“All dressed up and ready to grow”

“Use smart, cost-effective promotional techniques that will arrest the eye, tug at the heart, and convey what is unique and special about your business or service.”

Ah, this is one aspect of Jenn Maruska Design that really needed to be tackled.
In an effort to figure out just what my business is all about and to save money in the meantime, Josh and I have been our own marketing team. We’ve been creating fabric labels, using printable fabric sheets bought online. We’ve printed business cards here on our home printer. And I’ve been addressing bubble mailers at night while we watch tv.

These are adequate, low-cost methods to begin creating a “brand” for the business, and I recommend using these techniques when you’re just starting out or are considering a change in direction.

For me, the time has come to commit and upgrade. My first step was to work with a label maker to create new fabric labels for the items that I create. Unfortunately, after 2+ months of negotiations, $500 and much frustration – I still have no labels. We’ve now contacted two new label makers to begin the process again – hopefully with better results this time around. I will be blogging about the experience in the future, and I intend to let you know more details, but I am waiting to do this, so that I will be able to recommend a good label maker. *If you are about to invest in professional grade labels for your own business – feel free to email me.

Josh spent alot of time this weekend making changes to my current logo and creating variations for labels, business cards, avatars, banners, stamps, etc.

Did I ever show you this paper mache lemon that I have in my studio?

It says “Life….make lemonade” on it.

Sometimes, you just never know when an unfortunate experience can be hiding a tiny grain of goodness. Take my frustrating label experience, for example. I was in tears the day I realized that all the time, effort and money I had invested in that endeavor was for nothing. But now, months later, I am smiling because Josh’s new design for my labels is better than what we had, and I like them so much more. That unfortunate experience forced me to step back and wait, and ultimately, Josh created an even better design.

Yesterday we contacted a local printer and I have an order in for 1500 new business cards. (This will save alot of time for Josh, who’s been printing my cards for me, and will also save wear and tear on the printer.)

We also went to a local rubber stamp maker and ordered a return address stamp and a “to” address stamp – both incorporating my flower logo image. This was super easy – we were in the shop for less than 10 minutes! We chose to use a local stamp maker, but you can also find custom stamp makers on Etsy. Sweet Paperie is one that iSew recommends. Not having to hand write my return address on each of my out going packages will be a big time saver for me!

I also ordered a book of Moo stickers, featuring images of my embroidery work.
Creating the Moo promotional products is very easy. If you aren’t a “computer person”, never fear! I was amazed at how quick and easy it was to order my stickers – the most difficult part was deciding what images I wanted to use.

In keeping with my New Year’s business resolutions, I’ve joined another online selling venue called iCraft. So far I have just one item in my shop there, but I expect to be adding more as the year goes on. I’ll keep you posted on any new additions there.

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Thank you Josh, for helping me with my logo design.

I am very excited about these changes and I can’t wait to share them with you.
As new things arrive, I’ll be sure to show them here and pass along recommendations.

I hope you all have a happy and creative day : )

Now – it’s back to the studio for me!