A Renaissance of Relaxation

This summer, a renaissance of relaxation is unfolding. We’re watching a proactive shift to delight in the downtime. Some are taking to the open road to explore uncharted destinations. For others, it's a short trip to the back patio, to a chair by the garden, or a quiet spot by the water. Sightseeing may be as simple as watching the pour of a cold beverage into your favorite glass. However you define it, we’re looking to see how this translates to small business owners. And here’s what we’ve found so far…

This trend of a healthier work-life blend is playing out before us as we watch artists, friends, and fellow entrepreneurs make an intentional move to cut back. Yep, work less. In the last month, we’ve seen online business owners announce they're signing off social media for the summer, taking a podcast hiatus for a month, or scaling back to a 4-day work week (with no 10 hour work days preceding.) Business owners are picking their health, and families, over the voice that calls us to work seven days a week (because there’s always more to do). For those we follow closely, it appears to be born of a real desire (or need) to take a break, to enjoy time with loved ones more fully.

It's a new day in this dialogue of how to rest and reach our goals, two objectives that at one time were considered opposites. Now, they've emerged as an attainable standard. We've never seen so many of our colleagues simultaneously make this move and we're cautiously optimistic about the outcome. It's a time to imagine the possibilities and to acknowledge that we are in charge of our time and our lives.

While this might sound like a simple decision, we’ve also learned that it takes planning and preparation to make this change stick. We don’t pretend to have it all figured out yet. What we can say is we believe we can work on it while taking more long weekends, slowing the roll, and unwinding into a summer of hazy days by the water, patio parties, and the flash of a few sparklers to celebrate our victories along the way. We hope you’ll ponder doing the same.

How to Design a Message that Moves

When your print piece moves organically, you see it clipped behind a magnet, repurposed as a bookmark, or tacked to a bulletin board; you know it captured someone's attention with a message that meant something. We recently designed a card with the dual purpose of sharing a positive message and with a mission toward movement. Based on the fun calls and texts we received, we're sharing a few key details that went into the card design to inspire your next piece.

The Big Picture. The first consideration for any custom piece is understanding the ultimate goal. How do you want people to feel when they see it, open it? Is there an overarching message you want to communicate? In our case, we wanted to share the word “Joy” intentionally. It was a specific choice, one we felt was better suited to us than the words, Cheer or Celebrate, as an example.

Pass It On - Having the card move and be shared between people was a central theme. In social we see it happen with reposts, tagging, and shares, but we forget this can occur with a physical piece too. Creating a voluntary hand-off, a reason to share, was the most challenging part; encouraging movement without making it too complicated. Our choice was a perforated card that included a postcard mailer, something our recipients would tear off and want to mail to their person of choice. (Access to a talented print team comes in handy. We work with Schmitz Press.).

Engaging and Interactive – When people think of interactive, they often go right to a digital or online platform; however, you can accomplish this in print. How can you get people to interact and do something fun with your mailer? We created three different checkboxes with whimsical fill-in-the-blank lines for people to complete.

Pick your Postage - We affixed the postcard stamp as part of the mailing to encourage people to address and mail the tear-off postcard. It was an added expense, however, worth it when our recipients sent their postcards, which was the whole point. On a funny note, the Post Office only had fish postcard stamps; they told us no holiday postcard stamps were coming. Not exactly a traditional choice, but we didn't get hung up on it. The envelope stamps for the entire card were holiday-themed, and that was more important.

Creating unique elements that make an impact with clients is a priority in our business. Yes, we do all the online things; however, creative, non-digital communication is a welcome reinforcement and bonus to email and online outreach. Let's face it, this is a process that anyone can do, but few people will. That’s why it’s a smart move.

Package with Pizzazz

Wrapping, packing, labeling, and shipping, it’s all in a day’s work. How do we take what little time we have and make sure our carefully selected gifts stand out in the crowd? Gift packaging used to be so straightforward. It’s not like the old days when the big new thing was invisible tape. Now the wrapping options are as varied as the choice of the gift inside. Resist the urge to crinkle tissue and call it quits. Creativity invites connection.

We know it’s the season to make a list and check it twice, so we’ve picked three quick options to inspire your creative wrapping and get your gifts noticed. The packaging shouldn’t be just what you dig through to get to the juicy center (unless you’re under the age of five); it’s part of the gift itself.

Add care with flair - If you’re adding special instructions, a festive trinket, a personal note, or care instructions, feature it as part of the wrapping. For the fun trinket, loop a ribbon through it and attach it as part of the bow. If it’s a note, type (or write) a few short sentences on colored paper, hole punch it, and tie it with colorful twine or leather. If you make the gift be sure to add your logo to the note.

Tips for tape - Bold graphics, bright colors, solids, and prints, it’s all available in the color and design of a strip of tape. This is one of the easiest, least expensive, and quickest options to boost the packaging if time is pressing. Pick a season or a favorite hobby, from birds to cakes to patterns and travel. The sky is the limit in choices. Tape is fun to swipe across the back of envelopes too. We use colorful tape in our communication and special promotions. Customers enjoy getting personal mail with a surprise as they turn over the envelope and spot a hint of color. They’ll notice and remember that you did something different. Be thoughtful in your choices if you’re using it for business. While there are many fun designs, it needs to connect with your brand and messaging. (Note, not all colorful tapes have the same level of stickiness to the back, which is why we like mt Masking Tape.)

When you’ve had your fill - If you’re making an effort to be eco-friendly, like we are, look for fill and other packaging products made from recycled or plant-based products. Consider packaging tape from a company like Netzero, complete with designs in garden or marine life. Or try recycled packing paper that’s die-cut in a unique pattern for an interesting wrap, like Geomi WrapPack. If you need filler inside a box or bag, look for Kraft 100% recycled paper, which we use in all of our gift boxes.

Here’s to your festive giving occasion and brightening someone’s day with your creative attention to detail.

More than Just a Pretty Face

What you read from your favorite brands may look easy to do and all pulled together, but don’t be fooled, it’s their effort behind-the-scenes that creates this impression. Delivering a quality newsletter might sound like a straightforward action item, but a well-executed one goes beyond what you see on the face of it.

When you break down the pieces of a newsletter, there’s a long list of tasks that create those beautiful images and interesting articles. Good content threads its way through a communication and brand strategy, and loops back to a website that connects with photographs and visuals to support the message. The message itself should be something of value to the readers, or what’s the point? And ultimately, this leads to a purchase. Or, that’s the goal. This is why you can probably count on one hand the newsletters you love and appreciate.

If you’re thinking of creating a newsletter, or need a refresher, here are important items to consider. This is based on our experience as small business owners who value content and post website updates weekly. Our newsletter has been emailed bi-weekly, consistently, for three years, so we’ve learned many lessons the old-fashioned way. Some weeks it all flows beautifully, and other weeks it’s a painful process.

Each of these topics could be its own deep dive, however, consider this an overview to get you thinking:

It’s not as simple as writing words on a page. Valuable content means the information needs to be relevant, to both the reader and your business. This leads to a whole conversation around your audience, and the skills and/or products that you’ve determined define your business. Asking what separates you from the pack, and who will care, is a good place to start.

Identify how much newsletter content links back to your website. You can include great articles and content that only exist on the face of the newsletter; however, the goal should be to direct people back to your website for more. Once there, the site visitor can read, browse, and enjoy additional ideas, photos and information so they’ll visit again. At least, that’s the plan. If there’s no reason to click back to the website, and that’s where your ‘shop’ is located, it’s a problem. Plus, from a data analytics standpoint, there’s no way to track which articles are of interest to your readers if you don’t provide a link.

If your newsletter does link to your website, that means you’ve created sections where consistent, new content is posted, right? The keyword here being “consistent.” As a small team, we don’t change our content daily, however, we do change pages throughout the weeks and month. Our Workshop, Artists, and Blog pages all change regularly, and they change on different days/weeks to keep the content evolving and the search engines engaged. For example, we added the Workshop page when people began to inquire about our custom craftsmanship. Before we launched that section, we had to consider how updating it would impact our workload, and how much value it would add overall. Could we keep up with regular content updates, beyond just a week or two? That’s what you need to ask yourself.

Valuable content means visuals. Sounds easy, but before you upload new text, consider how you’ll execute on photographs or some kind of visual to support the message. What do people need to see? Where will you save those photos (Google Drive, Dropbox, back-up drive, to mention a few)? How many different shots do you need for the website and for social/mobile photos? Each platform likes a different kind of photo too. Photos require a significant time investment, not just in taking them, but in editing and posting across the platforms. We keep ours on the cloud, mobile, and desktop, so all of those platforms have the same photos and folders. A big lesson we’ve learned is that you’ll waste a lot of time if you start uploading before you do final photo edits and selections. And then you lose track of which photos are stored where. Also, what looks good on a small mobile screen might not look so hot on a desktop screen.

While the visual element is key, photos don’t increase your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) results or what the search engine looks for to drive traffic your way. This means you need to know what your keywords are to use in your text, which is another subject altogether. (Check out Ubersuggest, a free service, to find keywords for your website.)

Can you see how a newsletter expands to become a more in-depth process?

• Think through what you want to accomplish.

• Who will be responsible for each content area?

• Be real about how often you can manage new content.

• What do your customers want from you?

• What’s the content that matches those expectations?

• How does your website support that content?

• Which photos will best tell the story?

• Are those photos aligned with what people see when they shop for your product or service?

Some of our most frustrating, long, days are when we get caught behind the ball, writing content that requires us to backtrack and create and post new photos. Lack of preparation and planning is a giant time suck.

Step back and look at your content calendar, for a month, a quarter, or more if possible. It makes life easier for you, and the content flows better for readers because the whole picture is laid out more thoughtfully. Here’s a podcast by Amy Porterfield to boost your content calendar efforts. And another one by Jenna Kutcher on repurposing content to make your life a bit easier. These are both good podcasts when you need a refresher.

Yep, there’s a lot to consider if you want to distribute a newsletter of value. Done right, it’s a powerful communication tool. What’s laid out here are some of the things we work toward. Do we always hit the target, no, but this is what we aim to accomplish and that goal keeps us growing. You can subscribe to our newsletter at the bottom of this blog page, we’d love to hear your feedback!

Lessons from Lakeside

Sitting on the shores of Lake George, I realize the life lessons it’s sharing. One of the best things about being here is that the view constantly changes without ever leaving our chairs. At any given time, the lake can shift from sparkling silver to a shimmering blue or deep green, and finally, sunset orange or pink. Storms roll in out of nowhere, and what was once crystal clear can’t be seen. Rain clouds unfold from behind the mountains, and an ominous gray mist slides slowly across the lake, overtaking everything in its path. Casual boaters caught off-guard race back to avoid danger. Eventually, what was once dark and gray, becomes bright and clear again. And on a few select days, a rainbow appears. Sitting in our Adirondack chairs, I recognize the same thing is happening in our lives.

Right here on the water’s edge, Mother Nature gives us perspective. We wake up each morning, assess the current situation, and then go about our business adapting to what we see before us. It seems simple here. Sunshine means being outside. Rainy days bring puzzles, trips to the market, and reading. One of the books I’m enjoying is Alicia Keys’ memoir, More Myself. In it, she shares her view of the constant change in life, “Nothing but uncertainty is certain. Circumstances come together, only to fall apart moments or months later. And then, in a flash, we must rise up and regain our footing…it’s not that the ground underneath me was suddenly shifting; it’s that it is never still.”

Here, it doesn’t occur to us to try and control our environment; we roll with it. Yet, somehow when we transition back to our working world, we spend a lot of energy trying to gain control over the current circumstances. There’s a rigidity that creeps into daily living that constricts our creativity and thinking over time. Spending time away with Mother Nature reminds us that we need to practice letting go more often.

Next Step, New Ideas

There is so much noise and heightened online activity right now. Some days small business planning is a big rock to push up the hill, but movement means progress over time. Better to move slowly forward than be stagnant and disappear. Each week we take steps like the ones outlined below, to be creative, add value, and move forward.

One could easily decide to sit it out, but then what are we waiting for? This global situation will take months to settle, and the level of unknowns is unprecedented. What we do know is that we can continue to share new content and ideas on how to relax, enjoy, entertain, and celebrate with handmade artisan elements. Despite the news, daily living with family, friends, and colleagues does continue.

Our focus has been on existing and prospective customers, with whom we already have a connection. Now seems like a tough time to start from scratch with a potential client, or cold contact. When you decide to publish content of any kind, you’ll face the challenge of being seen and heard. Breaking through the noise was hard pre-2020, and it’s even more difficult now.

We decided to make a hand-crafted specialty item in our workshop, a custom doorstop. It’s timely; everyone wants their doors to be open (safely) to warm weather, sunshine, friends, neighbors, and customers. And it’s a piece that’s functional and beautiful. A small token of joy that brings a smile seems worth the effort.

We documented the process of making the doorstops and posted photos on our social platforms and the Workshop page of our website. People love a look behind-the-scenes. You can record and share your creative process and use it as content across your channels. We've received so much positive feedback that we may add it to our Marketplace, which was not the original intention.

Because we focus on hand-crafted products, visual images are a significant aspect of our business. Custom printed note cards, gift tags, and high-end mailing envelopes are areas where we leave a visual impression. We included a personal, handwritten note on quality paper stock inside each package.

We were intentional about the timing of the doorstop mailing. Using social media, we followed specific companies and sent our packages when their doors opened for business. As a result, several executives reached out personally to connect with us, which was a welcome surprise. You never know what will resonate with people, that’s why you have to keep trying new things.

Current events will test even the most determined of us, but small wins like this are another reason to keep pushing that rock over the top of the hill.

And the Screens Go Dark

We're not even halfway through 2020, and it’s already a year we’ll never forget. As neighbors, parents, and small business owners, there was no way for us to predict what this year would bring. Many weighty events have occurred within three months, even more so this week. These events deserve our full attention, consideration, and action. If we weren’t living through it, I’d say this convergence of events is almost unimaginable.

As I write this, our screens are dark; the marketing and promotional stories are silent, the chatter is gone. Black screens across social media are trying to lift other voices, ideas, and the words of leaders and people of color to speak, share, suggest, invite, and educate. We listen for what we don’t know, for what we can do, and decide what action we will take.

The pandemic meant we had to revamp marketing, messaging, and be sensitive to so much loss and devastation, so much unknown. In the aftermath of George Floyd’s death, following a long list of unjust deaths of people of color before him, the unknowns of COVID-19 have faded into darkness.

This week, as our cities burn, peaceful protestors are met with tear gas, and small business owners of all ethnic and racial backgrounds pray their buildings are still intact. One thing is painfully clear: Lives are at stake. As Ruhel Islam, owner of the restaurant Gandhi Mahal in Minneapolis, said, when he got word his building was on fire, “I felt like we can rebuild with bricks, but we cannot rebuild people's life, and we have lost a lot of life.”

We are trying to show support for our brothers and sisters of color, in what we hope are meaningful ways. We have used our time in silence on social media to listen and learn. A video by @prestonsmiles is both informative and thought-provoking, check him out. If you search on the hashtag #amplifymelanatedvoices, you’ll find much more information. The Obama Foundation has a list of resources and links to action items with which we have engaged. We have sent letters to our Senators requesting their next steps, and are committed to making a positive impact on voter suppression beyond our home state. We’ve also realized we do not have artisans of color represented in our work. That’s embarrassing to admit and not even to realize, but it’s true. That needs to be addressed moving forward. We have much more to do.

Intertwined in all of this is the reality that vast numbers of people are without jobs, and bills need to be paid. People of all ages, backgrounds, and skin colors are trying to bootstrap, start new businesses, initiate side jobs, scrambling to make ends meet, and put food on the table.

In the stark quiet of the day, we sit in our uncomfortable silence, determined to remain hopeful, to look, listen, learn, and help build a path forward together.

With this blog, we attempt to document what it’s like to run a small business in the midst of global events and turmoil in America's streets. We document these lessons learned to remind ourselves, and others, who might also reflect and learn from this.

Embrace the Shift to Simple Comforts

Elegant vacation photos and highly produced event videos disappeared almost overnight in March. The landscape shifted from high-end glamour to the simple comforts of home and real-life, behind-the-scenes access. Suddenly, we were inside the sous chef’s kitchen and the home office of corporate CEO’s with their family pets. This silver lining moment grants all of us a hall pass to try some new things.

Meeting chefs, designers, and entrepreneurs in their personal space, via Instagram stories or live video, has been inviting and interesting. Seeing people dressed down, not made-up, sharing tips and ideas in a more personal way has been a big positive. Their willingness to be genuine, less than perfect, and vulnerable is refreshing. (On the flip side, we’ve also seen some big brand names do a less than stellar job hosting these more personal interviews.)

This is a moment to seize and apply to our businesses. How can we enhance the story around our core products or services and share unique tidbits of interest? Who can we introduce via a live video, YouTube or Instagram stories to let viewers see the genuine people behind the curtain? It’s a chance to build on what we already do if we’re brave enough to take the chance.

A couple of ways to put this opportunity to work:

• Many hotels have Artists in Residence, let’s meet one virtually each week, and learn more about their creative process, business lessons?

• Can we meet the restaurant’s sommelier and learn about a different wine each week that’s under $10? And what to pair it with that I can make on my grill?

• If you’re in the design space, what tips can you share for keeping my workspace looking cool, fun, energized? Anything to uplift our moods. What are the new trends in design, color, fabrics?

If you’re looking for current examples:

• @makerhotel in Hudson has gone live on Instagram with their chef making different plates, from pesto to pancakes (with his little girl).

• Masterclass is doing a free Q&A interview every Wednesday for anyone (nonmembers) to enjoy.

• Magazines and tech companies (Verizon Small Business webinar) are interviewing entrepreneurs on timely topics like how to manage finances in a crisis.

• Fashion influencers like Tom Ford are sharing tips for looking good on computer video chats.

It’s time to let our guard down and be super creative. Try something new. While we don’t love the reason that initiated all of this, we do think that the unintended outcome of genuine, unproduced content is a welcome bright spot in the day.

Defining Community and Who Belongs In It

There’s a pattern of questions we’re regularly asked regarding our artisan business community and how we originally got started. Here we take the mystery out of the equation, and answer the most popular questions asked of us. We hope this gives you a better feel for our world, and offers some insight if you’re thinking about building a business of your own.

How Do We Find the Artists?

This is the number one inquiry; people want to know the story behind our artisan network. There is no magic, single convention or show for this. Making these connections is a grassroots effort. We’re on the road traveling to art shows throughout the year. We attend big retail shows and small artisan craft shows. (More here.) We also connect through referrals between artists, and by doing our own research. No question, it is a time-consuming effort, which is why what we do is so valuable to our clients. We do all the driving, hotels and bad coffee to find beautiful artisan pieces, so our customers don’t have to.

How Did We Come Up with This Idea?

That’s a longer story. I’ve been creating thriving communities of different kinds for more than a decade, mostly in the start-up space and with a focus on university-based start-up communities. Eventually, I became more interested in moving toward a different kind of creative community. I missed my earlier years of creating content – writing, print, magazines – and wanted to get back to the areas I enjoyed. We had been going to art shows for years, and many of the artists we knew wanted to stay focused on enhancing their craft, not on packaging and distribution as much. Since I’ve created other successful communities in the past, launching an artisan community was a logical next step, both in terms of my skills and interests. Kevin (a.k.a. Rugged) has been a craftsman forever, so opening the door to his talents, creating beautiful gift boxes and other custom wood elements, was a big draw for him.

What Was Our First Step?

There isn’t one first step in launching a business. There are a ton. A lot of things happen in tandem once you decide to move forward - and that decision alone requires research, conversation and planning. Exploring the artisan community, and reaching out to different artists who were potentially a good match took months and much trial and error. While all that was going on, we were working with legal and accounting professionals to set a solid foundation. Then we launched a website (more here) and basic marketing materials.

We’ve come a long way since those days, and now have an established community of artists. We work closely with corporate executives, and have access to a growing number of talented professionals interested in working with us. It takes a village to build a business, and it’s important to determine quickly who belongs in your camp.

Listen, Learn and Land That Next Idea

If we listen closely enough, we find that often our customers will tell us what’s next, what to change, and how we can add value. Gathering data and metrics are important, however, combining that information with customer feedback provides a more complete picture. If you’re hearing the same suggestions coming at you in multiple ways, take the time to slow down and listen to what the market is telling you.

By paying close attention to customer feedback, we’ve made changes to our website, offerings, and to the packaging that goes with them. While not all of the changes suggested are possible or practical, many are worth considering.

One example comes from our ability to tell a story via the artisan elements we curate. Each month, we pull data to review which gift boxes have been the most popular during that timeframe, and which artisan pieces were sold. We work with a global community of artists with whom we’ve traveled to meet and built relationships. These artists represent different styles, as well as diverse geographic areas. Combined with our hand-crafted gift boxes, one could say our gifts tell a story using quality, custom, artisan elements that tie in with the origin of place.

Over time, we realized our clients kept asking for that story. First, we responded by posting where each artisan element is from on our website. Then we noticed customers wanted it in email or in summaries, so we began sending it to them with each invoice. Some clients then took our emails and printed them out, or copied and pasted them into a note that they then gave to their gift box recipients. Everyone knew the story then. Not only was their gift handcrafted, they knew the region and state where the pieces were made. As a result of observing all of this, we decided we should provide a brief, elegant summary with each gift box, as part of our service. This will mean our clients’ customers can enjoy the story of their artisan gift box, not just our customers. It also means we’ll have to figure out the printing, paper, sizing, cost and time investment, but that’s what our customers are asking for as part of their luxury gift experience.

This is one example of information we couldn’t have uncovered in metrics alone. Keep tabs on what’s being requested (or asked to be removed) and discuss those things. It could be the game changer that takes your business to the next level.