Everything Sucks Club: 2023, A Year in Review
2023 Stationery Subscription Club Recap: officially two years in and I *maybe* feel like I have the hang of this thing.
What’s Next - Changes & Updates for 2024:
As with this year, I will be focusing on one overall theme and one cause/non-profit. I am still working out the details however and I am going to be taking the month of January off from the boxes. Everyone with an active subscription will not be charged for January’s boxes (sticker, magnet, combo, button clubs) while I take the month to recharge instead of sending out *something* with no final direction. I still very much want to do these clubs but only if they make sense and if I’m enjoying what I’m making - while I’m seeing growth within the club structure at the same time.
And to be honest the main problem I’m having is growth. In 2022, the year I launched, I had okay numbers - in total that year I had 25 subscribers and only 4 cancelations for the entire year - which is great - starting January 2023 with 22 clubs (which is better than the zero I started the year with haha).
However, 2023 did not go the same way as the previous year for new subscriptions. I’m ending the year with 24 active boxes and only 5 of those are new folks that signed up this year (the other 19 are people who have continued to received boxes from 2022 and SO INCREDIBLY GREATFUL YOU ARE ALL AMAZING). Now the bigger problem - I had 6 people start and then unsubscribe in 2023. So not only is this program not growing for me, but new people are not staying around which is a major bummer and makes it hard to be motivated to continue to do it.
So I’m going to take January off. To reset, reevaluate, and (hopefully) comeback refreshed with a plan for how I want to tackle this.
Now On To The Fun Stuff!
Another year down and this was definitely one that made me push myself. I made the choice for 2023 that I needed an overall theme and direction to each month - decision that was overall very positive. However, was I very quickly learned is that I *don’t* want to switch art styles EVERY month. I knew going into this that I already had my favorites and those would be easy to do and that I would need to add in others that we’re not as familiar or something I considered myself strong in the style - but that was part of the challenge. The use of emojis was also overall pleasant and gave me an easy way to choose what to draw. They also fit nicely into the theme of different art styles and it was funny to see them in juxtaposed with some of the very traditional art styles.
The Crayon Project - the 2023 Non-Profit:
This year through the subscription clubs I donated $285 to The Crayon Project, which I ended up keeping as the non-profit for the entire year. This was I could maximize the benefit from the donations. I estimate that helped fund one box of supplies (approximately) per month which I think is fantastic.