How My Career Has Evolved, Part 1

An envelope I 'wove' recently for Elevated Envelope - visit ephemera-press.com for details

A common question I’m asked is: “What are you working on these days?”  I thought it’d be fun to share with you.  I always enjoy learning what other people fill their days with.  It’s also evolved a lot in the last few years as Sage Wedding Pros has taken off.  Today, learn a little bit more about me and how I got here exactly.

Career Transitions

In my younger years, I was very intentional about deciding how my career would go (or so I thought).  I applied for colleges at age 16, identifying the top accounting programs in the nation.  I had visions of ‘rising the corporate ladder’ and knew that USC’s accounting program could get me there.  I worked for Deloitte right after college, an incredible experience in which I truly learned the ins and outs of business.  If you can read a company’s numbers you can understand the ‘secret code’ to how things happen in that organization.  But, I was young… and I longed for ‘more’.

I knew I wanted to leave the world of accounting for a more creative life.  So, in 2000 I left my prestigious job at Deloitte for a small but well-established company that imported and distributed children’s high-end fashion.  I was a west coast sales manager and also oversaw the corporate showroom in LA.  It was a huge change but I loved the opportunity to build relationships with people as my sales responsibilities required.  I also loved merchandising window displays and communicating to our client-buyers how the brand ideals from our French manufacturers could be shared with their American customers.

In my job I worked mostly with specialty boutique buyers and some high-end department store buyers.  The boutiques were independently-owned clothing stores and the owners were just every-day people.  I became so intrigued with the life of the entrepreneur.  I found myself unconsciously researching these business owners during my sales meetings with them.  How did they start their business?  Why did they start a business?  What are the biggest challenges they face?  And, in 2004, I decided to give entreprenurialism a shot.  I quit my job and jumped in head first.

An invitation company is born!

I have always loved paper and launched my business mmm… paper.  Honestly, I had no idea what I was doing.  I didn’t know a thing about design, but I loved paper.  In hindsight, this was totally irresponsible of me!  But, I learned a lot.  And, I learned to specialize in the paper and making paper come together.  I am a tactile designer, not a graphic designer.  And, I specialize in forming wedding invites out of beautiful papers.

The early days of my business were trial and error.  I made some little notecard and stationery sets and would sell them to friends and parents’ friends.  I even did a craft show in a small town near my parents’ house and failed miserably.  (Everyone said I was too expensive.  HA!)  My mom, god bless her, bought 5 sets of stationery at that craft show.  She was my only customer.

I had a friend who was getting married and she knew that I was starting a business.  She asked if I’d be interested in doing her wedding invites.  I was honest with her.  I wasn’t sure if I was skilled in putting together wedding invites.  But, I planned to put some ideas together to see what she thought.  And – she LOVED them.  We ran with one design.  And, that’s when I really started thinking, “I like this wedding invite thing!  I don’t know if I want to be making notecards.  This wedding thing is amazing: the couple, the decor, the design, the colors.  I want to do wedding invites!”  And, my quick little accounting head worked quickly to realize that the profit margins were also better than selling stationery sets.

And, from there it went.  This friend had a friend at work.  The co-worker friend had seen the wedding invites I did and fell in love.  She wanted to work with me too.  And, really that’s how it all started.  Soon enough I was making wedding invites for friends of friends and their friends and co-workers, etc.

Keep in mind, I was the queen of odd jobs in addition to my growing business.  I did some part-time visual merchandising for Coach.  I helped a relative with his market research business by writing reports.  I did some bookkeeping for my father-in-law.  My business wasn’t yet paying the bills and all of these funny odd jobs allowed me the flexibility to work on my business while still earning an income.

For me, this was a time of “I’m just gonna see if this business takes off.”  When I moved to Seattle in 2005, it did.  Seattle is an incredible city.  Businesses begin and thrive there.  People support small business in a huge way.  And, it’s very easy to promote your business in Seattle and ‘be discovered’.  My style of invite design, paper crafting, was not yet being done in Seattle.  I was in the right place at the right time… and things took off!

Now, here’s for the straight-up truth about my business… I’ve had some great successes and some huge failures.  I’ve never made millions (never even close).  There have been times that my cash flow was super-solid and there are times I had a hard time paying the rent.  (But, I ALWAYS paid my rent.)  And, there are times I didn’t pay myself.  There are times that my pricing was too low and then I learned to make it right.  I always had great people work for me.  (I am so grateful for that.)  I *NEVER* have missed a deadline and I always put out quality work.  And, as I’ve matured I’ve learned that I am a better business person that I am an artist.  (More on that later.)

If you want to see how this story ends, you’ll have to come back tomorrow… please do!