Paint and Sip Shops Riding the Wave, Working Two Hours per Day

Harriet Mills on franchising her company, Wine and Design

Heads up! This is an excerpt/recap from our small business podcast, Salt of the Earth. If you like it you can subscribe to our newsletter.

Few businesses survive on 2 hour days. Paint and Sip shops claim to be one of the exceptions.

Paint and Sip is the umbrella term for the recently popular BYOB painting classes. For those that have not experienced it, these businesses offer casual art classes for non-artists. Generally, an instructor walks the class through the steps to create a painting. And bringing your own wine is encouraged. These classes typically take place during “happy hour” time after work. We spoke to Harriet Mills, the founder of Wine and Design, which is one of a handful of Paint and Sip franchisors in the country.

A common question for Paint and Sip is whether the business is sustainable or just a passing trend. If you look at a map of Wine & Design locations, there is definitely an epicenter on the East Coast. North Carolina has over 25 locations, whereas there are only a few locations in the Midwest and West coast. Which would indicate that there is room to grow. Nonetheless, the experience certainly benefits from a novelty factor. After all, how much wall space can one person devote to their less-than-sober art creations?

Harriet points to the number of programs that Wine & Design offers. They’ve expanded beyond the 2-hour classes after work. They now offer Art Buzz for kids (yes, a wine and paint shop calls their kid program art buzz. It makes sense whenHarriet explains it), Pinterest nights, they bring their programs into schools and organizations.

So the 2-hour workday might be enough in a really hot market, when you aren’t counting the time spent on marketing, hiring, finances, customer support, etc. But as that market cools, the businesses that want to stay afloat will need to expand their offerings. More than likely, that will involve being open for more than 2 hours per day.

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