Making Things Happen 2010

Making Things Happen 2010 was an incredibly awesome experience. Grab a cup of coffee and a blanket - this is 9 minutes long. I had lots to say and share thanks to Lara Casey, Jeff Holt and Kyle Barnes. The main lesson: think hard, be introspective, feel the FEAR and DO IT anyway. Now off to tackle this beast of a change I'm making to my business. Stay tuned! So. Fired. Up.

Words to Live By

Over the past few months, my thoughts on business, work-life balance and ambition have been changing. Thanks to bloggers like these and the book “The Four Hour Work Week,” I’ve found that my attention is turning to “making things happen” and “being good at what I know.” Sometimes, it’s so easy to get lost in the details that we miss the big picture day-to-day.

For instance, I am relentlessly trying to figure out QuickBooks. Connecting PayPal to QuickBooks has proved to be one-hellufa-nightmare. (PS: this is a call for advice, would love to know if you’ve made this work). I spend so much time sorting through transactions and matching them to my chart of accounts that I am pulling valuable time away from what I need to be working on… putting finishing touches on the Goodpaper Wedding Collection for the new website. So finally, I decided to stick to what I “know” and am “good at” and hired an accountant to work with me. We’ll meet for our first time on Friday and continue to meet quarterly to make sure I have my act together.

As a small business, it’s costly to “outsource,” but I’ve found that you have to decide how much you value your time. For me, I value it more than teaching myself QuickBooks :)

Above and beyond the idea of outsourcing what you’re “not good at” is the simple thought (thanks, Dad, for this great quote) we “work to live and don’t live to work.” Remember that your work should be your passion, but shouldn’t drive your life. The Four Hour Work Week suggests that we should remove ourselves from the parts of our business that we aren’t absolutely needed in – and focus on that which drives success and thus drives our own happiness. I, all too often, find myself living to wake up at 6am… and work til midnight. For me, it’s a means to an end – when Goodpaper will be successful enough to support itself. But I also remind myself that besides a business owner and designer, I’m a wife, a friend, a daughter, a sister… and those roles are even more important. As strange as it may sound, those first two exist to support the later.

All in all, remember to spend your days “making things happen” and “being good at what [you] know.” Your passion should drive your happiness without ruling your life. "Balance" is never truly found... it's a constant shifting of commitments from side to side as priorities change all in an effort to remain upright :)

3 and a HALF months to go...

I am getting so stinkin' excited about the January launch of Goodpaper, I can't even stand it. I want so badly to post all the great designs I've been working on and all the screenshots of the amazing website Kendra at Hi Design House is working on for me... but I'm holding it all in until January.

Today, I listened to an international business consultant speak on how to find success during a recession. One point he made rang in my ears over and over again.... "entrepreneurialism THRIVES during a down time." I feel like my venture is living proof of that. I'd have never thought my dream could grow as much as it has in 9 short months. I have so many ideas for this company and for this blog (I've been thinking more and more about what I'd like my blog to grow into these days). Part of my package with Hi Design House is a fully interactive blog - and I'm stoked. I really want to focus on entrepreneurialism, social media, simplistic design and DIY projects. Not to mention Southern charm and style in all ways shapes and forms.

For now, I'm finalizing artboards for my 25 suite wedding collection (Still... I feel like I've been doing this since FEBRUARY), working on a few large weddings (including a pretty awesome letterpress suite for a wonderful Southern bride), and getting things ready for the site... not to mention fighting for my two trademarks... hopefully to be assigned to an examining attorney soon. Fingers crossed, full speed ahead.

Cheers!
Emily

Oh the Places You'll Go

Oh, the places you'll go! There is fun to be done!

There are points to be scored. There are games to be won.

When I was a little girl... my mom (love her! see recent photo) used to read me this book by Dr. Seuss. Now, you should know two things about me: 1) I have a BA in English and love books 2) For a good part of my life I dreamed of writing/illustrating children's books, so they have a special place in my heart. So, expanding on the English BA, I got an MSA in Public Administration from the University of West Florida. I was the Executive Director of Ballet Pensacola at 23 (one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of my life), then a Development Manager for Covenant Hospice (one of the best organizations in the world if you ask me), and the Assistant Director of Development for the Women in Leadership & Philanthropy program at the University of South Florida. Who knew my life would take a turn for stationery and weddings. This post is really just my realization that life takes so many turns, some expected, some calculated, some unplanned - but each making a special mark on our souls and spirits. This Emily Ley Paper journey has been/is one of bravery, challenge, perserverance, and true heart. Goodpaper - the "love child" of my husband's entrepreneurial spirit and my Southern traditionalism and creative spark - will be a dream come true and nothing less.



Emily Ley Paper’s been taking a bit of a breather lately. August started with bustling activity getting things prepped for an August 31 deadline for the new goodpaper website. Since then, I’ve purchased a great Canon SLR camera for product photography, updated to a great iPhone to keep in touch when I’m out and about, acquired some new shelving in my office/studio, met with a fantastic rep for MAC papers for the new “goodpaper” invites, sent files to my thermographer for product photography, worked with my amazing photographer Meg Baisden to set up some artistic shots and a portrait session for the “About Us” page in downtown Tampa, finalized all 25 wedding suites (love-logos, thank you cards, invitations, enclosure cards, response cards, programs and menus), made more headway on the personal stationery end, chosen a fabulous color palette of 15 classic/Southern inspired thermography colors, and started working on photo-Christmas-cards for an October offering date. Whew.

All the while, new ideas are just POURING into my head. Rubber address stamps. Large cube notepads. Calling cards. Oh. Will. I. Ever. Get. There.


Here is a little sneak-peak of the Goodpaper website for you all to see!

I also got great news that I’ll be quoted in the next issue of Stationery Trends magazine hitting stands in September on the value of social media (Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, Forums) for new businesses (53,000 circulation). The coolest part - is that Crane is quoted too (get it... old business perspective vs. new business perspective). Goodpaper will be referenced – and though the new site isn’t up and the business isn’t launched technically, I’m very excited to have secured the first true publicity for Goodpaper. I’ve laid out what I hope is a pretty strategic timeline for the next six months – planning for a launch date of Thursday, January 6. Part of me wants to have a giant launch party… this will be the culmination of EXACTLY one year’s hard, tireless, passionate work. I’m so excited to share my brand with the world. And I can’t wait to see what it becomes.

Sleep... now... please!

I've been staring at this for about 14 hours straight... and that's just today. Really exciting things are happening... I'm finalizing the "product" lines for ELP and working on website copy for Hi Design. They sent over the finished homepage screenshot on Friday and I immediately fell in love. It captures the Southern style and sweet charm that ELP represents so well. I'm exhausted and off to bed... but the photo above is a screenshot of the new ELP invitations (and coordinating save the dates, thank you cards, menus, programs, enclosure cards, and response cards that aren't in the photo) that will debut with the new site!

How to Hide the Blogger Banner

I thought this was interesting and wanted to share it with other bloggers, designers and friends! That pesky navigation bar that runs at the top of your blog can be hidden. Here's how:

To hide the Blogger Navbar:
1. Log in to your blog.

2. On your Dashboard, select Layout. This will take you to the Template tab.

3. Click Edit HTML. Under the Edit Template section you will see you blog's HTML.

4. Paste this code in the top before the word BODY: #navbar-iframe { display: none !important; }

5. Click SAVE.

Enjoy!

Frequently Asked Questions

I've been receiving questions from friends and other stationery designers on products I use, vendors I work with, and other how-to type things. ELP is a continual work in progress and I've appreciated learning best practices and "what works" from the veterans OR at least those who've been doing this longer than me. It's nice to hear these things from those who've been down this path or similar paths and can share thoughts based on their experiences.

So I thought I'd return the favor and extend a helping hand, some tips, info and links to others who might be looking for the information I looked for (and continue to look for). Feel free to comment if you have other ideas and/or want me to elaborate on anything! I've posted the links to the FAQs on the right toolbar.

Cheers,

Emily

Movin & Shakin!

Ladies and Gentlemen, it is official! I’ve just signed the contract to start the building of a brand spankin’ new Emily Ley Paper website. I knew since I started this adventure that a strong web presence that really represented ELP and my style would be very, very important. I’ve been using Squarespace for my website (a wonderful resource for any of you that are looking for an easy-to-use interface at a reasonable price) and have learned more about HTML than I ever needed/wanted to know. But it’s time to take my website up a notch.

I also knew that websites aren’t cheap, so I contacted a couple of web designers to get quotes and ideas from all of them. They all came back fantastic and it was really hard choosing which to go with. In the long run, I decided to work with the ladies of Hi Design House in Los Angeles. The girls are so great and they’re from Florida also! Their previous work (Urbanic and Vie are really great) really reflects an edgy but simple style that I’d really like ELP to evolve into.

It’s going to be a busy few months because I’ll have to force myself to finalize and photograph some products for the ecommerce side and photos of some custom work for the portfolio side. But I’m really excited to get started. Kendra, my contact there, told me yesterday that we’ll start with brand definition to create a filter through which all of their design work, styling, etc will be put through. It’ll be a long process and we’re going to work through this in phases (so that the website grows as ELP grows) but I plan to update regularly on the blog to let you guys know what’s happening. I’ve loved reading other blogs written by small business owners with insight and advice into how the process works… and the growing pains and milestones achieved along the way.

Cheers! Emily

The Story of {ELP}

At first, I intended this blog, formerly (and probably future-ly) named "Clementine Bride" to be a style resource, of sorts. But the more I search the internet for inspiration for my stationery and artwork, the more I find myself drawn to blogs about small businesses, all things handmade, and style in general. So for now, I'm going to let this blog grow organically into whathaveyou.

The story of Emily Ley Paper starts with my personal obsession with paper. I love it. I got my hands on some double thick, 130lb stock the other day and wow. I'm such a dork, but there's something so luxurious about nice paper and nice stationery. I'll be the first to admit that when I got married, I decided to craft my own invitations and paper products because I wanted to A) save money and B) bring the style I couldn't find from other vendors into my wedding.

I've put a lot of work and thought into pricing and quality. Finding a balance has been tough, but I think I've gotten there. I beleive in the you-get-what-you-pay-for idea and FIRST made sure to purchase only the highest quality supplies. My paper is heavenly. It's Mohawk Via 100lb cover with a vellum texture. Vellum is not only a transparent paper but a term used to describe a soft texture (who the heck knew?) It was pricey for me to purchase, but is absolutely amazing when its used for a finished piece. I also invested in a Xerox Phaser 8560 which uses solid ink. This thing is a rockstar of a printer. Instead of using liquid ink or toner, it uses blocks of solid ink (they look like hardened play-dough). The printer has to heat itself up for about 15 minutes before you can use it (as it softens the solid ink). Then the finished product has a slightly raised feel similar to thermography. The colors are really vibrant too. I {love} this printer.

So anyways, my style has really grown and changed since Emily Ley Paper was launched just two short months ago. I'm totally in love with etsy as its brought me many clients and AMAZING brides to work with. I am so lucky to have worked with such great girls! I've even been comissioned to work on a few corporate logos and etsy shop banners also. So as my product line grows from just custom wedding invitations into an actual line of wedding stationery and (my new favorite) personalized stationery, ELP is sure gorw and change quite a bit in the coming months.

Monograms have become a huge favorite through my etsy shop too. I've been creating custom monograms as well as redesigning my current monograms for brides to use in making their own DIY projects and paper goodness. I really love these monograms and used one throughout our entire wedding as well. It brings a consistency to not just your paper pieces, but your entire wedding as well.

My goals now are to learn how to operate this new Canon camera I bought and learn Adobe Photoshop (o geez!) in order to put really great photos of my products online. And there's the doorbell. God bless Paper Source - or Waste Not Paper for that matter. :)