2013 National Stationery Show Recap

I am honestly feeling a little down and blue now that that National Stationery Show is over and I'm returning to work. I took off the entire week of NSS and I am SO glad that I did. Last year I only took one day off, and I regretted it BIG TIME. So this year, I took off an entire week, and I still don't feel like it was enough time.

I spent three days with some of the most amazing people - from familiar Minted friends, to my virtual stationery buddies - I can say that, without a doubt, the stationery industry houses the most talented, genuine, kindest people that exist. It's so humbling to be a part of the community.

While I could gush for hours about how much I love everybody, I thought instead you would prefer to read a few highlights.

NSS started off with a casual designer meet-up that I organized at The Jane Hotel. The room we were planning on hanging out in was mysteriously closed, so we took over the entire bad instead. It was kind of a "just hang out and catch up" type of get together, and that's exactly what we did. We chatted, laughed, snacked, laughed, and even ended the night playing subway roulette (you know that game, the one where you try to take a NYC subway on the weekend, and it turns out it's going along a different line, and then you end up in who-knows-where and you try to guess which subway might take you back to where you want to go? Yea, that game).

Here's a group shot of almost all the designers that came out Sunday night. We're missing a handful, but we're all here in spirit:

Back row, from left: Hailey, Anita, Kristen, Kimberly, Carol, Melanie, Lori, Chelsey Middle Row, from left: Carrie, Aspacia, Jill, Lauren, Amy, Nam, Kristie, Dawn Bottom Row, from left: Jen, Hannah, me

I got home that night well after midnight, which, for me, is crazy late (remember, I'm usually conked out on the sofa by 9pm). The Mexican we ate at 9pm gave me heartburn, so I crashed on the sofa for a few hours before driving into the Javits Center for my first day of walking NSS.

My favorite part of walking the show is seeing all of my paper pals kicked butt in their own booths. While I don't think that exhibiting is the right thing for me or my business, I really admire all of the ladies (and gents) that do it. The effort they put in is absolutely insane, and I love seeing the creative booths and amazing art they display. I have to admit, I am pretty crumby at taking pictures while I walk the show, so I'll send you over to Oh So Beautiful Paper to see all of Nole's recaps. She rocks, and thank goodness she captures all of the amazing stationery!

Anyway, after walking the show all day on Monday, Minted hosted a part for all of the Minted designers that were in town. It was at KTCHN Restaurant and was the perfect way to end a day full of walking (read, good food, comfy chairs, and great company). I'll also add that, thanks to Natasha from Minted, I had my very first (and oh-so-amazing) macaron.

After another late night (although, this time sans the heartburn), I was back and ready to go bright and early for day two of walking the show. One of the best parts of NSS is all the awesome swag and goodies that vendors give out - it's like the stationery version of trick or treating.

Hands down, my most favorite goodie came from the fabulous ladies at Ladyfingers Letterpress. Arley-Rose is one of the most talented hand letterers, and her live demos at their booth were mesmerizing. I caught them during a lull and she whipped up this awesome piece for me for my upcoming anniversary. She literally created it in under 2 minutes. I die.

The only way to end yet another awesome day, is with yet another awesome party. Thanks to Nole (and Minted + all the other sponsors) for throwing the kick-ass Paper Party '13. An entire room filled with everybody in the stationery industry + a photobooth = great times.

Here, again, is why I so love this community:

I'm so sad that it's all over, but am incredibly grateful for the time I got to spend with friends new and old. The outpouring of love and support for Sincerely, Jackie was heartwarming, and was exactly the encouragement I needed. I left feeling empowered and determined to keep working harder for my little business. So much has changed since last year's NSS, and I cannot wait for next year to see where I land and to catch up with everybody again.

Sincerely,

Helpful Resources for Stationery & Creative Small Businesses

 I’m the first person to admit that I don’t know the first thing about running a business. My undergraduate is in psychology, and while my Master’s in I/O Psychology, think of it as business psychology, I really have no educational background at all on marketing, managing a company, finances and so forth. And since I also don’t have a formal background in art or design (one year of interior design school, almost ten years ago, really doesn’t count) I feel like I’m sometimes fighting an uphill battle.

One thing that has helped me immensely is the wealth of knowledge that’s already put out there by others who have paved the way. It's inspired me to continue to blog about my own business growth - I have hope that I'm helping others out on their own that are going through what I've went through. I also rely on the design community to help me when I have questions, when I want to bounce ideas around, or when I just need a pep talk and some encouragement. But, at the end of the day, I know I’m a classroom learner, so as generous as people are in sharing their insights, sometimes I feel like I just need to take some time and attend something more formal.

Which is why I am so glad that some awesome ladies have put together different types of classes, conferences and seminars to help encourage and grow other small businesses. While I currently don’t have the budget to attend some of the trainings, I keep my eye on them, wishing, hoping, that someday I can attend. Here are a few options out there for those of you that may be interested in attending:

The Stationery Academy – Hosted by Whitney English & Natalie Chang
Making Things Happen – Hosted by Lara Casey, Emily Ley and Gina Zeilder
Business With Intention – Hosted by Jess Lively

In addition to workshops – there are also a bunch of really awesome conference type events that are out there, here are the ones I love (and the ones I hope to attend soon)

Altitude Design Summit (Duh)
National Stationery Show
New York International Gift Fair

I’m sure there are a lot of other great resources available out there, so please feel free to share them in the comments to this post. I’d love to hear about anything else!

National Stationery Show 2012 Pt 2 - The Matchbook Notebooks

In a previous post, I talked about my first ever trip to the National Stationery Show (NSS), which is like Mecca to stationery designers and paper people.

Well, as if going wasn't amazing enough, Amber of Flywheel Press, and sponsored by Legion Paper, put together an amazing scavenger hunt for luxurious Matchbook Notebooks. Amber collaborated with 15 letterpress printers with booths at the NSS to create and entire set of mini letterpress matchbooks that, once all collected, go together in a beautiful box.

Tanya and I were like two women on a mission - we had our checklist and booth numbers, and we loved going around and meeting all of the amazing designers and collecting our notebooks. We got all but one book, but Hailey of Hello Hailey saved the day! She was at the show the following day and managed to pick up the last book for us. You rock Hailey!

Designers that participated: Albertine Press, Anemone Letterpress, Bison Letterpress, Blackbird Letterpress, Flywheel Press, Kelp Design, L2 Design, Lady Pilot Letterpress, Maginating, May Day Studio, The Nic Studio, Paisley Tree Press, Paper Boat Studios, Pistachio Press, Sapling Press, Two Paper Dolls

Might I also add that, in general, I LOVE scavenger hunts! If you are ever in New York City, I highly recommend Watson Adventures, which has scavenger hunts that double as city tours. They are SO MUCH FUN! I have done the Grand Central and Little Italy hunts.

National Stationery Show 2012

May 19th-23rd was the National Stationery Show, which is like Christmas for those of us in the stationery world. I couldn't go last year (it was the weekend before my wedding) but this year there was just no excuse not to be there! Besides, it's right here at the Javits center in NYC, just a few subway stops away!

The show was amazing, with tons of booths for different designers, wholesalers, printers, retailers and so on. However, the best part of the show was, for me, meeting all of the Minted designers who traveled from near and far. A bunch of the Minted ladies got together to walk the show, but we got split up and I ended up spending the day with Tanya of Frooted Design - who is awesome! So glad I got to meet and spend time with her!

The Sunday before NSS, Kimberly FitzSimons of Daily Sip Studios organized a little "Minted-Meetup" over cocktails at a hotel in Times Square. I had SO much fun meeting all of the Minted ladies, as well as a bunch of other talented designers. We had a pretty good sized group, and it was so nice to talk about stationery with people who actually cared! It's so funny to put real people to the profile pictures, and apparently all of us are shorter in person, and I have a bit of a New Yawk accent - what can ya say,  I was bawn and raised on Lawng Island!

A few of the Minted designers during cocktail hour. From top left: Meg of Moglea, Kristie Kern, Kimberly of Daily Sip Studios, Lauren of Palm Papers, FRONT ROW: Laura Hankins of Duncan Park Papers, Lesa from Paper Nest by Lesa, Me, and Alston of B. Wise Paper

Once of the really fun things about the NSS is how much fun loot is given away. I ended up with bags and bags of stuff. I also apparently dropped by business card in lots of fish bowls, because I'm still having loot sent to my house. Just a few days ago an incredibly large and heavy box arrived from Neenah Paper - it was an entire set of samples for EVERYTHING they have. Holy crap, I tell you it was like Christmas came early! Now I just need to find some storage space for all the stuff!

Strolling through the booths was so inspirational. There were actually a few Minties that had booths, and man, they blew me away. I've always admired the work of fellow Minted designer Meg Gleason, of Moglea, but after meeting her and seeing her letterpress in person, I am just down right in awe of her. Her booth was amazing, and she's been getting tons of awesome press, it's so well deserved! You go Meg!

After the show closed on Monday, Minted hosted a little party for current designers, interested designers, and a few members of the press. Mariam Naficy, the CEO and owner of Minted (and awesome, awesome person all around) spoke to us for a little to share some Minted insights and future plans. Here's a group shot with most of us:

I cannot wait to go back to NSS in 2013! I've already decided that one day was just too short, and so next year I plan to give myself at least two days to walk to the show!

Fear of all Fears – Taxes (& paper work)

By Matt Hunsberger

My husband already knows this all too well, but now I’m admitting to you all that I’m a fearful person.


I’m afraid of heights (there’s a pill for that), I’m afraid of flying (pill for that, too, please), I’m afraid of the dentist (laughing gas for that), I’m afraid of giving blood - or rather, the fainting that goes with it (I’m a fainter), and I’m afraid of big social gatherings (there’s alcohol for that).

But at this point in the growth of my business, it’s time to file for a Tax ID. I know I should have done it a long time ago, but I haven’t, because, well, I’m afraid of that too.

Since the “creation” of Believe Notes, I’ve been going about my business without a whole ton of accountability. It’s scary to admit that, but it’s true and I’ve been very, very casual about how I do business. I feel like once I have a Tax ID, I am no longer just somebody that’s doing this design thing casually, but somebody that has a real business and is being held accountable by those crazy Tax people. I don’t know who they are, but damn, they are scarier than the dentist.

Last year I actually reached out to The Company Corporation to file for a Tax ID number. I even paid the fee and filled out all the forms, but then, right at the end, I got cold feet and shredded the paperwork. I’m not proud of that. But for some reason I am just really, really afraid of the whole tax thing.

I think part of my fear of taxes is my fear of failure. I’m terrified that I’m going to fail at my business because I’m not good enough at paper work and bookkeeping. I mean, I love stationery design, why can’t I continue doing that without having to bother with the paper work? (Hint, hint, I think it’s illegal)

So this year I am doing it. I am filing for my Tax ID number. We’ve already made an appointment with our tax guy – OK, so I chickened out and couldn’t make the appointment myself, luckily I have a husband that did it for me (and then bought me a lollipop and juice box too).

I’ll also be honest and say that I probably wouldn’t have decided to file for my Tax ID number if it weren’t for the fact that I need it to register for attending the National Stationery Show, happening this May. My desire to attend this year, and meet all my fellow Mintie designer friends, has far outweighed my fear of the tax gremlins. Thank you, Minted & the Minted Community for giving me the boost in motivation to go ahead and start this process. You’re all so inspiring, and truly, while I don’t want to let myself down, I really don’t want to let you all down either!

So, up until I meet with our tax guy, I’ll be considering things like possibly changing my business name to be my personal name – what do you think of Jackie Mangiolino Design Studio? I don’t know. It seems a little too real for me! Ha, see, I’m already chickening out…..But really, I want to keep things as easy as possible, and if the tax people say a different business model/name will be easier, well then I’m doing it!

Anyway, were any of you as afraid as I am? Is this going to be as painful as I’m anticipating? Is the bookkeeping really impossible? Do you have any tips?? I could certainly use some encouragement