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.

Failure/Success - What's Your Definition?

Let's chat about the meaning of success. Everybody measures success in a different way, I measure it based on how I feel about something. However, I used to measure it on how other people felt about something. For example, some people might measure success by selling a certain amount of product; whereas I would feel successful just by knowing people liked my product enough to buy it in the first place.

The shift from focusing on other people to myself wasn't really a conscious one, to be honest, it was more of a defense mechanism. You see, for a while I fell into a rut where I wanted to win, win, win - and if I didn't win, it meant I sucked. You all know how much I loved Minted, and I absolutely do, but it's still super painful to submit designs to contests and not win. Often, after one of my designs wouldn't win, I would find myself saying things like "but that's soooo Minted's style! How could it not have gotten picked?!".

When considering new items to put for sale in my Etsy shop, I realized I had HUGE file of "reject" designs that I couldn't put for sale. Wait a second, why couldn't I put them for sale?? Well, because I didn't really like them. And then, the proverbial light bulb went off. I didn't like the designs because I wasn't designing them for myself - I was designing them to win. That's why I felt failure, because I felt like nobody liked my designs, not even myself.

Doh! 

So, from that point on I decided I would only create designs that I liked - that way, even if I didn't win, I would still love the designs enough to put them for sale in my own shop. Just the thought of designing for myself was empowering, I felt like I could try new things, take a few risks, and really use all of the skills I have learned over the past few years without the fear of failing. If I make sure that, first and foremost, I like a design, then a losing design does not mean a failed design, it means maybe I failed the competition, but I did not fail myself. 

My shift in how I perceive failure has proved to be a good business strategy too! 

I've applied my new perspective to my customers, I will only give them designs that I love first. Many designers struggle with the notion of do you design to make the customer happy, even if you don't like what they want, or do you design for yourself? Well, I've decided to refer customers to other designers if the customers style doesn't match mine. Since my decision, I've noticed that my customers are happier with their final products, and I enjoy working on their products much more. It's like...when you work on something that first and foremost you love, and then somebody else loves it too, it's total icing on the cake.

Anyway, I wanted to share this new revelation because I know how down some people get when they feel like they failed. But truly, I think you need to take a good hard look at what failure means to you. I am not immune to failure anymore, but having a different view of failing (and success) means that even when I "fail" I still don't feel like I have. Here's an example: I recently submitted several designs in the Save the Date challenge over at Minted. I was in love with my designs - they had hand drawn details, pretty colors and solid typography. The feedback on all of them was overwhelmingly positive and after the competition closed, I found myself checking the site hourly to see how many awards I won. Note: I didn't say if I won an award, I said how many I won - because I loved my own designs that damn much. Well, winners were announced and not a single one of my designs got an award.

Surprisingly, even though I technically lost, I still felt REALLY successful. Did the loss sting a little? Yes. But they were my highest scoring designs ever! Darling even made it into the top 40 of over 850 designs! I might have lost, but all I could feel was proud and excited. Excited to be able to sell the designs on my own in my Etsy shop. Excited to take the designs and turn them into full wedding suites. Excited that I didn't feel like a failure.

So for all of you out there that feel like you're in a rut, find a way to turn your luck around. Use every "failure" into an opportunity to improve and grow. Take feedback seriously, find your own unique style, and make sure that first and foremost you make yourself proud. It'll take some tinkering with, it'll take some confidence, but it'll be really, really worth it!

Here's one of my "losing" designs that I'm super proud of, go ahead and judge, but I don't care because I love it anyway!

"Pack Your Shades"

I want to take a moment to thank everybody for the massive amounts of love for my last post on feedback. That post alone got more hits than my blog has gotten in an entire month! Even Mariam, CEO of Minted, re-tweeted it - like, seriously, my mind is blown! You've all helped me realize that my blog calling is to merge my professional career with my design passion. Thank you again for the love, and I'm glad you all found it so helpful!

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