WonderfulGraffiti

Ann's Programs

My sister Ann has a stepdaughter named Stephanie. Stephanie is getting married tomorrow. Ann asked if Stephanie could get a discount on a lot of our wedding stuff in return for their photos to add to our website.

I said we'd do everything at cost.

We got everything out in a timely fashion, although there were some communications hangups between Stephanie, Ann, Michael The Designer and me.

The only thing remaining were their Black Tie programs. First, Stephanie wanted four pages of text on two pages worth of space. We had to work that out. Here's the big snafu though.

Ann is moving into a new condo this week. She has a job interview. And who knows what else. We needed to get the layout and text approved and I couldn't get in touch with Ann for a week. Okay, three days. But they were three days this week, and remember I said the wedding is tomorrow. Turns out in moving, she had no email access and her phone got packed or something. She finally checked her messages and called in a panic. "The wedding's Saturday!" she said. As if we didn't know.

We started printing and assembling 200 wedding programs around 4pm. Which is when UPS comes. Knowing we had to get them to FedEx by 9pm, Geord panicked (and wanted to play basketball at 7pm) so he called in the troops––Ryder and Mackenzie. Ryder was so put out. The last thing a 15-year old boy wants to do is assemble wedding programs.

We got the programs done and to FedEx about 8am. As Mackenzie would say, "Easy peasy lemon squeezy."

Serena & Lily

My sister introduced me to Serena & Lil (http://www.serenaandlily.com) a company that sells furnishings for baby and childrens rooms. She led me to it because they have beautiful merchandise, but I love it because it's owned by two self-described "go-getter Type-A scatterbrains." Apparently I'm not the only scatterbrained entrepreneur out there! Made me feel part of a club.

Here's a line of copy from their "About Us" page I love: "As our products evolve, our design values stay the same: to maintain a sense of integrity and a visual standard that is authentic and original in a sea of copycats."

Amen.

Today's Quote

"Creative people are basically this 50/50 blend of ego and insecurity. From an ego standpoint, you think you're hot shit, but really, deep down, when you go home to bed at night, you go, 'I don't know if I'm good enough. I'll try to make it better tomorrow." – Lee Clow

A Return To Simple Invitations?

When I was married long ago in a place far, far away, wedding invitations rarely deviated from the traditionally formal: engraved cream or white card stock with an embossed border and black ink. I thought my sister’s invitation was daring because the right edge was “deckled,”––a fancy word for “torn.”

A delicate piece of vellum paper was placed in front of the printing to prevent smudging––a nod to earlier times when ink actually smudged. The invitation, vellum and RSVP card were all tucked inside a slightly larger envelope with the recipient’s name handwritten on the front. THAT envelope went into another envelope for mailing.

Today’s invitations are gasp-provoking works of art. Colored inks, luxe ribbons, unconventional papers, die cuts, photos, inventive shapes. And why be limited to paper? We've seen wine bottles sent as invitations. And while we're talking about excess, I might sheepishly mention our Giant Lollipop Invitations: http://tinyurl.com/ocphzg

Imagine my astonishment when my sister recently showed me an invitation to a black-tie optional wedding she’d been invited to in upstate New York. Cream cardstock. Black ink. Embossed border.

It seems that everything old is becoming new again.

Overview of an Interview

Here's what we talked about with Mikaela Hunt for a 6pm segment yesterday on http://www.nbc4i.com/:

* Taking risks.

When I casually mentioned that we sold our house six years ago to finance our website, they related our start-up risks to taking risks in the current economy. I don't think they're the same. The first risks were made to start, the current risks were made to NOT STOP. Or is a risk just a risk?

* What we do.

I was hoping the segment would deal more with the artistry we bring to interior design and wedding communications. Their emphasis was our process, which isn't much different from a sign shop's. Not too sexy.

* The SBDC www.cscc.edu/cpe/sbdc/sbdchome.asp
At this part of the segment, they said I was a little emotional and I was but don't think it was obvious.
The question put to me was something like, "Who or what has helped you most in your business?" Or maybe it was "Do you have any tips for other start-up businesses?"

This was my cue to talk about the SBDC, because they'd set up the interview to help get the word out about their services, but I was more than happy to do it for them. I've written about the SBDC here before.

We paid huge amounts of money for professional help through the years, and none of it was as valuable as the SBDC has been to us. Should we approach venture capitalists, we asked them? They said let's try, and we'll help put your presentation together. We asked, "What about the signs we're required to post about government regulations? Where do we buy them?" They said why buy them? Go to this website and download them for free. We asked, "What about employee relations? What do we need to do to be safe legally when we hire and fire them" They said, "Go to this seminar." We asked questions about international trade, networking, social marketing and financing. Where I got teary during the interview–not very professional, I know–it was when I said, "They've been our safety net. Whenever we needed answers we couldn't find anywhere else, they were always there for us."

And it's true. They always have been.

PS. I look old on TV. My 81-year old dad looks great.

TV Interview With Channel 4

Mike Bowers at the Columbus OH Small Biz Dev Center called last week to ask if we wanted to do an interview with one of our local news stations for a weekly series on small businesses. Just finished it. Met with reporter Mikaela Hunt and cameraman Joe, and it was easy. So many of the questions she asked were those I've answered before, or had asked myself many times before. Plus she's easy to talk with.

Don't miss it. Tonight at 6 on NBC 4.

nbc4i.com

Complaints On Our Site

Got an email from a visitor to the WG website today. She wanted to give us a heads up about one of the photos in the gallery that was accompanied by a less-than-enthusiastic remark. Thought maybe we’d made mistake by including it. (The writer orders from us all the time, so she can’t have been that unhappy.)

I put  the photo and accompanying remark into our album on purpose. Strange but true. Here’s why:

I want to make our company real to our visitors. I don’t believe that an endless list of happy customer endorsements is proof that any company is perfect. I don’t think anyone else believes it either.

Our company is about self-expression. I believe our visitors want to be free to share their experiences without censorship. They’re free to express themselves in endless other places on the internet. Perhaps they’ll be less inclided to vent with venom if they do it on our site?

Finally, I’m not afraid of a little negativity. I know we have an excellent reputation for customer service and integrity. I think the quality of our site and our obvious pride in our art inspires confidence in our customers. 

Am I wrong to think the way I do? I don’t know. M.

Race To FedEx

Last night, Geord and I were in the office around 7pm. Just as we were closing up, I check my email and there was one marked URGENT from Pink Frosting, our wedding partner in Australia. As you know, Australia is in a way different time zone than we are, so it was just luck I happened to be around when she emailed. (I try not to read emails at home.)

We had shipped a set of wedding banners to a Pink Frosting customer in California. Due to a shipping snafu that was entirely my fault, we had to redirect the shipment enroute and it’s not scheduled to arrive at it’s destination until the 13th. The customer needs it today, the 7th.

While I banged my head against a wall in despair, Geord fired up the machines and started another set of banners. I raced home to make dinner for the hungry husband.
(Lentil soup from the freezer and homemade corn bread–I’m a fast cornbread maker.)
Packed it all in the picnic basket and Ryder joined us for an intimate dinner in the conference room.

If there hadn’t been another order with a “C” banner laying on the cutting table, we wouldn’t have had time to pull off. The printer was in a good mood and the remaining banners went together quickly. Geord and I got them to FedEx five minutes before the 9pm deadline.

Doesn’t that story make you yearn to own your own business?

Weekend Walk-Through

So this past Saturday, I'm out working in the front yard around 7:30am. Yeah, I'm a freak like that. A friendly acquaintance runs by, as she often does when I'm out there on a summer weekend. Usually we'll chat a bit, sometimes she keeps running with a little wave. This time she stopped and asked "Are you interested in selling your house?" I said, "Always." She said, "Wellllllll, I have two friends who are looking to leave their home in about a month. One of them has a parent moving into the apartments (at the end our block.) I said I'd love to show them the house, when? She said, "Today or tomorrow?"

Needless to say, I dropped my trowel and dashed into the house. What did I do first? I grabbed a paint brush. I'd been feeling crabby about the house lately. It was looking shabby and I wanted to move. Well. I touched up the wood work and it felt like a new house! Had the boys drag the big pots from the sunroom to the back deck, rearranged that room. To the daybed I added the bedspread I got on the curb.

Rearranged the art on the living room buffet. You'll remember two of the framed ancestors fell off and broke a few weeks ago. Cleaned every corner of Ryder's room (Oh My God, it was filthy even though every week I say, "Go upstairs and clean your room" but I'll admit I don't check his job as often as I should.

I worked 20 hours straight, taking only 4 hours to sleep. This may sound strange, but it was fun! And I took it as a challenge to make the house look as great as it could.

The couple who looked at it seemed to like it; it had what they were looking for but they didn't look in closets so I don't think they were that interested.

This morning Ryder was looking for a t-shirt he's left on the stairs. I said, "Oh, it's in the oven. Take out the place mats, too.)