Achieving $35K Monthly Selling Photo Prints and Expanding Internationally

The Story of Patrick Ryan and The Canvas Works

Patrick Ryan, founder and managing director of The Canvas Works, runs a photo printing website based in Kinsale, County Cork, Ireland. Over the past decade, the company has established a strong reputation for high-quality photo prints, including canvas and framed prints. Starting a business can be daunting, but scaling an online business sustainably is even more challenging.

Current Focus: Currently, Patrick’s attention is on expanding internationally with new websites for the US and UK markets, as well as launching native apps on iOS and Android. The initial version of the iOS app, launched last year, showed promising results, and they hope to replicate this success internationally.

Domestic Success: For the majority of the past ten years, The Canvas Works focused on the domestic market, building a reputation for quality and excellent customer service. The company handles everything in-house, ensuring tight quality control and personalized customer support.

Diverse Customer Base: The customer base includes everyone from parents and corporates to artists and photographers. They all appreciate the high-quality products and professional advice offered by the company.

A Journey from Law to Photography

Patrick’s career began in law, but he soon realized he enjoyed the academic side more than the practical. After ten years in the advertising industry, he founded The Canvas Works, inspired by the potential of digital photography and personalized print products.

Early Days: Starting with seed capital from a house sale, Patrick bootstrapped the business from the beginning. Despite the financial downturn in 2008, the company survived and has experienced steady growth since 2012.

Crafting Quality and Building a Brand: The Canvas Works

From Design to Production

Creating high-quality photo prints involves meticulous sourcing and strong relationships with suppliers. For their canvas prints, finding a supplier capable of handling a wide range of sizes is crucial. They also developed popular plywood mount panels in collaboration with the same supplier.

Packaging Challenges: Packaging is another significant challenge due to the need for various box sizes that must withstand long shipping journeys and still look presentable. This has been a time-consuming process that is still being perfected.

Launching the Online Store

The first online store in 2007 was basic, built on asp.netwith an in-house CMS. By 2012, a shift to a hosted e-commerce solution led to choosing Shopify. Partnering with one of the top UK Shopify partners, they have gone through two development cycles.

Development Journey: The first Shopify build took about four months, integrating third-party APIs like Filestack for file selection and Aviary for image editing. However, when Adobe ended support for Aviary, a new course had to be charted for version two. The second development phase, completed in 2018, now supports US and UK sites, with plans to roll out in Ireland.

Attracting and Retaining Customers

Effective Strategies: E-mail marketing and SEO/Blogging have been the most effective strategies. Google PPC is also valuable, while social media remains a mixed bag.

Marketing Techniques

PR Articles: Difficult to achieve with limited return.

Facebook: Expensive and unproven in effectiveness.

Twitter: Similar to Facebook.

Pinterest: No interest.

Instagram: Potentially beneficial but may become pay-to-play.

Mailchimp: Offers excellent ROI, with consistent e-mails once or twice a month.

Blogging: Drives traffic over time; a key focus area.

SEO: Strong organic ratings domestically, with international SEO being the next challenge.

AdWords: Expensive but effective.

Navigating Growth and Challenges: The Canvas Works

Current Status and Future Plans

Patrick Ryan, always seeing the threats and challenges that come with running a small business, finds little time for self-congratulation. However, he’s pleased with the progress The Canvas Works has made. Recently, he hired an Operations Manager to handle day-to-day operations, allowing him to focus on web and app development and gaining traction in international markets.

Key Learnings and Insights

Building a Strong Team: Getting good people into the business is essential. Patrick realized he had spent too much time working in the business rather than on it. The goal now is to shift this focus over the next year.

Challenges of Scaling: Scaling a light manufacturing business organically is incredibly difficult. The process is time-consuming, requires constant training due to staff churn, and involves competing with larger, more established organizations.

Maintaining Focus: It’s crucial to learn to say no and avoid expanding too quickly into new products and markets. Chasing short-term revenue boosts can distract from long-term goals and disrupt the business model.

Influential Resources

Despite having little time to read business books or listen to podcasts, Patrick emphasizes the importance of setting realistic goals and expectations. For those looking to start a lifestyle business, he advises against getting carried away by the startup hype and instead focusing on creating a sustainable and debt-free business.

Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

Set Realistic Goals: Understand whether you want a lifestyle business or aim to create the next big thing, as each requires a different approach.

Prepare for Hard Work: The journey is long, lonely, and stressful but also rewarding. Take good advice and try to enjoy the process.