Pandr's 2024 Year in Review
Well, well, well…. If it isn’t yet again the beginning of a new year. How does it always creep up on us so quickly? Like many of us, I love the fresh energy and feeling of unlimited potential that looking toward another 12 months can bring. If you follow me on social media, you know I love any excuse to make a vision board, and the onset of 2025 has me itching to dive into all the goals I have for both Pandr, and my personal life.
Reflecting on all the murals Pandr painted in 2024!
But before I can get to dreamin’ and schemin’, it’s essential that I do some reflection on the past year so I can move into the next strategically and with confidence.
I spent the month of December reviewing all the wins, losses, metrics, and finances that Pandr saw in 2024, and gained some valuable insight. Y’all know we don’t believe in gatekeeping over here, so I put together this blog to share with you all in hopes that you can take something useful from it for your own business goals (and mood boards ;)).
So, without further ado, read on for Pandr’s 2024 Year in Review:
Metrics That Matter
Let’s start out by reviewing the basics - how many murals did Pandr complete, what type of murals were they, and what was our average gross revenue per mural. Note that these numbers include murals we did for personal use, as well murals that we donated (unpaid).
Project Metrics for 2024:
Total number of murals painted: 33
Type of murals painted:
Residential: 5
Commercial Indoor: 13
Commercial Outdoor: 12
Freestanding/Moveable: 3
Average job revenue: $7,346
Total number of artists employed: 44
Client breakdown
Taking inventory of WHO was reaching out for murals in 2024 is important to help us understand what industries we’ll likely have the most success in targeting in the upcoming year.
Top Client Categories
Food/Drink: 14%
Dental: 10%
Cities: 10%
Schools: 13%
Sports: 10%
Were you surprised to see that dental offices were in our top client categories? It might seem random, but I actually did outreach to a dental marketing agency who ended up putting me in touch with the two dental offices that we painted for. Yet another cold emailing win! Moving forward, we will definitely be sending some cold emails to dentists around the country - and continue to target restaurants, breweries and schools as they hired us for 27% of our overall business last year.
Murals Painted By Region
No surprise here, California took the gold when it comes to where Pandr painted the most murals in 2024. This was a big year for the Northeast as well, as our relationship with Dunkin’ continued to grow and we installed three murals for them. I love any excuse to fly East- one word: oysters. We hope to continue to grow Pandr’s presence in that region in 2025. Although the Midwest didn’t see much action last year, I’m happy to report we already have projects booked there for later this year..
West Coast (CA) - 16 projects
Northeast (MA, PA, NJ) – 11 projects
Southwest (AZ, UT) – 2 projects
South (TX, FL) – 2 projects
Midwest – 0 projects
I find it useful and interesting to compare these numbers to 2023’s metrics. How did things stack up in 2024 compared to the year prior?
In 2024, Pandr painted five more murals than in 2023
The average job revenue was about $5k less than it was in 2023
We booked six more clients than in 2023
We had 3 repeat clients in 2024
25 new clients in 2024
2023 vs. 2024
I can confidently and proudly say that the Pandr team worked so hard this year. While I felt like I had a good grasp on our income potential and that Pandr was thriving, like any small business the state of the US economy did have an impact on our overall revenue. In 2024, our gross income was about 2.5% less than what it was in 2023 - which I personally think was a direct result of the fact that it was an election year. I’ve been an entrepreneur for nearly a decade so I have gone through two election cycles at this point, and the pattern holds. If this was your experience as well - don’t fret! There is a cycle for everything in life, and what goes down must come up.
Expense Overview
Being a muralist, there are a lot of business expenses. Whereas some business owners can work from their computers and keep costs down, we need to show up to jobs in-person, and with a truck load of painting supplies. On top of painting murals, Pandr is also a business that employs a lot of people every year. It takes a village! Travel costs, hiring help, and legal and professional services (think accountants, attorneys) is where the bulk of Pandr’s spending went in 2024. Read on for a full breakdown of where we spent money last year.
Materials
I always try my best to take care of supplies I have already bought, and re-use any paint colors from past projects before I buy something new. This year I really focused on taking inventory and being strategic about resources, and was able to use a lot of paint that we already had in our studio on multiple projects. We really only had to buy new paint if a client needed a very unique color or for travel gigs, which was great to keep paint costs down.
Total spending on paint, tools, and other necessary supplies: $11,1173.91
Contractors, Legal & Professional Services, and Operational Costs
I think being a successful entrepreneur means that not only are you creating a life for yourself and your family, but contributing to the economy and supporting others at the same time. In the early years of Pandr, we did much of the work ourselves (which is to be expected when you’re just getting started).
As the business started to grow, however, we began to have the resources to hire help and pay others to do the things that we couldn’t do or didn’t have time for. Nearly 10 years in, we have a solid roster of wonderful people and companies that we are able to call on to keep Pandr’s growth on an upward trajectory, which we are so proud of.
Total spending on hiring contractors/ painters: $60,239.63
Total spending on marketing, professional and legal services: $13,441.90
Total spending on operational costs (hotels, travel, healthcare, etc.): ~$38,400.00
Business Development
For all the hours we spend painting murals, we spend just as many (if not more) doing business development. This includes creating content for social, marketing through other channels, creating new resources for other artists and business owners, and generating leads - to name just a few. Business development is the lifeblood of Pandr, and something we will continue to aim to do even more of in 2025 (and every year after!).
Social Media Metrics
New Google Reviews: 6
New Email Subscribers: 1,000
New TikTok Followers: -495 (Net Loss from 2023)
New Instagram Followers: 4,100
Inquiries Received (By Month)
July: ~10
August: ~6
September: ~13
October: ~10
November: ~8
December: ~3
Lead Generation
Cold Emails Sent: 6,510
Contracts signed (so far): 4
Murals currently in the works for 2025: 11
We sent 6,150 cold emails… it really is a numbers game, folks. I will shout the power of outreach from the rooftops until the end of time! It can be intimidating at first (rejection always *sucks*, but the sting of it starts to fade pretty quickly), but the more you do it, the easier it gets. For anyone reading this who is ready to expand their business with new clients and more projects but doesn’t know where to start - I’ve got you covered. Our Outreach Guide was made for you!
Want to make your own performance review graphic? Download our customizable template here and share your wins!
Looking Ahead to 2025
While I can (and do) get a lot more granular with my end of year review, I think that everything outlined above gives you a good sense of how to measure year over year growth as a mural artist and business owner. We had a great year filled with some big successes, anxiety-inducing failures, and a whole lot of laughs with great clients, contractors, and of course - you all!
Looking ahead to 2025, I have a lot of goals (I am an eldest daughter through and through), but these are my top four priorities - the big goals I will be coming back to over and over again this year when I need to reground myself:
Work Smarter, Not Harder
My biggest goal for Pandr is to book bigger projects and work less. That’s right - I want this business to eventually get to the point where we can paint fewer murals but continue to grow our net revenue. What does this look like on a micro level? Well for one, I think it’s time to up our rates. We’ve been charging $45/sq ft for some time now, and with the state of the current economy - gas, food, lodging, LIFE (I know you get it!!!), I think it makes financial sense to charge a little bit more for Pandr’s work this year. Plus, the cost of aluminium is apparently going up, which will eventually affect the cost of paint because of the cans. The age old adage of “work smarter, not harder” will definitely be plastered on my 2025 mood board.
Vinyl + Freestanding Murals
I’d also love to book more vinyl art projects. Vinyl art has been a great way to get murals in client’s spaces without needing to travel as much, and I’ve been having fun spending time playing around on my iPad vs. on ladders from time to time. The same goes for moveable murals. Moveable murals are amazing for clients to have flexibility to move marketing around (more on this, here), and also allows me to cut back on travel since we can design, install, and ship to the client from our office in California.
Breaking Into the Product World
Last year, I set the wheels in motion to do more product design-based work in 2025. By investing in a marketing company to do outreach for these sorts of jobs for me, my hope is that I won’t be able to do as much manual labor, and will be another way for me to travel fewer days of the year (we just got a pool in our backyard - I want to spend more days in it!).
I also plan to start releasing some products on my own website… I won’t say much just yet, but look for some fun things coming to this space later this year ;)
Growing the Pandr Community
Finally, we will continue to build out this space for all of you! I’ve said it before: Pandr’s mission is not just to create meaningful murals around the world, but to support, encourage, and champion other artists and entrepreneurs to build a life for themselves through their art. Day in and day out, we plan to continue breaking the starving artist stereotype and creating awareness around the importance of artists and murals.
Go Forth and Prosper
My 2024 mood board. So much of it came to life!
Alright friends - you made it to the end of this blog post. Congrats! I hope it’s inspired you to take inventory of your 2024, and then get to work setting clear goals, business or otherwise, for this fresh new year.
Then, I suggest pouring yourself a glass of wine, turning on your favorite reality tv show, and getting to crafting your own 2025 mood boards. Try making a collage on Pinterest or Canva and sizing it to your phone or computer background so that you are reminded of your goals every time you send a text or log on to your email!
As always, we are here to support you every step of the way. Don’t hesitate to reach out to us with questions, advice, or just to share a photo once you’ve finished cutting and pasting all of your dreams onto paper ;) (seriously, share them with us - put it all out into the universe!).
Thank you for being part of the Pandr world today, yesterday, and in the future. We’ve built such an amazing community and we can’t wait to see what’s in store for us all in 2025.
Cheers to bigger projects, more income, and a whole lot of paint!