This is Cheri (pronounced with the "SH" sound")

Today we feature Cheri Hirschmann, our Director of Retail Sales. Here is a picture of the Hirschmann family:


Back in November 2006, we were gearing up for the holiday rush and she was referred to us by a mutual friend. At that time, we both thought she would be with us through the end of the year and then go on her merry way. However, we could tell right away her loyalty to the company would ultimately create a place for her for the long haul.

There were a couple nights during the holiday season where a few of us stayed until long past midnight, and there was Cheri right alongside us doing what needed to be done. She has always been assertive, giving input where necessary to improve processes and help us grow.

After the Big Idea with Donny Deutsch, our store business started to grow and we needed someone to handle store relationships – rolling out the program to them, and handling questions that might arise in the process. Cheri was more than willing to try her hand at this. When we got so busy last Christmas, the need arose to create a division of the company that solely handles retail stores. Cheri was a natural fit, and her knowledge, customer service mentality, and upbeat, positive attitude made it a no-brainer.

I decided to let everyone get to know her a little better through this interview:

SnS: What do you like best about working with Sticks and Stones?
CH: There are a couple of things that I really love about working with Sticks and Stones . . . I have always fancied myself a creative person and I love the product!! I was a big fan before I ever thought of working with this energetic, constantly growing company. How could I not want to share a keepsake with everyone I knew?
Secondly: (feel free to grab a tissue) I absolutely love working with Brad. Since day one I have felt like a contributing person to Sticks and Stones. He is an idea junkie and will entertain even the craziest thoughts. I have learned through working with him that you just do it – No excuses!! I have learned to become my own devil’s advocate, constantly working through the stops in my head to make things happen. His energy, enthusiasm and encouragement to others are contagious!! We have had some of the most interesting conversations that have always made me think, learn and grow just a bit. We share the same dry sense of humor. One word could send us over the edge for a good 2 weeks – you delicate bird, you!!

SnS: What is the biggest challenge for you?
CH: Early on, it was to try not to be so sensitive. If someone didn’t love everything that I or we were doing, I took it so personally. Now I would say, just keeping everything I do straight in my head. I take A LOT of notes. I’m even starting to keep them in my laptop which is a far cry from my 10 notebooks last year.

SnS: What is the best and worst feature of working from home?
CH: PRIORITIES!! I am constantly trying to be the best for my family and the best for the company, in perfect balance. When you do work from home, I find that everyone seems to think you have tons of extra time to do whatever they may need. Just arriving into my late 30’s I am learning to live by the creed, “I am capable, but am I called?” I guess it’s pretty common for women to feel like they are dropping the ball somewhere on a regular basis. It’s all worth it though. I feel so blessed to be able to be with my kids and still have a pretty cool job.

SnS: What’s the strangest thing that has happened to you while working with Sticks and Stones
CH: Well, following a day at the Women’s Lifestyle Show last October, I fell like I have never fallen before. We were so busy that day. Our table was surrounded by women who wanted to see their name spelled “Sticks and Stones Style.” No time for lunch!! I met my husband at a pub across the street following the event. When I got up to go to the Ladies Room, I got so light-headed and fell one of those horrific, slow motion, strung out falls that only those of us not particularly known for our grace would know. One year later, I could still use the surgery on my knee, but most days are pretty good. FYI: Only 2 drinks of a beer were taken!!

SnS: Tell us about each of your children.
CH: I am going to be brief only in the interest of who ever may be actually reading this, but I could go on and on.

Meghan at 16 . . . genius!! Together with us, she has begun her own company this year. Please take a look at http://www.bezales.com/. She has had a business plan in her mind since she was 13 with a small company called Megnets. Selling to friends and family became a bigger and bigger circle. Magnets became necklaces and so it goes. Did I mention http://www.bezales.com/ to get the rest of the story? She will be a junior in high school this year. She also runs track, works in the theater and is overall fabulous.


Savannah at 14 . . . brilliant!! She is just one of those girls that make you want to be a better person. Savannah is kind, sweet (when the rest of us may be laughing at another’s expense she will bring us back home to their good qualities), ambitious person. She is fluent in soccer, basketball, even cheerleading and flags. Especially flags!! The girl can spin!!

Eli at 11 . . . interesting!! He is the only kid I know that can tell me anything I would ever want to know about any kind of reptile, start fire with nothing but a piece of flint, and play the violin that will make a girl’s heart swoon one day!! I love the old fashioned words such as swoon. He reminds me of Bear Grylls on the Discovery channel. If I were ever deserted anywhere I would want to be with Eli.

Ruby Tyler at 8 . . . fascinating!! She is so smart and talented and in for a world of hurt one day, as she is a groupie in her heart. Any place – any band, she is in front, ear to the speaker, with a sharpie in her back pocket ready for them to sign her arm. I absolutely adore her spirit!!

SnS: What is your favorite food?
CH: I wish I was so much more couth, but seriously, give me a cheeseburger and fries any day of the week!!

SnS: If you could spend one day doing anything you wanted, what would it be?
CH: A day away with my husband anywhere would be great. If it were 2 days: I would spend one with him and one by myself just to hear the quiet.

SnS: If you were a car, what make and model would you be and why?
CH: I would definitely be a mini. After 4 kids, I’ll take anything that seems petite!!

SnS: How many fingers am I holding up?
CH: None – they never leave your laptop.

SnS: What strength do you possess that best prepares you for handling the retail sales division of Sticks and Stones?
CH: I am a talker!! I absolutely love each one of the stores that I work with and know most of the owners well enough that we talk about other things as well as the store. I genuinely want to see them succeed and will do whatever I can to help them. I admire their attitudes for running a business that they love.

SnS: As a music industry insider, you’ve been to many concerts over the years. Which one was your favorite?
CH: Prince!! Hands down!! I love that little fella!! Even if you think he is not for you . . . one show and I bet you would change your mind.

Kelly

Allow me to introduce you to Kelly.

She is our Chief Operating Officer, and she is in charge of production for the company. Anything that gets out the door begins and ends with her stamp of approval. Kelly has been a part of the family for years. While she was working her way toward her college degree she took care of the Deal girls on a regular basis, which wasn’t always easy, as we were working from home most of the time while she was keeping them in line! Upon graduation, while she was still formulating her long term career plans, we snatched her up. We figured if she could keep our children in line, she could do the same for our company.

Her arrival has allowed us to move our focus toward the future. We can spend our time doing things that will bring long-term growth, knowing Kelly is handling the side of the business that gets keepsakes in the hands of our customers. If you write an email, chances are Kelly will be the one responding to it. During the “normal” season (i.e. not the holidays), she also returns the majority of the customer service calls that the customer service department can’t answer, so you may talk to her at some point. You will certainly come away feeling refreshed!

I had chance to interview Kelly the other day, and I was enlightened. Here is an excerpt from that interview:

SnS: What has been the most rewarding part of your first year with the company?
KB: Honestly, just knowing that I am now a full-fledged part of Sticks and Stones. I have been indirectly associated with the company since the very beginning when I was a nanny for the Deal's and I already had this sense of pride in what we do. I have been here from the ground up, and love the product and the people associated with it. To know that I get to go to work everyday and further that vision is so rewarding.

SnS: What has been the biggest challenge you’ve had to overcome?
KB: Finding my own voice amongst all of the others... When I first started, I pretty much had to jump in and learn as I went along. I really looked to everybody on our crew to help me out with what I didn't know. The hard part was that everybody has a different way of doing things or an opinion of how things should be done and all that noise can be overwhelming. My challenge was to take all of that knowledge, insight, opinion, and at times, nonsense, and make my own path. Everyday I work to try and make a positive impact.

SnS: What are the similarities and differences when it comes to working with employees between the ages of 16 and 65 versus handling three children under the age of 8?
KB: There are actually more similarities than differences. I have found that regardless of age all people want to be listened too, respected, and appreciated. While you meet those needs differently with a 4 year old than you do a 30 year old, you have to make sure that you don't take those needs for granted. Also it’s important to remember to always be willing to adapt and learn because things won't always go as planned. It is also amazing how much people enjoy snack time, regardless of age. :) The biggest differences are how I have to solve problems and the way you communicate. You go from being able to speak in abstracts and "because I said so" to having to really articulate yourself. Problems can no longer be solved with an episode of "Spongebob" or quiet time... its a different set of problem solving skills. And the biggest differences is I don't get as many hugs and kisses. My girls were always good at that. :)

SnS: If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?
KB: Hypothetically, it would be in one of the New England states. I have never been to the north east but I have this idealistic picture of having a cottage on the beach, enjoying a simple life. It is my happy mental picture. Though realistically there is nowhere that I would rather be but right here in Illinois because it’s where almost everybody I love lives. What good would the beautiful cottage be if I didn't have my friends and family to fill it up?

SnS: What is your most embarrassing moment on the job so far?
KB: One day during our busy season when I wasn't handling a situation as professionally as I probably should have and things got a little heated. It was one of those learning experiences that made me wish I had a shell to crawl into. And I am sure on a daily basis I trip over something in our studio.

SnS: Name three of your guilty pleasures.
KB: 1. Mountain Dew
2. scratch off lottery tickets
3. shopping

SnS: If you eat dinner with a historical figure who would it be and what would you ask him/her?
KB: I couldn't pick one so instead I am having a dinner party with George Washington, Abe Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., Ghandi, and John F. Kennedy. I would like to ask all of them what they think of our world today and if y believe the things that they stood for are still being honored? And what would they do to turn it around?

SnS: What’s on your iPod playlist right now?
KB: Well I have some Death Cab for Cutie, Queen, Ben Folds, Jack's Mannequin,Lincoln Park, Counting Crows, Eric Hutchins, Paolo Nutini, OAR... And for some reason I am really loving The Flobots new song 'Handlebars". There also might be a Britney Spears song or a little Rod Stewart, maybe some Elvis.


SnS: What’s your definition of success?
KB: Being able to do something that I love that also allows me to support myself and a family when that time comes. Success is taking responsibility for your place in the world. It’s balancing work and play. It is leaving this world having done what you could to make the world better than when you got there.

SnS: Who is your favorite LOST persona and has it changed since the show started?
KB: Hurley and he has always been my favorite. He is just this good guy with a big heart, who comes through when you need him the most. That and I think that he is more than likely the catalyst for everything that happens on LOST. Just my opinion. :)

SnS: If you couldn’t be you and could be anybody else in the world for a month, who would you be?
KB: Dr. Penny Patterson... She started the Gorilla Foundation and works with KoKo the gorilla. I have always wanted to be able to be close to gorillas and am fascinated with how she taught Koko sign language. I cannot imagine a more fulfilling and amazing month.

Lake Geneva, Jack Johnson, and the great GPS fiasco

For a little getaway we took a trip to Lake Geneva last weekend. After dropping the girls off in Chicago at their grandparents’, we continued on to the French Country Inn, a quaint spot on Lake Como. I had originally tried to get a reservation a couple weeks ago, and there was nothing available. I then called back on Monday, and they had a small room available for Friday, but we’d have to switch to an even smaller room for Saturday night. We were totally fine with that, but I had a sneaking suspicion things were going to get even better. Debbie, our liaison from the Inn, called again on Tuesday and said “good news – you don’t have to switch rooms now!” to which I said, “At this rate, by Thursday we’ll be staying in the owner’s suite.” Like clockwork, Debbie called on Wednesday and said “the historic suite got a cancellation. Would you like it?” The historic suite is the best room at the Inn, and because my catchphrase is “nothing but the best for my lady”, we took it. It was a fantastic suite, and the accommodations were first rate. We ate dinner at the restaurant there and listened to a guy named Josh play guitar and sing all evening. The next morning, we ate and then headed into Lake Geneva for some shopping. There seems to be about 2-3 blocks of stores there, so we walked around, took some pictures, and shopped. Later in the day we went to a place called McIntyre’s Resort, on a different lake, and met up with this group:

The original reason for the trip was to go to Alpine Valley and see the Jack Johnson concert.

I have recently stepped into 2008 and purchased a Blackberry complete with GPS. Little did I know the GPS could be a bit less than reliable, and it seems to want to send you the shortest distance between to points rather than take advantage of interstates and 4-lane highways. It was all fun and games until I was leading a caravan of four vehicles en route to Alpine Valley and we ended up in a neighborhood about 10 miles away from our destination.

The show was great, and though we were far away I’m pretty sure it was Jack Johnson up there playing. It certainly sounded like him. Here is our view from the lawn:

He played a solid setlist with a good mix of songs from each of his albums. I was trying to think of songs I liked that he didn’t play, and I could only think of Rodeo Clowns and Mudfootball. He also played about 8 songs from his newest release, Sleep Through The Static, which I had bought just for the road trip, so that was cool.

After the show, we hung out in the lot for a couple hours, as leaving with 30,000 other people out of 2 exits takes a while. Again, the GPS system got everyone lost, and we ended up in a small town (well, I think everything around Lake Geneva is a small town) at 1AM. By this time, I don’t think anyone was still in the mood to jack around with GPS, so we went old school and pulled out the paper map.

We got back to the campsite at about 1:30AM, and three of us stayed up around the campfire until about 3:30, though I lost track of time with no watch and no phone. Jera had gone back to the French Country Inn in the car, as she required a bit more civilized accommodations than I. In fact, I spread out my sleeping bag and pillow on a picnic table and slept under the stars. Even though I’d left all my clothes, my air mattress inflator, and any sort of personal hygiene things back at the Inn, it was awesome!

The next morning – a couple hours later – I got up and realized I had no way back to the Inn. Everyone else was still sleeping, so I borrowed a car and started driving. My phone was dead, so GPS wasn’t an option. After about 30 minutes into what should have been a 15 minute trip, I hit the Illinois state line and realized things had gone horribly awry. So, I rummaged and found a map and eventually arrived after about an hour of driving.

The moral to the story is this – when driving around rural Wisconsin get yourself a good, non-electronic map, and keep it with you at all times.

The Queen of the Castle

We are both the oldest of two siblings in our families. Everyone has a number of children they’d ideally like to have (none at all in some cases). While we didn’t want to limit the upper end, we knew we wanted more than two, God willing. One seemed lonely, and adding another seemed almost obligatory. So we always wanted at least three. Once we hit three, we weren’t sure we could handle any more, so we settled on three.

This is Lily, our third:

She is amazingly happy and independent.

Every morning, she comes downstairs while I’m sleeping, gets right up in my face so that I can feel her hair brushing against my nose and says “I want milk” (sometimes just “Milk-y” or “milk-milk” if she is trying to act like a baby) about 6:00AM. I make her say “please” before finally succumbing and getting up. On the occasion I’m not fast enough, she will run into the kitchen, grab the entire gallon from the refrigerator, and lug it over to me.

Once it is in her little cup, she always wants to put the cup in the microwave, shut the door, and push the buttons “4-5-START”, which she will sometimes say as she is doing it. She watches her milk go around and will sometimes comment on the motion of the plate. For some reason it reverses itself at times, and the other day it was off the spinny-thing, so Lily alerted me by yelling “IT’S NOT MOVING!” Once it is done, she opens the door, and she shakes up the cup, just to make sure the heat is evenly distributed.

From there, she plops down on the couch, demands a blanket, a pillow, and one of her favorite shows. We have On Demand cable, and much to my dismay they stopped running her favorite show Max and Ruby, which she refuses to accept, as she asks for it every morning. Much like her shows, she will bring me a book in the morning which I will read to her. After the book is done she will want to read it again immediately. I try to get her to expand her horizons and bring me a new book (also, so I don’t have to read the same thing twice in a row), but that only elicits a “read it again” demand from her.

She is extremely friendly and outgoing, and wherever she goes she will introduce herself to people. Adults love it, but other little tykes look at her like she’s nuts. When we drop her off at Sunday School or a class of some sort, she walks in like she owns the place with a huge smile on her face. She’s also quite bullheaded, and it takes some serious negotiating, which usually erodes into threats of privilege removal, to get her to do simple things like buckle into her car seat or stand still so we can brush her hair.

In the hardest of times, it's tempting to “break her spirit” like we were taming a wild stallion, but we continue to try to harness and focus the little strengths that are already showing. The traits she has that drive us crazy at three are the same things that will make her a strong, confident adult, so we often err to the side of leniency and let her run free.

I thought I’d give her some blogspace today, since I focused on Allie and Julianna’s lemonade stand a couple days ago. Lily has two parents and two older sisters that dole out the love every day, so she is definitely not lacking any attention!

Who is this man?

You might be asking yourself why we would put a photo of this fellow on our blog. This man is Cristian Hotescu, formerly of Bucharest, Romania, and now a full-fledged U. S. Citizen. He is the owner of Black Pearl Technologies, and he is completely behind the development and programming of createsticksandstones.com. Though he works behind the scenes and from 2 states away, his work is crucial in keeping the website end of the company up and running on a daily basis.

Jera and he used to work together for Car.com a few years ago. When Car.com sold to Autobytel in 2004, he gave up a secure career and took a chance on working full time with us. Though our business model has changed drastically since 2004, he has been a constant. When the site first started in 2005, he brought us from a blank page to a fully functional website by working for weeks on end 16 hours a day.

Of his many sayings, my favorite has to be in response to my very common question “can we make the website do this? (Insert something newfangled and difficult here)” I then brace myself for his unwavering response: “anything is possible”. I’ve never heard him say “impossible” yet, and I don’t expect to hear it in the near future.

Many times web programmers come equipped with mad programming skills, but they are missing a few cards from the customer service deck. Mr. Hotescu believes customer service is part of the package. He’s worked on websites from the ski slopes of Vermont, from Romania, and from Seattle, Washington, all while vacationing.

He’s worked hand in hand with some of the web’s premier designers. He’s been known to pull all-nighters to meet a deadline. The night before the Rachael Ray show featuring Sticks and Stones aired (which you can see here), we just so happened to be finishing our web re-design. He was uploading the new site as the show was airing, and we made it through with only a few minor hiccups!

Though the casual web browser might go to our “About Us” section and find out a little about our family, Mr. Hotescu’s contributions go largely unheralded. So, we thought we’d introduce him to you today.

Entrepreneurs – born or bred?

Our oldest two daughters, Allie and Julianna, are already displaying signs of being little entrepreneurs. The neighbors across the street donated the lemonade stand they built for their kids years ago, and on day one they were peddling lemonade at the edge of the driveway.

I think they had somewhat of a monopoly, as there were no other lemonade stands in the entire neighborhood that day, so even though lemonade was $1.00 a cup (an extra shot of sugar was $0.25) the locals were a-clamorin’. On a day where there is another group of kids down the block setting up a stand the price might drop to $0.75 as market forces take over, with three or more groups service and flavor are the determining factor.

If you enlarge the picture, you can see Allie’s look is one of “I have all this inventory that’s getting warmer by the second and there are no customers”, while Julianna is just content to kick her feet up and wait.

We won’t let them into the street to attract customers, but they can hold a sign at the edge of the driveway. They are quite the persuasive little salespeople, which likely comes from Jera’s days selling online advertising. She worked out of the office in our house and balanced watching kids at times, so they got to hear her on the phone with General Motors or Ford.

I do wonder how much of the entrepreneurial personality is with us at birth. Both of us have somewhat of a problem with authority, which means we are going to do much better when the vision is ours rather than our boss’s, or his/her boss’s vision. We are also risk-takers, and we’ll throw caution to the wind if there is something we believe in. We were never content to work for someone else’s dream, and we were willing to forsake the relatively secure corporate environment (“my company will take care of me”) for the possibility of being able to make our own decisions, even if that meant financially we would have less short-term security.

Finally, we both come from a sales background, and we are used to overcoming objections on the fly. This comes in handy when dealing with the rejection that comes with selling a product, and we’ve been turned down more times than I care to count.

I see many similar traits in our kids. We try to foster the spirit without overwhelming them by encouraging selling things, even at their young ages. I used to hate going door-to-door selling candy bars for little league, but my daughters look for things around the house they can sell, and then they want to walk around the neighborhood selling them.
We have to rein them in!

While motorists along our street can drive on by, the family pushing strollers down the sidewalk is low-hanging fruit for these two, like shooting fish in a barrel. The girls are counting their greenbacks before the family is even within shouting distance!

We talk about charity and saving as things you do first before you spend. I think they get the philanthropy. In fact, Allie had saved $63.00 and gave every penny of it away to her school for a fund raiser without even telling us about it. Jera decided that since Allie was so giving she would buy her something she wanted that cost even more than what she had donated.

They have a tougher time understanding saving at this point, as immediately after counting up their tally from the day, they want to go spend it all on Webkinz. They now have more Webkinz than they can possible keep fed, played with, and clean on Webkinz.com. In fact, I’m afraid if I logged in to their accounts it would look like one of those animal shelters that gets busted on Animal Planet. I hope there is no animal welfare department for cyber-pets, because Allie and Julianna would be facing serious charges!

Not "A" walk in the park...

We thought it would be fun to tell the story about some of the letters we’ve found over time, as there are some pretty fun happenings associated with them. The first is about this “A”:

Back in November 2006 we took a trip to Chicago specifically to look for letters for a keepsake we were doing on behalf of the wife of a prominent attorney. While driving on Michigan Avenue in Chicago, we spotted this “A” on an historic church. Jera grabbed the camera and jumped out of the car onto the sidewalk to get the picture while I continued to drive slowly in traffic, as Michigan Avenue has no real place to stop and relax, unless you are on foot.

Looking slightly nutty running down Michigan Avenue with a camera around her neck, she caught up with me at the next intersection, and we continued on. Later, at our hotel halfway to South Bend, Indiana, we realized the picture was slightly blurry, much to our dismay. Though our trip netted some great photographs, we were disappointed we couldn’t use this “A”.

In July 2007 we took the kids to Chicago for Allie’s birthday and stayed a couple blocks from the church. While walking to the beach the next morning, we were finally able to re-take the elusive “A”. We’ve recently added it to the website, and I’m happy to report it was worth the wait!

The most exciting thing...

I remember when the website first got up and running we knew the names of almost every customer, as we would get a couple orders a week. I’d have the 800-number ring into my cell phone, and I’d get a chance to answer questions personally about our keepsakes. Three years later, we’ve grown to the point that we don’t get to see each order, as they are coming from different sources – catalogs, stores, internet, phone.

We are still so appreciative on a daily basis of each order we receive. There is an inexplicable feeling to think “we created this product and someone thought it was cool enough to search us out and buy it.” It is truly humbling, not in a cliché way, but in a way that makes you feel very blessed.

I remember having some sleepless nights last Christmas season. Our staff grew to almost 50 people to meet the holiday demand, and some of us worked 7 days a week. With the little time we had to sleep, I’d wake up and think “I just don’t want to disappoint anyone. I want everyone to get their keepsakes in time for Christmas!”

We started getting two UPS pickups daily after Thanksgiving, because with one pickup we’d fill up the warehouse with outgoing shipments, and it made it tough to operate. We worked right up until 6PM Friday evening before Christmas and got those last boxes on the truck just in time. Mission accomplished.

Through all of that, we were so thankful for the people who were willing to work tirelessly to meet the demand, the vendors who got us our materials in a timely fashion, and for each customer who said “I want to give a Sticks and Stones for a gift this year!”

I sometimes wonder after being on the receiving end of paltry customer service “at what point did that company decide I was just a number?” It certainly wasn’t a conscious decision, but it happened at some point in their evolution.

Here’s to the fact that almost three years later I still get excited when I hear that little chime on my cell phone that tells me we just got an order. It’s as much of a rush as it was back in 2005. Thank you for being our customer!

Do you want an iPod or an mp3 player?

What apparatus pops into your mind when you think “I’d like to listen to my digital music on the go?” If you said “iPod”, you are in tune with most of the world. I believe I read a couple years ago that Apple had over 80% of the hard-drive based mp3 player market. Even if you don’t own an iPod, you certainly recognize the name and probably can even pick one off the pages of your latest Sunday Best Buy insert at a glance. Apple spent millions of dollars building their brand, and it paid off in a big way. Remember the silhouettes dancing to U2’s Vertigo? Today, there are iPods and there are “all the other guys”.

Though we don’t have visions of grandeur that ever include being in the same sentence as the iPod, we made the decision a long time ago that building our brand would be the most important thing we would do for the future. Building a brand immediately differentiates our company from others in a few different ways. Initially, we were alone in cyberspace, but after appearances in a few magazines and on a few TV shows, competitors began appearing, many even with eerily similar stories in their “about us” section (I’ll let you research them yourself), and most with similar styles and prices.

The main thing we have going for us is people recognize Sticks and Stones as a trusted brand for quality. Having Oprah, Rachael Ray, and Martha Stewart touting our work doesn’t hurt, and it definitely lends credibility. We also decided service would be number one, hence our 24-hour a day toll free customer service phone line, quick response to emails, and online chat. We strive to make everyone happy, and offering a no-questions-asked return policy puts people at ease. All of these things have helped build trust in our brand, and we’ll do our best to keep the trust we’ve earned over past few years.

How much would it cost to do it myself?

A few times we’ve heard the comment “I should just do this myself.” People often ask us how difficult it is to find “letters” for a name. Actually, that is just part of the battle. If you can muster the time you can certainly find the letters. It might take a day or so to find the letters in your name – some letters are harder than others to find.

Let’s say you value your time at $10/hour and it takes 8 hours to find them (depending on how much money you currently make on average for an hour’s work this could be high or low). Your cost (actually, the opportunity cost of engaging in “letter hunting” versus the myriad of other things you and your family could be doing with your time) is currently $80.00. Once you add the cost of fuel for driving around your community, you can probably add $20.00. For a custom frame, which would fit a name of any length, you are probably looking at a minimum of $100, but probably closer to $150. At this point you have spent $200.00 - $250.00 worth of time and money when everything is taken into consideration.

Or….you could spend 10 minutes on our site and have a custom-framed piece of art on the way to your front door in a matter of days for a fraction of the true cost to you! When Jera went on the Martha Stewart show, we were a little concerned we were going to be dealing with the “do-it-yourself” demographic. Judging on the amount of orders we had from that show, I’d say we underestimated how much people valued their free time!

It's Lonely Out Here

We have a website, now what? Back in 2005, when createsticksandstones.com was first launched, we were so excited to finally have our “store” opened in cyberspace. However, if you’ve seen the movie “Bugsy”, it was like the scene where he opens the Flamingo in the desert on Christmas Eve. It was a ghost town.

Looking back, it seems naïve. After all, we don’t have the benefit of drive by or foot traffic on the Internet, and if no one knows we’re here, how do they find us? We started using the pay-per-click advertising offered on Yahoo and Google, and though we made some sales for Christmas, it put us into the red pretty quickly. Pay-per-click advertising is a double-edged sword. If you choose terms that are too general, the cost is exorbitant because of increased competition. Plus you get a ton of “window shoppers”, people just clicking around before settling on a buying decision. For instance, if I am trying to sell handmade, personalized keepsakes online, I could choose “keepsakes”. On the other hand, I can choose a more specific term such as “handmade personalized keepsakes”. I’ll pay less, but I’ll also have far fewer searchers, and thus, a smaller pond in which to swim.
We spent thousands of dollars, with a net loss of at least $5,000 over the first 6 months. This was not the way we envisioned our business going!

The benefit we had at the time was that no one was doing what we were doing (as far as we know), so getting discovered was a matter of spurring the process along. Just like with any market with no barriers to entry, we knew if we had some success there would be competitors creeping up. So we knew being first to market and building a solid, trusted brand was absolutely crucial.