Couple fired up over paint-your-pottery business

It can be hard to let go of a business you started from scratch and patiently nourished to success. However, Chris McEntee put her business in the right hands when she sold Splatters Studio Ltd. a decade after she opened it to Dan McCollester and his wife, Kathryn Plucknette, in 2014.

Plucknette was on maternity leave when McEntee approached her to ask if she and McCollester would be interested in purchasing the Spencerport business. Plucknette immediately called McCollester who said without hesitation, “That sounds great; let’s do it.”

McCollester graduated from SUNY Geneseo in 2005 with a degree in studio art. Plucknette is a Nazareth College studio art graduate, and the two met while working at jeweler Richards & West Inc. in East Rochester.

McCollester and Plucknette both have backgrounds in ceramics, so taking over Splatters felt like the perfect fit. Richards & West was still recovering from the recession and in the midst of making changes, and since McCollester and Plucknette both had a passion for jewelry-making, they were discussing starting their own jewelry company together. That’s when Splatters fell into their laps.

“The technical side of it wasn’t the biggest thing for us; the biggest transition was the business aspect,” says McCollester. “What really helped me was writing business plans. I found what I would need and it gave me a preface to what I was going to have to deal with every day—all of the accounting and payroll that I’d have to do. I got a loan through M&T (Bank Corp.) and they’ve been great. It was all just trial by fire when we started.”

McCollester turned to McEntee as he navigated the transition of taking over Splatters.

“I wouldn’t have been able to do it without the relationship with Chris,” says McCollester. “She’s absolutely a business model for me because she built Splatters from nothing into a great business. And that made the transition easier because we already had a client base and a healthy business.”

Splatters is under new ownership, but the foundation of the business remains the same. The pottery shop welcomes walk-ins to come in, pick a piece of pottery off their shelves, pick from their myriad of colors and paint away. Visitors are also welcome to choose from a variety of stencils and stamps to decorate their pottery piece.

After painting, McCollester fires the painted pottery in the kiln until it becomes a shiny masterpiece. Guests then pick up their finished product within a few days.

Besides walk-ins, Splatters hosts group paintings, whether it’s an adult excursion like a bachelorette party or an event for kids like a Girl Scout Troop or a birthday party.

“One thing we’ve started to do more is going off-site and working with PTOs (Parent Teacher Organizations) at different schools,” says McCollester. “We’ve done fundraisers and fun nights. That’s something that we’ve done that Chris didn’t really do that we’re trying to expand more.”

McCollester and Plucknette are also looking to grow their workshops. They have hosted a variety of workshops through local school continuing education programs, and they are aiming to host some workshops on their own. Splatters workshops vary from teaching participants a specific painting or design technique to having a theme for the pieces of pottery.

McCollester says they would like to add clay work to their menu in the next two to four years.

“We could have wheel throwing and clay hand building and workshops and open studio,” he says. “That’s something we really want to do in the future, but we wouldn’t necessarily be able to do it here. We would need another space that would suit it, and it would have to be the right time.”

McCollester and Plucknette mostly run the business on their own, but depending on the time of year they have four to eight local students who come work for Splatters. McCollester does much of the day-to-day activities like running the shop and aiding clients. Plucknette stays home during the day with their 4-year-old son, but she does a lot of the behind-the-scenes tasks such as creating custom work and designing the window displays. McCollester notes that he and Plucknette are a team and make all business-related decisions together.

Although Splatters was already a well-established business, the couple faced a learning curve when taking over ownership. McCollester says that writing and rewriting business plans helped him get his priorities in line to keep the business running smoothly.

Instead of repairing jewelry, McCollester and Plucknette own a creatively driven business in which customers come in because they want to, not because they have to.

“It’s important to do something you really enjoy doing,” says McCollester. “It may not be something that’s going to make you millions of dollars, but if you can get it to pay what you need and you enjoy going and doing it, then it’s better than working for anyone else.”

Small Business is a biweekly feature focusing on entrepreneurs. Send suggestions for Small Business stories to Reporter/Editorial Assistant Nicole Sheldon at [email protected] or (585) 363-7031.