Life Lately

The past few weeks have been insanely busy. Between all of the work that goes into a full out rebranding, to trying to keep up with having a life (what's that, you say?), I feel like I'm a bit frazzled lately. I've been spending every evening, after work, keeping up with current orders, and then I spend 24/7 on the weekends working on my new website, shop items, and general rebranding things.The good news is that I'm planning on officially launching my new business next month. I'm scared and excited and totally, completely ready.

Since I've been working so hard lately, I realized that I haven't been sharing the non-business things that are going on, so I thought I would give you a quick recap, and then some longer posts throughout the week.

So, for now, here's what the past two or so weeks have looked like.

FRIST ROW: I have mild Celiac's disease, which is a gluten allergy. I don't always follow a gluten free diet, but I have been really trying to stick to it lately. Aside from pizza (my ultimate weakness), GF living isn't that difficult for me, I love yogurt, smoothies, salads, and the occasional GF baked item.

SECOND ROW: Design work has been great lately. Lots of fun projects, plus all of the design work I am doing for my own new business.

THIRD ROW: Last week my husband was doing some work around the house when a picture frame fell and cut him down his forehead. I had to take him to the hospital, and luckily it was something they were able to glue back together. Fingers crossed that he doesn't end up with a Harry Potter scar on his head.

As I enter this week, I am hoping that there aren't any bumps in the road (or my husband's head) so that I can keep on moving along with the groove I've got going.

Thanks everybody, really, for reading this blog and supporting me every day!

Newsletter & Coffee Talk

 A few weeks ago I announced that I would be launching a newsletter as a way to better bring information and updates to all of you, and I am really excited to say that the first newsletter will be sent tomorrow! My friend and fellow designer, Brooke, helped me create a really beautiful template by coding it all nice & nice. Thank you Brooke!

So now that I have it basically finished, I want to share a few thoughts I have on the process.

First off, what is the purpose of my newsletter? As I began typing it, I really felt like I was sharing things two people might discuss while sipping caffé lattes at a local coffee house. It felt casual, comfortable and personal. I realized that I view this blog as the more formal form of communication, as if I was giving a presentation to a large audience at a conference. On the other hand, the newsletter is like all of the informal conversations that happen between friends before-hand. The newsletter is where I share with you how I feel, what I'm excited/nervous about, and what my big plans are. Maybe, in the future, you'll hear me formally address some of the topics here on the blog, and sometimes you'll hear about things that go on behind the scenes that are just between us coffee sipping friends.

So if you're interested in having coffee with me, once or twice a month, I invite you to sign up for the newsletter.

I'll also share some insights around my blog, shop, and products. It's important for me to give an accurate view of what it's like to grow a business, and the things that work and things that don't. I plan on offering up which blog posts were the most popular, what shop products sold the most, and what new products and offers I have available. Maybe I'll call this section of the newsletter a trend update?

So if you're interested in hearing about the posts and products that have been the most popular, I invite you to sign up for the newsletter.

If you want to hear about sales, promotions, and new items, I invite you to sign up for the newsletter.

And above all else, if you want to hear me talk, unguarded and openly, about the strategy, dreams, and goals for my business, I invite you to join the newsletter.

Sign up today, so that you get the very first newsletter, which is being sent out tomorrow!

March 2013 Recap - Rebranding, Finding Purpose, and Custom Projects

Every time I get together with friends or family, they always ask "what's new", or "how's the business", and I always give the same answer "nothing new, business is good". But the truth is, there's a lot new, I just don't know where to start, and, since the questions are probably more courtesy than curiosity, I don't want to bore anybody with a long-winged answer about what's been going on with the business.

This month alone has been huge, so I thought I would do a recap, including things I already shared on the blog, and some of the things that have happened behind the scenes.

March started off with a bang, when I attended Jess Lively's Business and Life With Intention workshops up in Boston, MA. I met a group of amazing ladies and they encouraged me to take the next steps that my business truly needed. With their guidance and support, I decided to bring a more focused purpose to my business, change my business name, and start a newsletter. (ps - if you want to hear more about the business name and purpose, sign up for the newsletter). I've also been working with Jess on one heck of an awesome project, and I cannot wait to share the fruits of our labor in April.

With all of the new things going on, and adding a rebranding to my plate, my free time has dwindled to less than nothing. I have learned the beauty of outsourcing, and I have not been disappointed. My free time suddenly became very valuable, and hiring people to help me do the things I needed to do, but didn't have time to do, has been so nerve wrecking and rewarding. I didn't realize how much of a control freak I was until I decided to start letting go, but boy, I am so glad I did. I hired one of my most favorite designers (and friend) to create my new logo, and I cried when I first saw it. Guys, I just cannot wait to share it with you! I'm also going to be hiring somebody to rebuild/update my new website - I build the Believe Notes website myself, and I just don't have to time to fiddle with it. I'm also starting to think about hiring an intern, assistant, or marketing specialist to help free up some of my time for designing while still growing and marketing my business. (a formal announcement hasn't been made yet, but if you or somebody else you know is interested in joining me, please let me know!)

One of the biggest things for my new business is growing my portfolio. I want to offer brides the most stunning custom invitations ever, so I took a leap of faith and decided to waive my custom design fee in order to attract more brides. So far I have had mixed results, lots and lots of inquiries, but only a few bookings. The offer is still standing, so please continue to take advantage of it an spread the word.

Ironically enough, my #1 blog post this month was my curly hair guide. The post has gotten more than 10x my average views and was pinned over 200 times. I should have known that there were a ton of you curly girls out there, just waiting for the best tips ever - trust me, I've been there! I'm contemplating a monthly post dedicated to curly hair. Would you be interested in reading it?

Behind the scenes, my home is a wreck, my fridge is empty, and my eyeballs are so dry (from the constant computer screen exposure) that I started leaving eye drops next to all my hand lotions.

Speaking of outsourcing, my husband and I have decided it might be time to hire a cleaning service. Between my full-time job, business, and graduate school, and all of his overtime, we acknowledge that we just cannot keep up with daily maintenance. I'm a cheap chick at heart, so we've been waiting to see a groupon for a cleaning service.

But even thought our dining room table is covered in samples and my office has been taken over by orders and packaging supplies, I think it's all kind of great, because it means I am growing, growing, growing. Using social media efficiently has helped cut down a lot of my time during the day, but I think that once I add a few extra pairs of hands, I'll start to be able to breathe again.

Here are some of my personal highlights from March:

1- Finding my business purpose
2- Establishing a relationship with amazing specialty printers
3- Seeing my work in print in the latest issue of WellWed Hamptons magazine
4- Finishing up an amazing project with Jess Lively
5- Doing some logo work for a few local, talented photographers

So there you have it, my March recap. It's no wonder I sprouted my second grey hair! Thank you everybody for your continued support in my business and blog, if there's ever anything you want me to talk about or share, please let me know, as I want to give you as much value as possible - and, as always, I love comments, so please leave one if you're feeling the urge.

Dealing with Mistakes with Sincerity and Grace

The past few months have been so life changing for me - I've made the choice to bring intention into my business plan, and I have some big changes happening behind the scenes. While I am really excited about the great things that are happening for my business, I don't want to mislead you and have you think that gorgeous custom projects and pretty features are the only things that go on for me.  Trust me, I have had a few "I don't think I can do this" days, and "what on earth have I gotten myself into" moments.

A few weeks ago I had one of my worst days since the iPad cover fiasco. I don't want to bore you with the details, but I'll say that involved a pretty big spelling mistake on the information card for custom letterpress invitations that were a rush order. The spelling mistake was never caught during the proofing stage and got approved for print with the mistake - the letterpress printers didn't catch it, and the assembly folks (ahem, my husband) didn't catch it either. In fact, the mistake was so easy to miss, that I think my bride may have sent a bunch of her invitations before realizing it.

As a designer, I felt like I failed. But after curling up in bed, and briefly allowing myself to feel like an absolute failure, I realized that moping wasn't going to solve anything. I gave myself about fifteen minutes to feel like crap, and then I got the heck out of bed and began reaching out to my designer friends for support and working my butt off to make the situation right. I emailed my bride immediately and apologized, apologized, apologized. I also found my best way to fix the situation and quickly gave her my recommendation. While we couldn't have the cards reprinted using letterpress, I was able to have them flat printed on the same cotton paper and mailed to my bride within 24 hours.

Was the situation ideal? Absolutely not. Did I handle it with grace and sincerity? I think I did. And to be honest, the fact that such a bad thing could happen and I was able to handle it in a way that my bride still trusted me and loved working with me is such a huge compliment that it absolutely reaffirmed how much I love doing stationery.

So to all of you small business owners, newbies, designers, or whatever - mistakes happen. Bad days happen, guilt happens, tears happen. It all happens and it's not fun, but it will not break you and does not mean you aren't good at what you do. These things happen so that we can learn from them and make our businesses better because of it. Emily Ley says it best in that we should hold ourselves to a standard of grace, not perfection. We cannot be perfect, but gosh darnit, if we can handle those imperfections with grace, we have accomplished a whole lot.

Do any of you have a mantra that has gotten you through a particularly bad day? I'd love to hear about it in the comments section.

Want to hear more about what's going on behind the scenes? For business tips, sales, and other fun tid-bits, please sign up for the Believe Notes Newsletter!

3 Ways to Bring Purpose into Your Business

Just the other day I shared my experience with Jess Lively's Business and Life With Intention workshops, however I did not share how my own purpose changed/evolved because of the workshop. While I'm not completely ready to share all of the details, I am excited to share a few insights along with three key learnings that I think you can apply to your business immediately.

 1- Make sure that your brand is truly your brand. Does your company name really fit that special thing that you do, and does it roll off your tongue with pride when you tell others who you are? This was huge for me - and where I spent the majority of my focus during the workshop. It's also why I will be changing my business name in the very near future. I can't share the new name yet, but I guarantee that it feels to me like a warm comfy sweater I never want to part with (thanks to Elizabeth, for suggesting it! And thank you Jess for encouraging the brainstorm session that it resulted from!)

2- Does your branding actually fit you? I'm not just talking about your name here, but I'm talking about the design. The colors, fonts, textures, packaging, logos etc - do they all look like things you'd have around your house? Are they something that you're friends would see in the store and know immediately that it's so you? For a long time I felt like I needed my brand to be different and unique, but after much trial and error, what I found is that I actually needed my brand to be just the same as everything else in my life. Luckily, my colors and branding are very much my style - and in fact, if you were to have attended my wedding or walked into my home, you'd find yourself surrounded by the same whites, creams, aquas and corals that are also part of my brand. Correction, the style is part of my brand, it's part of me and it just so happens that my wedding, home and brand are all also parts of me. Is your branding an extension of who you are?

3- Just because you can do it all, doesn't mean you should. Find other experts that are able to do what you want to do, but can do it better than you could ever do it yourself. Delegating and reaching out to other talented people is a tool to use. For me, I built my entire website myself because I didn't have the budget to hire somebody, but now that I am going to be rebranding, I'm reaching out to people that I know can help me way better than I could help myself. Plus, but letting other people help, I am freeing up my time to focus on other aspects of business. Anybody out there a marketing pro and want to help me get my brand out there more?

Are the above things that you thought about when setting up your business? Are you thinking about them now?

Growing a Business With Intention

This past month has been huge for me. Not because of high sales or profit, but because of direction, purpose, inspiration and growth. For the longest time I felt like I was clawing along for my business, but that all changed a few months ago when I decided to stop clawing, to stop trying, to stop forcing and to start being true, honest and confident in myself and my business. My new direction was solidified after this post, when out of the blue Jess Lively called me to talk about a new collaboration (more on the collaboration to come in a future post!).

After talking to Jess on the phone, I just sat at my dining room table, perfectly still. My stomach was doing flips and the big-blue-peaceful-pool inside my gut was filled with the kind of joy that comes just before something life-changing is about to happen. I knew at that moment of stillness, something big and amazing was happening and that I would never exactly be the same.

Attending one of Jess's Business With Intention workshops has been on my radar for some time now, and collaborating with her offered me the opportunity to attend the Boston workshop. I was terrified to be traveling by myself, to a place where I didn't really know anybody, and to meet somebody that I really admired. However, keeping true to my goal for networking, along with the feeling of big things coming, was enough to motivate me to face my fears and just do it. Boy, am I so grateful that I did.


Not only am I kind of convinced that Jess is a long lost friend that I never knew I had, but she's one hell of a genuine person too. She's generous, giving, open, honest and she is passionate about serving others. Her workshop was exactly what I would have expected from such an amazing person - it was filled with purpose and intention, and it was 100% focused on helping each person build a more purposeful business.

We had an intimate group of 4 ladies plus Sophie, our Boston Foodie and Allison, Jess's Boston Assistant/stylist attend the Business With Intention workshop, and every single one of us came out with 6 new friends and allies in our purposeful business ventures. Jess led the group beautifully and spent a lot of time with each of us on our businesses. I can tell you that some amazing things are going to be happening for us 6 ladies - Elizabeth is about to blow the world away with her amazing statement jewelry and personal style; Ashley is finally taking her branding expertise and investing in her own perfect couture branding; Ashlee is helping guide GenY-ers find their purpose and change their lives; Sophie is going to teach all of us how to cook just as we'd like to; and Allison is helping us all through interior design and styling (and she's already working with me on a new project of my own!)

The first day was focused on business, while the second day was the Life With Intention Workshop. Again, we had an intimate group of 4 plus Sophie and Allison. Elizabeth joined me for the two day journey, by also attending the Life With Intention workshop, in addition to Sheerly and Patrick, who were such a pleasure to get to know! Just as she had done on the first day, Jess spent significant time with each of us, talking about our lives, dreams, goals and intentions. It was intense, but it was the good kind of intense - the kind of intense that leaves you on a high for weeks and weeks.

After the workshop was over, Jess hitched a ride back with me to NYC - we chatted about everything from our pups (her adorable Franklin and of course my Miss Juliet), to ice-cream sundaes and smoothie cleanses. Jess is one of those people that just makes life better (and long car rides) - she's contagious and I feel honored to have had the experience of getting to work with her and to know her better. If you ever have the chance to attend one of her workshops, I HIGHLY recommend it. However, if you can't attend a workshop, you should absolutely follow her website, which is filled with tips and purpose for life and business.

Over the next few weeks you will see all of the changes that I plan on making as a result of attending the workshops. While I would love to share it all now, I'm leaving it for a future post - but know that it's major, and positive, and filled with intention and purpose.

How do you bring intention and purpose into your business? Is it working for you? I'd love to hear all about it!

10 Things About Jackie, the Designer Behind Believe Notes

I've really been focusing a lot lately on my business and design work, and I don't want you to forget that there's a lady behind this blog and business. I have definitely made an effort to put my face out there more, but I wanted to take some time to share things about myself personally.

So here are ten things about myself that you probably didn't know.

1- Even though I grew up on the water, I can't swim and need to hold my nose when I go underwater.

2- I've battled my weight my whole entire life. I have Hashimoto's Disease, and an under active Thyroid - I thought going on medication would make my weight battle easier, and so I relaxed with my healthy eating habits and ended up packing on a whopping 20lbs. I try not to allow myself to feel miserable about my body, since we've been through a lot together, but I have the continuous goal of taking the weight off.

3- I'm a by-the-books and follow-the-rules type of person. I don't go through red lights, I stop at the stop signs, and I buy all my music (except for the stuff my husband puts on my computer, which I assume is just magic).

4- I've been pulled over twice in my life. The first time I was so scared that I gave the police officer my health insurance card instead of my car insurance card. She got a really (really!) good laugh and let me go. The second time was just a regular seat-belt check.

5- I'm an early bird. I get up during the week between 5-6am and am in my office by 7:30am. On the weekends I get up at the same time and start my design work almost immediately. However, I have an old lady bedtime and tend to pass out on the sofa, iPad in my lap & TV on, by 9:30pm.

6- I can't prepare/cook chicken on the bone. It completely freaks me out and gives me the fingernails-on-chalk feeling.

7- I have never dyed my hair and I only wash it with baking soda and vinegar and use an organic peppermint conditioner. It's a miracle concoction that has helped turn my super dry hair into healthy, split-free curls. While it doesn't work for everybody, it's been a huge help for me.

8- When I get really, really excited about something, I get all quiet and stoic for a good long time before finally acting like a 12-year-old-that-met-Beiber. I guess I really hide my emotions (without intending to!).

9- I hate blood, cuts, blisters, splinters and all that sort of stuff. And since I've been known to faint in the past, it's best to just sit back and let me freak the heck out over that paper cut while very quickly putting a band aide on it.

10 - My favorite veggies are roasted brussel sprouts and roasted asparagus - little olive oil, lots of garlic and some salt and pepper. Yum.

So there you have it, a bunch of random facts about me, Jackie. Maybe you can relate to some of them, maybe not, but hopefully it gives you a better idea of who I am! I'll try to continue adding more of my personal life into this blog, and I look forward to you all getting to know me better. Do you have ten things about yourself you want to share? Or maybe just one thing? I'd love to know more about you, too!

Designers Care: Growing a Second Brand

As you (hopefully) know, Designers Care was a HUGE part of 2012 for me. It’s pretty crazy to think that something that happened in mid-November could have such a huge impact on the entire year, but it most certainly did.

I learned a whole lot about business in just a single month with Designers Care, and what I’ve learned has helped me really sit and hash things out for both Believe Notes and Designers Care. Since I know a lot of people had eyes on Designers Care, and tons of designers participated by donating designs, I wanted to take some time to really talk through the behind-the-scenes things that went into getting the business up and running in the first place, and then all of the things that have happened since.

First – let’s start with how it got up and running.

I wanted to create a shop that would sell products that were great quality and fairly inexpensive to make, so that I would be able to donate as much as possible. I also wanted flexibility to be able to sell small quantities and a variety of options, which would eliminate big printing costs. Having stamps created allowed me to spend a one-time fee for the creation of the stamps, and then use the stamps over and over with different colors, papers, inks, sizes etc.

Starting up was fairly easy, with all thanks going to the Minted designer community for setting up a fund where people donated. I also received very generous donations from companies such as Simon’s Stamps, French Paper Company, and Envelopes.com, which helped provide me with enough paper, envelopes and stamps to get the shop up and running. Whatever wasn’t donated was covered by the fund, and luckily we had enough to get through the first wave of orders.

Fast forward to now, and I’m finding myself having to figure out the future of this shop. I’ve run out of almost all of my initial materials (except for the stamps) and there really isn’t enough money left to replenish everything. I also realize that the business isn’t set up legally (as a charitable donation with an appropriate Tax ID), and there are no real business processes or policies in place. There is also a challenge around the fact that I donated my time (and a LOT of it) to actually stamp all of the cards, and it was incredibly time consuming and began to take money away from Believe Notes (since I had to turn down paying design projects due to the time it took for me to handle Designers Care).

During the month of December, I spent a lot of time thinking about the future of Designers Care and where I wanted to see the shop go. Closing down was never an option, since I genuinely believe in the purpose and message, but I knew I needed to make changes. I considered options such as creating a Designers Care Zazzle or Society 6 shop, which would remove me from having to spend so much time stamping, but at the end of the day, I stand by the original purpose of the shop, which is to have high quality, hand stamped designs. So there won’t really be any product changes moving forward, but there will be a lot of thought around business models and whatnot.

While I still have some big fish to fry, I’ll be making the following changes in the very near future:

• Orders will only be filled on Saturdays and will ship on Mondays
• I will no longer be donating 100% of the money. While I haven’t worked out the exact percentages, I need to take out enough of the earnings to cover raw materials and operating fees
• Prices and shipping will increase slightly
• Suggested paper & ink color pairings will be on each listing

As I move forward in working through changes with Designers Care, I do plan to accept new designs. I will certainly make it clear and known when I am ready to accept new designs – I know so many of you are interested, and I am so appreciative of that!

Thank you to everybody that has helped Designers Care come so far, and thank you in advance for all you’ll do to help move the brand forward!

The Story of the Failed iPad Cases

Today I'm going to open up and share something that I really wish I didn't have to share. But I think I do, no, I know I do. This is an overdue post, and I apologize for that, but it’s been the most difficult post I’ve ever had to write to date. It’s also long – and while I tried and tried to edit and scale back, I just felt that I needed to share this story in its entirety. So here goes the story of the iPad cases.


One of the highlights in 2012 was when I launched my line of iPad covers. I found a vendor at the 2012 National Stationery Show with the nicest covers I had ever seen and I knew immediately I wanted to work with them to launch a line for Believe Notes. I poured my heart and soul into all of the designs, and was thrilled to have them represent Believe Notes. They first hit my Etsy shop in late August, my mom purchased the first one (thanks mom!) and then friends, family and customers followed. Everybody loved the covers – they were gorgeous. My mom loved her case so much that she even bought a second one, so that she could switch things up depending on her mood.

But then, in October, after using my own case for only few months, I noticed it was starting to split down the spine. I reached out to my vendor immediately to let her know what happened. She replaced the case, swore nothing like that had ever happened before, and we moved on. Then, a week later, my mother called to tell me her case was splitting down the spine. She had only been using hers for about two months. Again, I emailed my vendor with the bad news and she replaced the case. I was reassured that my experience was rare, and encouraged to continue selling the cases.

Regardless of the reassurance, I knew in my gut that I couldn’t continue to sell the cases until I was positive the issue was a fluke. So, only a few months after their launch, I removed the iPad and Kindle cases from my Etsy shop. When I pulled the cases from the shop, I had only experienced the two issues – mine and my mothers. I was optimistic that the rest of the cases I had sold would be fine. I told myself that I would continue to use my new case and that if it lasted more than six months, I would be in the clear and able to sell them again. I mean, I was getting dozens of emails, blog hits and editorials for these cases – they were going to be featured in an upcoming magazine editorial, they were going to be HUGE. For sure, this had to be a fluke.

And then a coworker of mine, who only had her case for three months, came cautiously to my desk at work to let me know her case split too. Then my mother told me her second case split, and then the emails from customers started creeping in.

Once again, I reached out to my vendor – but this time, she changed her story. She told me that the cases were “art” cases and not meant for daily use, and that they should really be treated as if they were coffee table books. She told me that the cases wouldn’t really stand up to being used every day, and that going to and from a coffee shop would be too much “wear and tear” for the case.

WHAT?! These cases are marketed as being durable, waterproof and made with “the same materials as race cars”.

I was outraged, heartbroken and guilt ridden. The guilty feeling was the hardest part for me – I felt like I was misleading my customers without ever knowing it. I sold them products that were bad quality. I was heartbroken.

Part of me wanted to scream at my vendor, and part of me wanted to just close down the shop and crawl up in a corner. However, I felt, that to my customers, I was responsible for making the situation right. I swore to myself that I would politely push back to my vendor in a professional manner, which I did, several times. After a week or so with no return email, I got an email from a somebody else at the company explaining that my original contact person was no longer with the company. OK, now what?

The new person was sweet, and expressed concern about my abnormally high fail rate. She said they’ve typically seen a steady 5% fail rate with all of their resellers, and she seemed genuinely baffled as to why my rate was so much higher. I was told that the cases had a six month vendor warranty, and that she’d replace all of the cases that were failing.

I don't know what other business owners would have done, but I knew I needed to reach out to all of my customers that purchased the cases to see if they were having issues. After a lot of thought, and sleepless nights, I sent an email to every person that purchased a case from me to let them know what was going on. With a heavy heart, I pressed “send” and then crossed my fingers that maybe people would write back and say they had no issues at all.
Unfortunately, my gut was right, and within days I had a mailbox filled with images of broken cases.

But then, something I didn’t expect happened. I also had a mailbox filled with words of support and encouragement from my customers that really appreciated my honesty and proactivity in trying to right the wrong. Even though I was so heartbroken about the cases failing, I also felt incredibly empowered and appreciated by the very people that I sold bad items to. It was such a defining moment for me. It was my moment of “I can do this, I should do this, I am meant to do this”.

So here I am, at the end of January, and I am working to replace the last of the cases. At this point I have replaced every single case I sold. That’s right, I had a 100% fail rate. And, in fact, the new case I've had for less than 2 months is already splitting, again. I have learned a ton from this experience, about vendors, about ethics, about being a strong business owner when I’d rather eat a cookie over the sink and cry. But, I'm a better business person for it, and I can only go up from here. I’m working now to try and find a different vendor with a product that better fits my expectations around quality and durability, while still being beautifully designed.

I hope you’ll all stick around and hear more of the lessons learned, and follow me as I try to find a new and improved product. And thank you, thank you, thank you, to all of my customers that have supported me and gotten me through this challenge. You make me a better business owner, and you remind me why I’m working so hard to make this business succeed.

Hello 2013!

 - image from Oh Hello Friend -

2012 is over, and 2013 is here. I have to say I am happy about that, thrilled actually. While so many people felt that 2012 was their best year yet, it was a year of struggle, challenge and disappointment for me. There were plenty of highlights, don't get me wrong, but unfortunately those highlights are not how I define the year. From challenges with my day job, to home renovations, healthy scares, broken down cares, and product failures here at Believe Notes, I am definitely happy to see 2012 bite the dust. 

On the business side, I ended the year with a bang - I had my busiest ever holiday season for Believe Notes and Designers Care was a huge success. I was so busy that I decided to close both shops down to focus on family during the holidays. That being said, on a personal note, my husband and I ended 2012 and started 2013 on a rocky note, with a family member in the hospital, and while they'll be OK, it was still a scary experience. 

With all of that in the past, I'm confident that this is the year of great things to come. I have big plans for Believe Notes, and I'm finally getting more clarity around my business and personal goals. When I look back on my future letter from last year, I am amazed at just how much I accomplished, and with loftier, clearer goals for this year, I am sure that I'll have a continued successful path. (I'll be writing my future letter later this week or next).

I hope you all enjoyed your New Year festivities, and that you're finding yourself on the right path for this coming year!

When Small Business(es) Meet High Stress

I had promised to share the real ups and downs behind owning a small business, and what's more real than a post at 7:30pm on a Saturday night?

The past few weeks have been overwhelming - in both good and bad ways. It's been about three weeks since I started Designers Care, which is a shop filled with gorgeous note cards that are hand stamped using designs donated but lots of talented designers. We've had over 100 sales and raised close to $900 to donate to Hurricane Sandy victims - I'd say the shop is absolutely a success.

But for whatever reason, I just don't feel very successful. I feel exhausted, overwhelmed, and beat down. October through December is my absolute busiest season - between holiday cards for Believe Notes, papers and finals for graduate school, busy season at my full time job, and then of course the chaos of the holidays in general - I feel like I'm starting to shut down.

One day, last week, I went to work without my glasses or my watch and I only had eyeliner on one eye. 

I'm finding that in my stress I seem to be focusing too hard on the negatives: orders are backed up (I must not be efficient enough!), I don't have enough time in the day (so I should get up super early and stay awake super late, right?!), I've made a few mistakes & one of my entire product lines failed (this was the hardest on me, by far). And even though, deep down, I know I'm not failing, I really, really, really feel like I am.

I also know that the more stressed I am, the more stress I put on my husband, and that of course leads to stupid bickering and hurt feelings. He may not be as busy as me in terms of working + school + 2 businesses, but he's NYPD and he certainly has't had a stress-free experience dealing with the hurricane aftermath. Long hours & overtime combined with seeing the underbelly of a city in crisis has definitely lead to an exhausted husband. He and I handle stress in completely different ways - he likes to sit back and do nothing but watch TV in order to escape, while I like to bury myself in even more work to take my mind off of things. But then, of course, we argue about the stress itself because I constantly push us both to do more, more, more, and he is trying to do less, less, less. At this point I think we can agree that we'd both like to just ditch the jobs, and school, and businesses and just try to catch up and cope with all the madness. And thank goodness this is temporary - things always calm down a little in January.

So yes, I feel like I'm failing sometimes - at being a good friend or wife, at cooking healthy dinners, at being present for the people around me. I can beat myself up all I want for missing a deadline or making a mistake, but then I get an email like this and it all seems to melt away:

Jackie,

I know you've been totally swamped! If I can help with anything, let me know. 

By the way, you really inspire me!

--Ann

 

When I'm up at 4:30am working on a design, bleary eyed and exhausted, I can't imagine being any form of inspiration for anything (other than maybe Dunkin Donuts). But I wake up almost every morning to amazing emails from amazing people and I remember that I am not in this alone, and I am not doing this for myself. 

And even in writing the blog post, I may be feeling uneasy about it in the morning, but I wanted to share some of what really happens during high stress - you may be seeing beautifully styled photos, and RTs from fabulous people, but that isn't the whole reality. The whole reality is me at 7:30am in my office building noticing that I have eyeliner on one eye.

Making Money

What's always amazing to me is how people become "professional" bloggers - where they somehow make enough money to quit their day jobs and blog full time. I have to admit, I am really jealous. Not so much that they were able to quit their jobs (ok, I am jealous about that) but mostly because they found a way to make some money off of something they love doing and that they made it seem effortless.

In my full time field of Industrial/Organizational Psychology, I've read a lot of research that has found entrepreneurship is linked to personality - some people want it and strive for it naturally, and other people just don't. I'm the first to admit that it doesn't come naturally to me. Every personality inventory, motivation assessment and value survey I have ever taken has rated commerce as low priority for me. Meaning that, generally speaking, I don't value money as much as I value say, feeling empowered. It also means that when I decided to open a business, I had an uphill battle because the first priority for me never seemed to be the profit.

Back in 2008, when I first started fumbling around with Believe Notes - my priority was to learn the trade. I did a lot of work for free, for friends and family mostly, and I made a few sales here and there, but I always lost money on the sales I made. I under priced, made mistakes, and miscalculated. If I can be really honest, I still struggle with underpricing. But it never bothered me to lose money, because I felt like I was gaining the experience, and the experience to me was worth more than the money. I understand that my nonchalance about losing money really is a personality thing, but I'm a smart person, and smart business people need to find a way to make money.

After a few years of testing the water, I started to grow - as a designer and as a business owner. I started to become more confident, and began making goals and decisions that would specifically aim to increase my profit - it was, and still is, very hard for me. I created a Facebook Page, a Twitter account, and an Etsy shop. I joined Facebook groups for Etsy sellers, I started participating more in online forums, and I began to read other blogs that had small business tips. With every little bit of effort, I would see a little bit more return. Maybe just one or two more Etsy sales, or more page views on my blog. I was thrilled.

But then I stopped.

I thought "Ok, so I did all the stuff, now I stop and let it ride." Right? Wrong. Things started to slow down, my sales decreased, I had less visitors on my blog, and people actually started to drop my facebook page. Ouch.

So then I started again. But not only did I start again, but I started with an entirely new feeling of empowerment, because I felt like I discovered something really, really good. Ready for my secret? Here it is:

It's simple, but it works. I know some people make things looks easy, as if they put no effort at all and all of their success comes magically. And maybe some people really do have viral/instant success, but in reality, most people don't. Most people have to work for their successes, and not just work, but work really goddamn hard.

Around January of this past year I decided I was going to start working hard. I didn't want my business to be a hobby anymore, I wanted it to make money. I realized that my day job, while good, should really only be responsible for taking care of my "regular" life, but it couldn't keep paying for my business. My business needed to pay for itself. I started thinking about all of my expenses and figured out how much I needed to earn in order to at least cover all of my business costs. I started making clearer goals for myself that I followed through. I really began taking things seriously - I got my Tax Id and registered my business, I'm making a very pointed effort to network more, I am adding some affiliate marketing to my blog and am thinking of selling some spots for recommended vendors, I started thinking about who/what my audience looks like and what they actually want, I'm researching new products before I invest in selling them. I took a hard look at what failure/success means to me, and I allow myself to redefine that definition if I need to.

Since I've been making so much more of an effort, I really have been seeing the results. I've been making not just enough earnings to cover my costs, but I'm at a point where I can save the money and start thinking about future business investments. I've learned the truth behind the saying "you have to spend some to get some" and I've been trying to spend little bits of money (for things such as search ads and advertising) to make some pretty big returns.  I hope some day to revisit this blog post and be able to talk about some major successes, but for now, I'm going to just keep on swimming and putting in the effort.

If anybody has any of their own little business tips, I would love to hear them :)

Revealed: New Kitchen!

We remodeled our tiny kitchen back in January - and I am pretty sure that the greatest thing on the planet is having a new kitchen, and a functional one, too! I shared a lot during the renovations, which my husband and my dad did on their own, but I wanted to share the final results.

Our kitchen is tiny, like really tiny, but we managed to make it incredibly efficient. We added a double-decker cutlery drawer, pull-out waste can cabinet, and an awesome lazy-susan for the corner cabinet. We cut corners by using semi-custom cabinets from Home Depot, a floor model fridge (our best bargain! It had a few little dents, so it was 50% off! We never would have been able to afford it otherwise!), and we went with a 2cm (slightly less thick) quartz countertop. We came in under budget, and the whole renovation was complete in about 10 days! Amazing!

We don't have any windows in our kitchen, so we wanted everything to be light and bright. The whole mission was for the kitchen to feel more spacious than it actually is, and I think we pulled it off. Especially when you compare to the before pictures in this post. We took down a wall, which helped TREMENDOUSLY! My father-in-law was hesitant, and he doesn't like to admit it, but I was right - taking the wall down made the biggest difference. We also got really lucky at a Sears Outlet Center and found a counter-depth fridge that had a little ding on it and was 50% off. The extra few inches of floor space also help to make the space feel bigger.

To see some of the progress along the way, here are some of my posts:

Remodel: A Prelude
Kitchen Update: The Expensive Part is Over
Chaos
Quick Hello
DIY Kitchen Update

WANTED: Organization

For those of you that know me, this post might be surprising - since I am known for being super organized and efficient. I've managed to squeeze tons of storage space into my little 1,000 sqft home - from using taller, better laid out cabinets in our new kitchen, to adding over-the-door storage behind every single closet door in our entire home - I try to maximize every inch we have.

But while my kitchen, living room, dining room and closets are nice and neatly organized, my office is a disaster. It's sad because the space is a nice big room, with a big closet, too - but it just isn't functional right now. For example, my desk area consists of one long desktop, two filing cabinets, a dry erase board (where the ink on it dried and can no longer be erased), a cork board, and two floating shelves (one of which is too high for me to reach).

To make up for the lack of efficient storage by my desk, I have added a bunch of miss matched storage solutions - from a 9 box cube thingy, to a repurposed TV unit (in title picture), and an old desk that never made it to the curb (under the window).

Ugh.

This morning I was showing my husband some samples of my new stationery line, and he took a step back and looked at the room. He has himself a little "Ahah!" moment and said "You need more storage." Yes, yes my love, I need lots more storage. And just like that, a new home project begins - project Jackie's office revamp.

I need my office to be more functional, and while all the pretty stuff is nice, what I need the most is a better system for bookkeeping. As my business grows (plus now I have tax obligations!) I'm finding myself overwhelmed with keeping track of receipts, order invoices, and basically any other paperwork. I'm starting to get seriously anxious about the accounting side of my business, and I'm hoping that making my office a little more functional will help me with the organization. Right now, I have a shoe box with receipts! Eeek!! (Designer friends: how do you manage your accounting stuff? I'm a designer, not a mathemagician!)

So hopefully before school starts up again in August, I'll have a nice functional office space. Somewhere to store all my paper samples, printer, envelopes etc. and be able to manage my business as well.

I sure have high hopes for this new office, don't I?!

I've started a Pinterest board just for some office inspiration. Check it out and follow me along as this new project begins!

Behind the Scenes with Believe Notes

There are a lot of big things happening for Believe Notes, and I am super, super excited! Big things mean busy weekends and evenings, since that's really the only time I have to work on my stationery business. I work full-time in corporate America during the day, which means my entire brand needs to developed on my "off" time. It's busy, but it's so incredibly rewarding.

I get a lot of people asking me how I do it all. How do I manage my time? Well, the answer is, not very well! I spend almost all of my spare time working on designs, photographing recent projects, blogging, researching, and recently I'm focusing on trying to network more.

A typical weekend for me begins around 6:30 or 7:00am. Yes, it's early, but I have a lot to do. And no, I don't use an alarm.

Here's an idea of what a typical Saturday or Sunday looks like:

• 7:00am: Wide awake, stepping over the sleeping Miss Juliet to get to my Tassimo for some caffeine. 
• 7:15am: Check emails, facebook, twitter, instagram, blogger, pinterest, and etsy.
• 8:20am: My husband comes home from work, which wakes up Juliet momentarily. I tear myself away from my computer long enough to greet him and ask how his shift was. Sometimes, on Sundays, he brings me the newspaper, flowers and some bagels. This is why I love him.
• 8:45am: Back to my computer. At this point Juliet wants to cuddle and go back to sleep, so she usually waits for me in my office before eventually curling up by my feet. 
• 9:30am: The sun is perfect right about now for taking some pictures of recent projects. I wish I was more skilled with my camera....
• 10:15am: I want to make a bow as a photo prop. My bows look like poo, so I turn to Martha Stewart.
• 11:00am: All the pictures are uploaded, and it's time to edit them. I still haven't perfected taking pictures of my work, so I rely on the editing. But it's a timely process, and I need to reheat my second cup of coffee. 
• Noon: Juliet is starting to wake up. She piles a bunch of toys at my feet. Maybe I should take a break and play with her. 
• 1:00pm: Time for errands - I stop at the Post Office first, to drop off orders. Then it's off to Target, Walbaums and TJ Maxx, which are right up the street from me. TJ Maxx, although never on my actual errand list, tends to take up the majority of my shopping time (and budget). Whoops. 
• 2:30pm: Lunch & cleaning before returning to my computer to finish up whatever I was working on in the morning. My plants look thirsty. Maybe I'll give them some water. Maybe I'll see how long they'll survive without the water...
• 3:30pm: I try to draft a bunch of blog posts for the week and schedule them to auto-post during the week. Sorry if that spoils the excitement for everybody, but I am not magic, and I cannot be at two places at once. So, while I'm off in corporate America during the day, my blog is programmed all nice and nice. I decided to do this because I've noticed that I have a larger audience during the week - and since I put a lot of time into my blog posts, I want to make sure they reach as many people as possible.
• 5:30pm: Time to wake up the husband and attempt to make dinner.
• 7:00pm: Husband and I hit up the park with Juliet. All the neighborhood dogs meet at the park next to our development every night. It's like a big ol' doggy play date. 
• 9:00pm: I can barely keep my eyes open. My husband and I do some more chores around the house. I head back to my computer for a little while, but by 11:00pm I'll most likely be passed out on the sofa. 
• 11:15pm: Time for bed. 

The busier I've gotten, the messier my office has become (as you can see in the title picture). Although, my favorite accessory is Miss Juliet, who is always by my side when I'm in my office - I couldn't even take a picture of the space without her leaving her spot. I've also had to pull an upholstered chair from my dining room to replace my favorite orange captains chair (which is now shoved in the corner). My butt was literally starting to go numb from the lack of support, ouch! I'm also in desperate need of more storage space in my office, and I'm trying to save up some money to build out and entire wall unit for my desk. 

Le'Sigh. Now you know a little more about what my day looks like, and how I barely manage my time. How do all of you manage your time? I hope your days (and desks) are as cluttered as mine! 

Get to know Miss Juliet

I post tons of pictures of her, tweet about her, and take her just about everywhere with me. But I don't think I have ever formally introduced her. She's our dog, a two-year-old love-mutt that we rescued as a little pup from the North Shore Animal League.

When my husband and I bought our condo, we made sure it was pet-friendly. My husband wanted a big dog - a German Shepherd or Husky; while I love big dogs, with a 1,000 square foot apartment, I wanted something medium sized. When we went to the shelter to pick out a dog, most of the animals were barking, crying, bouncing, chewing, jumping - and then there was one, that was curled up in the back of the cage and only uncurled herself to lick your finger when you stuck it between the bars. I took her out of the cage, and she could barely walk - she had been found in a shoebox somewhere in the South, and never had room to move/walk, so her little legs were weak. She was the sweetest little animal ever, perfectly happy to just curl up in your arms. My husband and I were smitten, she looked like the shepherd he wanted, but would thankfully end up being much smaller. We took her home then and there, and it was the best decision we've ever made.

We named her Juliet - after Juliet Burke from the TV show Lost. Some day if we have a male dog, he'll be named Sawyer. Yes, we are huge fans of Lost.

Juliet turned out to be perfect - she is, we think, part Shepherd, Border Collie and Chow (she has a black tongue, the tell-tale sign of a Chow-Chow). She stopped growing and weighs in at about 42lbs, which is the perfect size for our apartment. She is the most gentle animal ever, she is a super fast learner (must be the collie in her), obedient, loyal, and not at all mischievous.

Turns out, she is a major chicken. She's afraid of just about everything - from the garbage truck, to the vacuum, to her own water bowl - she runs and hides behind the toilet if anything spooks her. She is also a super athlete - maybe it's the collie in her, but she has be active all the time, and she is one fast dog. Luckily we live next to a park (and have parents with big yards) so she gets lots of running in, but when we don't exercise her enough she ends up with doggy-anxiety that manifests as light chasing or not eating. I've never met a dog that doesn't want to eat, but she would 100% rather be playing with her toys than eat, and she only eats when she is actually hungry. I should take a lesson from her!

She follows my husband and I around everywhere. She's not at all a morning dog, which is comical because she sleeps in our bathroom (don't know why!) and I have to literally drag her out at 6am when I need to get ready for work - when left to her own devices she'll sleep until noon-ish. But, once she is awake, she runs, runs, runs and runs some more.

Aside from the occasional anxiety, she is the easiest dog in the world to take care of. You tell her to sit, and she sits; tell her to stay, she stays; tell her to back up, she backs up; and you get the picture. She genuinely wants to do whatever you tell her, so she was super easy to train, and she even trained herself to do a few things (like ring bells when she needs to be walked).

So, world, I formally introduce you to Miss Juliet, aka Julie, who brings constant love, joy and companionship to my husband and I. If you're ever in New York City and need a really, really good fur-hug, just give me a call and Julie will be happy to oblige.

One Year

I cannot believe that it's already been a year. I'm beyond words. The year has been filled with so many memories - from our rainy honeymoon & carbon monoxide problem, to the candle-lit dinner my husband surprised me with just a few days ago. I can only hope the rest of our lives are filled with as much love, joy, laughter and learning as the past year has been. Happy Anniversary, my love!

DIY Kitchen Update

Sorry for leaving you all hanging with our kitchen renovation! I was really hoping that the next time I shared photo's would be when the kitchen was 100% finished. Well, it's 99% finished right now, so I thought I would share some progress.

Here's a post with the before & during construction pictures.

And here are a few iPhone pics of the assembly process, as well as a few behind the scene shots. Amazingly, the kitchen went in incredibly quickly (like, in ONE day) with no hiccups at all - everything fit perfectly! It took a few weeks for our quartz counters to be measured and installed before we could put in the tile backsplash. Now all we have left to do is a few paint touch ups and the toe kick.

Eventually I'll take some real photos (sans iPhone) and post them full size. But for now, I thought I'd share these little tid bits. I am madly in love with my new kitchen - it's so amazing how such a tiny tiny space can be so darn functional and spacious feeling. Nothing beats a brand spankin' new kitchen. Nothing.

A Moment With Believe Notes : Rocky Pea Soup

Do any of you other bloggers sometimes just feel the need to blog about something that may, or may not, have anything to do with the ultimate purpose of your blog? Well, I'm having one of those moments right now. Remember when I promised that all of my posts would have an underlying learning or benefit to them? Well, luckily for me, I've been able to find a way to blog about the particular topic that's on my mind and still make it a learning lesson for anybody reading. 

I make pea soup - and I make a damn good pea soup. When I used to work at the dog grooming shop people would pay me to make it for them. It's that good. Every winter I look forward to making a giant batch of my pea soup and eating every day for lunch for weeks and weeks. I don't get sick of my pea soup. 

But this year, my pea soup betrayed me. 

Everything was fine in the beginning - I decided that instead of putting the peas in a bowl of water to clean them, I would put them in a colander and rinse them. No big deal, right? Wrong! Apparently, which it even says on the bag of peas, when cooking with dry peas you must put them in a bowl of water and go through them to remove any "products of the earth" that you wouldn't want to get cooked with your peas. 

I skipped that step. I never knew why I did it in the first place, so I figured I could skip it. 

Bad idea. There was a rock in my bag of peas. And since I didn't check the peas beforehand, there was a rock in my pea soup. 

I chipped a tooth on the rock in the pea soup. 

Now I never want pea soup again. 

See, I'm one of those people where once I have a bad experience with a food, I never want it again. Does that ever happen to you? What food did it happen to you with? 

Anyway, my lesson for all of you is to make sure you ALWAYS check your dry peas before you cook with them. I wouldn't want anybody else to chip their tooth on some rocky pea soup.  

Packaging Inspiration

I've been really looking at ways to improve my packaging and branding design. My goal is to streamline all of my products so that I have a cohesive "line" and every item is clearly from Believe Notes. Right now my packaging is kind of blah, and totally all over the place - it is definitely in need of some organization and streamlining.

At the moment, I wrap all of my items in tissue paper and then add a ribbon and a label. That's it. Best part? The ribbon doesn't even go with my brand colors. While it doesn't look bad, it just doesn't fit my overall brand theme, which is clean, simple and modern. If you order something from me today, this is most likely how your item will arrive:

Not bad, but not amazing either.

When I first started my business I was definitely concerned with the costs of everything and so my packaging evolved out of items I already had on hand, which was cost effective. As time has gone on, I have realized that part of operating a business means spending money; you know the phrase "you have to spend money to make money".  So the past few weeks (ok, you got me, it's been months) I've been investing in my company. The next investment I need to make is in the packaging department.

Here are some pictures (thank you pinterest!) that are helping me make my final packaging decisions:

Sally J. Shim

Bakers Twine from Cute Tape

originally spotted on The Dieline

from Oh, Hello Friend

So there you have it, my inspiration for meeting my goals during project "revamp packaging". I plan on sticking to my colors of white, orange, cream and aqua - while using fun little details. All to ensure that, when receiving an order from Believe Notes, it's almost too pretty to open. Almost.