![\"(c)](\"https:\/\/drewbrophy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/rietvelds-einstein-250x155.gif\" "\\"rietvelds-einstein\\"")
<\/a>(c) Rick Rietveld<\/p><\/div>\n
Rick and Natalie Rietveld <\/a>were heroes to us.\u00a0 We would visit their booth at trade shows where they marketed their clothing company.<\/p>\n Rick\u2019s art was colorful and wild, like Drew\u2019s but in a different style.\u00a0 We envied their family owned business, one that printed Rick\u2019s art on high-end men\u2019s shirts, tees and board shorts.<\/p>\n I would call Natalie every now and again and ask art business advice.\u00a0 She was a tough lady, and I admired that.\u00a0 She taught me what to expect out of clients and how to get it.<\/p>\n In 2001 Drew left Lost, a company that he painted clothing designs for.\u00a0 There was a large demand for Drew\u2019s art, and now that it would no longer be available through Lost, we thought we\u2019d follow the Rietveld\u2019s influence and start our own label.<\/p>\n Son of the Sea, Inc. was born.\u00a0 It allowed us to fill the requests for Drew\u2019s art on a variety of products:\u00a0 t-shirts, art prints and stickers.\u00a0 We planned to add more items to the line, but this was a good start.<\/p>\n In the first two years, the financial growth of the business was magical. <\/strong> We were selling to over 250 of the surf shops in the U.S.\u00a0 We hired sales reps and in-house employees.\u00a0 We rented a large warehouse.\u00a0 We took out advertising.\u00a0 We sent Drew to tour surf shops around the U.S. to meet his fans at retail stores, grass-roots style.<\/p>\n By year three, it was wearing down on us<\/span><\/strong>. <\/strong> Running a wholesale operation was taxing on us, because we weren\u2019t cut out for this type of business.<\/p>\n We found that instead of doing the things we loved, we were doing things we hated<\/span><\/strong>; like dealing with employees that didn\u2019t want to work; fighting with vendors that screwed up our orders. \u00a0\u00a0We lost money on surf shops that didn\u2019t pay their bills.<\/p>\n And the worst result of it all \u2013 Drew wasn\u2019t painting anymore<\/strong>.\u00a0 His time was spent on quality control, employee control, and inventory control.<\/p>\n The second worst thing \u2013 we couldn\u2019t take vacations<\/strong>.\u00a0 You can\u2019t leave for two weeks when you are growing a wholesale business.<\/p>\n We became grumpier and grumpier.\u00a0 Looking back, I remember that time period as being the unhappiest years of my life.\u00a0 I felt overwhelmed by all the weight on my shoulders of keeping the business growing and keep the employees happy.\u00a0\u00a0 I wasted hours dialing for dollars to get surf shops to pay their bills.<\/p>\n The business was bad on our marriage \u2013 Drew and I never fought much before, but during these years, we had vicious arguments.\u00a0 We were stressed out and exhausted.<\/p>\n One day Drew came into the office looking somber.\u00a0 \u201cYou won\u2019t believe what I just found out<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 He said sadly.\u00a0 \u201cRick and Natalie are getting divorced.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n He sat by my desk and grabbed my hand.\u00a0 \u201cIf we don\u2019t change what we\u2019re doing, it could happen to us<\/span><\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n Four years into the Son of the Sea, Inc., we shut down our wholesale division.\u00a0 We had already started licensing Drew\u2019s art with success, so we decided to go in that direction entirely.<\/p>\n We fired our employees, said goodbye to our sales reps, moved out of the big warehouse and cut down our expenses.<\/p>\n We found peace and happiness in a small studio about a mile from our home.\u00a0 The space had an office for me and a showroom and a back room where Drew could paint.\u00a0 And paint.\u00a0 And paint!<\/p>\n Since then, we’ve focused entirely upon licensing and sales of original artwork, which frees us up to be able to travel and work wherever we are.\u00a0 Or not work at all.<\/span><\/p>\n And we went back to taking 8 weeks of vacation a year.<\/p>\n Do we regret our biggest mistake ever?<\/span><\/strong> No, we don\u2019t.\u00a0 We learned valuable lessons during that time that we would never have learned otherwise.\u00a0 We understand what it takes to run a wholesale business, and we know that we will never go down that road again.\u00a0 We don\u2019t care to have employees or to be chained to our business.<\/p>\n We prefer freedom.\u00a0 And Drew, well, all he wants to do is paint.<\/p>\n Check out my other Art, Lifestyle, Inspiration Blog here<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n![\"Spunk](\"https:\/\/drewbrophy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/maria-brophy-looking-hot-150x100.jpg\" "\\"Spunk")
<\/a>Maria “Spunk” Brophy \u00a0(Follow me on Twitter<\/a>)<\/p>\n