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My Small Business Story 👩🏻💻
My *Current* Small Business Story
Hi friend! It's that time of year again that I update this blog on my business story - and while 2024 was a tough year, I am so grateful and humbled by God's grace to us. This year, I felt seriously burnt out and had to take intentional pauses, and some of you actually did it with me through the social media breaks where we spent some time away from social media to meditate more intentionally in God's Word - much recommended by the way!
Anyway - back to my story. If you're new here, you may not know that I was born and raised in the Philippines. I grew up in a family of entrepreneurs and I always wondered which direction I would take. I spent many days working with my dad and mom at their office, my late aunt in her bakery during the summers, my uncle who owned a print shop where I learned how to use Photoshop and Illustrator.
Some of my cousins were also entrepreneurs and I got to watch them through my childhood how they flourished and struggled in various ways, and I learned so much from watching them. I was inspired to start micro businesses of my own and test them out with the help of my family, and I studied business in school, too.
In 2009, my family decided to move to Canada. Suddenly, my dream of starting my own business seemed pretty far. Different industries, unknown market, changing trends - it was the crux of e-commerce starting up, too! So it was a lot of unknowns.
2012
I spent my first few years working for a variety of companies - from small business to big corporations, and in one of the rainy days in Vancouver, I discovered modern calligraphy and decided to take it up as a hobby. I started to post my work and at that time it was quite new, so I took on lots of random calligraphy jobs! I still remember staining wood in my parents' garage and making signs!
2014
Then, I found my niche in creating bespoke wedding invitations, specifically destination wedding invites for clients all over the world. Eventually, I was able to quit my full time job and do calligraphy full time! I love being able to create unique, custom designs for clients and develop semi-custom suites. I had a lot of in-person workshops as well, and started to develop products like the practice pads (which were requested post-workshop) and wax seals for my brides. I definitely "hustled hard!" Ah, the life before kids! haha.
2018
Life changed a lot when I had my son, Chase! I had postpartum anxiety and definitely took time before I felt like myself again. I stopped doing in-person workshops and did less live events because now my time was surrounding family, and I felt like I needed to reevaluate my direction as a business owner. In terms of wedding invitations, I had to pick and choose the clients I would work with to accommodate my busier schedule!
2020
In late 2019 I was asked to write a book, which aligned with my desire to bring my in-person workshops online. I saw this as an opportunity to develop products that partnered with my online courses. Then in 2020, COVID hit right around the time that I launched the Creative Calligraphy Course and the Signature Styles Course, which was super timely. By God's grace, even though all our weddings got cancelled / postponed during this time, our courses and products started to flourish!
2021
In 2021, we got really busy with launching our masterclass courses, Invitation Design Bootcamp and Calligraphy Business Kickstarter. We also grew and developed the online shop with more calligraphy and wax seal supplies. In 2022, we moved to our current headquarters/warehouse. So, by the time Jasiel joined our family, our Written Word team also grew to 4 so that I could go on maternity leave while the shop continued to operate.
2023
Last year, was a bit of a limbo year, with me being on a partial maternity leave. Once Jasiel turned a year old I was able to return to work a little bit more as she started to go to daycare. We launched our first-ever official holiday collection for wax seals, Advent Calendar, and so much more. We're really excited and hope you are, too!
2024
This year was tough - I'm sure a lot of you guys felt it financially as prices rose a lot. Small businesses, especially e-commerce took a huge hit and a lot have closed down. We tried to launch more new products this year, but ran into a lot of delays and manufacturing issues, and felt overstretched at times when we invested in inventory. However, we did notice an increase in traffic in many of our retailers, so we did work hard this year to be in more stationery stores around the world.
But By God's Grace, We Are Still Here!
Thank you for so many of you that continually pray for us, especially as we seek God's guidance for our next steps in 2025. We've learned a lot of painful lessons this year, but also learned some valuable insights and found our footing on who we want to be as a brand. It is hard to make changes at times though, especially as a busy mama of 2.
This Grateful Sale is a little thank you from our crew to yours, for continuing to support us. The sale is ending soon, until Tuesday, at Midnight EST.
Hurry - once it's over, it's over! No extensions this time, promise!
Use the Code: GRATEFUL
*Exclusions apply and no stacking codes!
Small Bizz Highlight
We also want to give a shout out to other amazing small businesses, as they've played a part in our small business story. We could not be more grateful! This week, as the holiday sales ramp up, I hope you can choose to shop small.
xoxo, Karla