A note from Ashley: Being a small business owner I love other small businesses. It makes me happy to support someone who is following their dream too. That love inspired me to start this monthly blog series. I decided to call it Small Business Charm. I will feature different small businesses I love or have found through social media. Social media has been a huge part of my life over the past 7 or 8 years and it has introduced me to some of my favorite people in the world but also some of my favorite small businesses. If you would like to nominate a small business for the feature please email me at messykennedy@gmail.com.
Celeste has been a friend of mine since she spent a summer interning in Michigan and I knew I wanted to ask her to participate in my small business series. This is going to be a different edition of small business charm. Normally I try and write up a really nice article making the answers flow really well. When I started reading what Celeste wrote I just couldn’t decide where to start because I felt like her answers were so strong and they were so important for small business owners to read. So, I took the lazy way out this time and decided to share with you everything she said. I think you will enjoy reading her answers as much as I have.
Who makes up your team?
I used to be a one woman show but as Celeste Comm has grown my husband Aaron has become a vital part of the operation.
I handle all the graphic design, photo/video editing, creative direction and customer service. Aaron calls himself the CFO and handles all of our bookkeeping. He also works with me as an assistant photographer and videographer at some of the large events we cover. Since we opened our Etsy shop, he’s become a packaging and shipping pro too!
Every Etsy order we ship out is personally inspected by our 3.5 year old daughter, who we call our Shipping Supervisor. She makes sure there’s a big “Do Not Bend” sticker on each package.
During holiday busy seasons, our sisters often jump in to help package orders. So far they accept payment in the form of home cooked meals, which is a fantastic trade for me!
What inspired you to start your business?
My husband is the 4th generation in his family’s restaurant, Harned’s Drive-In. When we were dating, I knew he was going to be returning to the restaurant so we’d be living in far Western Kentucky where there were no ag communications jobs. We both agreed that eventually we’d like for me to be able to stay home with our kids, but I was passionate about my work and couldn’t see myself giving that up completely when I became a mom.
During a summer internship in Michigan, I met several farm moms who worked as freelance writers. This allowed them to work from home, raise their kids, work on the farm and still have the careers they loved. I picked their brains and returned to Kentucky determined to make it work for us too.
I talked over the idea with a few connections I had in Kentucky’s ag industry and they agreed to give me a shot doing some freelance work for them before I graduated to see if it worked for their organizations. A lot of agriculture organizations need communications/graphic design work but not enough to justify a full-time employee. Partnerships with organizations like this are the foundation of Celeste Communications.
The inspiration for our Etsy shop came from my friends. They were constantly asking me to design party invitations and wall signs for them. As much as I love my farm clients, party invitations were much more fun for my inner artist to design than laying out newsletters. The Etsy shop is my creative outlet where I get to design things for individuals in the farming/rural world, not just organizations.
What is your favorite item you have ever made and why do you love it?
This is such a hard question because so many of my Etsy orders are gifts for special moments in life: new babies, weddings, anniversaries. I love any time a customer sends me an email after they’ve gifted their order and tells me how much the recipient loved it!
If I had to pick just one I would say it was an order I did for new foster parents. They had accepted a group of siblings and their church threw them a shower so they needed thank you notes. They had looked all over the internet for something that fit their situation but nothing was quite the right fit.
They loved one of my bible verse signs and asked if I could design some similar thank you cards. I was able to create the perfect cards for them and they were able to show just how appreciative they were of all the folks who supported them in their journey into parenthood.
What is your favorite part of doing a home based business?
Working from home allows me to stay home with my daughter (and soon our son too). Both my husband and I grew up with stay at home moms and that was something we both loved about our childhoods and wanted to do for our kids as well.
We’ve been looking for a farm of our own for a little over a year now and I know once we have our own livestock that being at home during daylight hours will give me the flexibility needed to make sure our animals are well cared for.
What are the challenges?
Some people say being a work-at-home mom is the worst of both worlds and sometimes that’s true. I work when my daughter is sleeping, which means lots of late nights to meet deadlines. When she’s sick or teething and needs my full attention I don’t have coworkers to cover for me with work. Those days are hard.
It also took a while for some people in our lives to realize that I had a schedule and had to stick to it. Just because I was at home didn’t mean I could drop everything to go to lunch or do someone a favor. As a whole, our families have been very supportive. They often jump in to help or volunteer to let my daughter come over and play so I can catch up on work.
How has social media played a part in your shop?
My blog and social media profiles have been a big part of the success of my business.
Everything Celeste Comm does ties back to the farming/rural lifestyle. Since the internet makes the world a smaller place, I’m able to connect with customers who also value this niche of farm/rural life even if they live a thousand miles away. When I launched this business, my goal was to share my own farm experiences on my blog/social media and hope that my prospective clients would get to know me a bit through it. I’ve found that the best clients and most loyal customers are people who I’ve gotten to know via social media in one form or another.
What is the farthest place you have sent an item to?
Probably Singapore. We have a lot of international orders but since my signs are printed in English they mostly go to Canada, Australia or European countries.
Generally orders we ship to Asian countries are ordered by either missionary families or military families stationed overseas. It’s pretty special that we’re able to send them a little bit of America no matter where they are stationed.
What would you say to someone looking to start a small business?
Research, research, research! Before you officially launch your business you should study up on every aspect of it. I spent 6 months learning about freelancing before I began to actually do it. We researched opening an online shop for a year before we opened the Etsy shop. It was probably another year before we had all the kinks worked out behind the scenes. Never stop learning and researching new ways to improve your business.
Talk to an accountant and make sure you’re doing everything legally. Every city and state has different regulations for businesses and business taxes are a whole new world of confusing. Those are questions google just can’t answer for you. Small business owners have to wear a lot of hats but I’ve found its best to leave this to the professionals!
I hope you enjoyed reading what Celeste had to say about her home based business. After knowing her for quite a few years now I can tell you she is very talented. If you would like to see her website (where she blogs too) or if you would like to see her Etsy shop click the links. Thank you for reading another Small Business Charm edition.
