Candice Luter Art and Interiors founder applies lean-process practices

Turning one’s interests and talent into a full-time job often doesn’t come without a few detours.

“A lot of people I talk to, they want to do it but they’re really intimidated by it,” Candice Luter said. “I was the same way.”

Luter will share her experience Nov. 10 at Cedar Rapids’ 1 Million Cups. The Cedar Rapids native launched Candice Luter Art and Interiors after being laid off from her sales and development job at a design studio during last year’s COVID-19 shutdown.

“I had this thriving side business,” she said. “I knew it could be full-time, but I just didn’t have the time to do it.

“I took a roundabout journey.”

Luter began upcycling — recycling castoff items and materials into her own decorative wall hangings, customized mirrors and furniture — out of necessity, to furnish the home she’d bought.

She enjoyed the process, and left the job she’d held for several years at what then was Rockwell Collins to take the position at the design studio.

“People thought I was crazy,” she said. “They said, ‘Why would you leave, you’re a single mom?’ But corporate America wasn’t for me.

“I started getting into power tools and making furniture for my house, and it just took off.”

Luter first sold her creations at local farmers’ markets , “but that was a lot of work. I ran my bank account down to zero. I had to re-strategize.”

She found the answer in Etsy, the e-commerce site focused on handmade and vintage items such as jewelry, clothing, home decor and furniture, and art.

Selling through the site allowed Luter to make her products to order.

“Nothing is at a loss because I get paid ahead of time before I do the work,” she noted. “That’s how it worked for me.”

The special-interest marketplace also made it easier for customers to find her work.

“It’s hard with a (stand-alone) website,” Luter said.

“If people don’t know you’re there and you don’t know how to drive traffic, you’re not going to get the customers you want. I just want to make the stuff.”

Etsy put Luter’s work before another market she hadn’t expected — specialized retailers and design businesses looking for new inventory, and even hotel chains seeking that certain look for its rooms and lobbies.

“A lot of the retailers of this world, they’re all looking at Etsy for product,” Luter said. “I didn’t realize that at the time, until I started getting contacted by retailers.

“I’ve actually had the chance to do some design work for some major retailers.”

Luter’s products are now sold through Des Moines-based West Elm and can be found in some Marriott Hotels.

Luter and her staff of six still make the product to-order, simplifying her cash flow.

“Our product is being marketed as premium product, so we can just kind of drop-ship to the customers,” she said. “It’s kind of like small-batch manufacturing.”

While her interest and talents drew here away from her previous career, Luter applied the skills she acquired there to her own enterprise.

“I bring my product management, my lean-process sort of thinking,” she said.

Continued growth leaves Luter with less time for creating.

“I’m usually doing emails,” she said. “I’ve been trying to set aside a little more creative time for myself, but I’ve been so busy. I’ll post (a new design), and one of the retailers will say, ‘Can we post that, too?’ It’s a good problem to have.”

That perspective has served Luter well, and she thinks it applies to others, too.

“I just come back to my roots, reminding myself how far I’ve come,” she said. “I hope through that message there are people who look at their own circumstances and where they hope to be going.

“They can still do something with the dreams and the talents they have. Don’t let your circumstances define you and hold you back.”