, dealing with who knows what and after I let go of those feelings and put my focus on painting I walk away with a new attitude and better perspective - every single time. From the time I was a small kid and throughout my entire life I have enjoyed creating things. As a working mom, I found Pinot’s Palette as my creative outlet and would go to the studio in Liberty Township and paint with my friends on the rare occasion I had a spare moment. It was one of the only things I would make time to do for myself.
As a customer of Pinot’s Palette Liberty Township I received emails letting me know what paintings were coming up and news about any special events. One day I opened an email that said the location was for sale. I was at a point in my career where I was working at a job I no longer loved and doing my best trying to balance my corporate career with raising my three children – everyday I felt like I was failing at one of those two primary roles in my life and hated it. When I saw that the Pinot’s Palette Liberty Township location was for sale I had to find out more. The little seed was planted in my mind that, what if I could be with my kids during the day and run a paint studio at night and on the weekends?!?! That felt scary, to even consider walking away from my career of nearly 10 years and try to buy a business that was struggling. But, I just couldn’t let go of the idea that I could potentially own a business that I love and be with my kids more. So, after a ton of deliberation and analyzing with my husband I decided that I wanted to try to own and operate Pinot’s Palette and work part time. That plan didn’t last long.
I realized pretty early on that if I wanted to move forward buying Pinot’s Palette it could no longer stay at it's location in Liberty Township. So, my original plan was to move the location to West Chester and that I would manage the studio in addition to working part time in my “day job”. However, life had other plans. The company I had been at nearly 10 years went through a huge restructuring and I lost my job as part of the restructure. At the time that felt devastating and rocked me to my core but it did afford me the opportunity to focus solely on my plans with Pinot’s Palette. Being selected as someone who had to be “let go” really eroded my self-confidence. I struggled immensely with feeling less than, not good enough, like a failure. That experience is part of the reason that I have such a hard time putting myself out there today. In fact, this is the first time since that experience that I have had the desire to talk about my journey becoming the owner of Pinot’s Palette West Chester.
While preparing to open Pinot’s Palette in West Chester I encountered so many helpful, kind and knowledgeable people who helped bring this vision to life. People who had the knowledge, skills and ability to guide me through so many things that I did not know how to navigate. The Butler County Small Business Development Center, our attorney, our general contractor, the team at Pinot’s corporate headquarters, the artists that helped open the studio and countless neighbors, friends and family who were eager to support will always have a special place in my heart. Many of these same partners who helped us open have continued to guide and support me over the years.
So, after Liberty Township closed in the summer of 2018 it took nearly 9 months to reopen at the West Chester location in March of 2019. We experienced some of the growing pains you would expect with a new business owner but we were starting to hit our stride by the winter and started 2020 with a ton of energy and operating well. We had figured out lots of tricks to make sure our guests were having a great time and learned some of the things to avoid. Then, when COVID happened, it nearly took us out like so many other small businesses. There are a couple things that happened that were critical to us surviving.
1) The Cincinnati Zoo partnered with us on 4 virtual painting events from August 2020 to June 2021. We were able to keep working, cover our costs and we ended up donating over 20 thousand dollars to the zoo through these events. Not only did it help us keep our doors open but it also brought good vibes and happiness to our team.
2) Our “regulars”, we have some of the most amazing regular guests that are literally part of our Pinot’s family. They deliberately supported us throughout the pandemic and were patient and understanding with us as we tried to navigate and balance operating in a different world.
With these things, we were able to keep our doors open and make it through to the other side of COVID where we are now thriving! Unfortunately, not every studio was able to have the success we did.
The Kenwood Pinot’s Palette location ended up closing in 2020. Many of you know and love artists Tari and Ashley who joined the West Chester team when Kenwood closed. We have spent the last 3 years working together and have encountered so many cool opportunities working together with the rest of our amazingly talented team! Savannah and Elie have been part of Team Pinot West Chester for 2 years, Artist Taylor just recently joined the team and Artist Katie has not only been an Artist on our team for a year and a half but also a regular Pinot’s guest since the very beginning at Liberty Township! I am forever grateful to this team and am inspired by your talent - thank you for being the back bone of bringing the Pinot’s Palette experience to our guests day in and day out.
As we wrap up 2023, my team and I are reopening Pinot’s Palette Kenwood December 1st and Pinot’s Palette West Chester will be celebrating it’s 5 year anniversary in March of 2024. It feels surreal, literally a “pinch me am I awake?” moment. So, please know that when I say “Thank You” for supporting my small business, I’m really saying thank you for supporting me, thank you for supporting my family, thank you for supporting the team of artists that pour their heart and soul into everything they do at Pinot’s, and thank you for continuing to choose to paint and sip with us no matter what is going on in the world.
I believe with my whole heart that Pinot’s Palette provides a bright spot for communities, families and people to come together and create happy memories or forget about whatever things they are going through at a given moment and I want to continue bringing that to our community because I think it’s something that is rare and valued.