#25 Running a DIY Business with Sharon Hankins

About Sharon

Sharon is a furniture painter & restorer who loves to upcycle and repurpose old neglected pieces and bring them back to life again. Her blog was created for thrifty DIYers and home renovators to encourage them to make transformations in their own homes, with educational tutorials, tips and inspirational makeovers. As a mother of four teens, and wife to a busy self-employed audio/video guy.

Tell Your Story

Having an Aunt who does the same thing, she thought about trying her hand at restoration about 6 or 7 years ago on bedside tables which she decided to repaint, distress, and basically made them new again. This birthed a truly rewarding hobby which eventually evolved into an entire business that involves, retailing paint lines, selling other DIY products to publishing Youtube videos, posting on social media and blogging about her projects to encourage people to bring the old and neglected back into a place of honour in their home again. In one of her many trips to the recycle center, she started to ponder about what she was doing – these broken down pieces she was collecting were things that people have left in the dumps, they are discarded and been kicked to the curb. She takes them, strips the back, repaints them, makes them new and beautiful again. Right at this moment, God spoke to her heart and said “Sharon, that’s what I wanna do with people”. So many people are hurt, have no hope, they’re ready to give up but she knows that God was showing her that in the same way that she was restoring unwanted pieces of furniture, He wants to restore every person He has created, no matter where they’ve been or what they’ve done. If we allow Him to, He’ll strip back those layers of hurt, unforgiveness, lack – because He sees enormous potential in each and every one of us.

I really felt like He just wants to restore people – fully restored. So that we as Christians can be brought back to a place of honour in His house and bring glory to Him, living out his ultimate and beautiful plan for our lives.

In the months after this revelation and she continued doing these furniture, Sharon has been able to help people, women, and see so many relationships restored – people picking up the pieces of their lives because she’s taken the time to listen and encourage them and show them that there is hope.

5 Tips on your Craft

1. Learn as much as you can about DIY and your creative space so you can master your craft.
2. Experiment with different paints and products and do research with what works with your style.
3. Find your unique style and be creative with that because clients will be draw to your “look”.
4. Do some research so you can work out multiple income streams for your business.
5. Connect with peers in your industry and build relationships so they can help you.

How do you incorporate God into your business?

Sharon constantly talks to God, about everything, her marriage, her kids, her business and everything. There are several aspects to her business, there’s social media and blogging, etc., but when she gets to do what she loves and seeing it come to life is the best time for her to have a conversation with our Creator. Another opportunity she highlights where she enjoys a true connection to God is during her workshops. She’ll have a few ladies and in these groups, it’s great to chat and get to know people. During tea breaks, they’d sit around a table and the conversations start turning into deeper things and the Holy Spirit just starts to trickle down like a light drizzle in the middle of these conversations which is just awesome.

Your bible verse for this season and why.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. – Philippians 4:8

This came up about three times in one day, just at the beginning of this week. So many times in our business, our minds start to wander into worst case scenarios – because of a negative feedback or haters on social media who give you a hard time. One negative drives us to question everything that we do. Is what they say true? Fix our thoughts in what is true, honorable, pure, lovely, right. What are we thinking as we run our business day to day? Are they excellent and worthy of praise? If they are not, throw them in the bin, toss them out! Fill your mind with goodness.