State Of The Studio Address!

Well, today marks our 4-month anniversary!  Wow, what a ride it’s been, too!  Our first month dealt with terrible weather, roof leaks, bathroom plumbing problems and the holidays.  And we made it through, albeit only slightly scathed, and ready to jump into 2011 with both feet and open arms!

But, let me digress for a moment.  A common question has been:  “Why open this business?”  Coming from a long career in the Accounting field, people wonder why I would give up a good career with a steady paycheck, vacation time, 8-5pm Mon-Fri schedule?  Well, the answer is simple.  I never felt like I belonged to ANY of those places where I had worked.  I was always restless, bored and hated reporting to employers who had the common sense and personalities of a door nail.  Mind you, there were good bosses, but they were few and far between.  So, with the love of photography that turned to card-making that turned to scrapbooking…and thinking I had some good ideas for a business (always having that entrepreneurial mindset), I began the process of developing my business plan back in 2006.  Well, with some life-challenges and an infant at home it became more important to put food on the table than jump into a risky venture so the Plan got shoved in my file cabinet until August 24, 2009 where I hit a pivotal moment in my life where I had enough of office politics and crazy people surrounding me…and I knew changing into another accounting job would not solve my unhappiness.

So, I pulled The Plan out of my cabinet, called our Regional Chamber of Commerce and away I went planning, revising, looking at retail space, vendors, etc. and here I am today, April 1, 2011 in the best job I could have hoped for!  It was NOT EASY getting to this point and I, along with everyone around me supporting me, worked very hard on this venture.  And yet another example of how blessed I truly am.

So, here we are…one cold, wintery December month down…and then….

January brought about more bad weather, but through perseverance and meeting wonderful people and teachers, we started adding classes and programs that began the crazy ride of 2011!  The card classes and photography classes are hugely popular and you will continue to see those on our calendars every month going forward!  And, word was getting out even more! 

February brought about our weekly Scrapbook Design & You classes which were fantastic!   Every single student enjoyed the series, learned a bunch about scrapbooking that they never knew and a few of them actually re-did past scrapbook pages because of what they learned!  Good feedback from the students and we are looking forward to another series this April!  Thanks to Tina, our Instructor who did a wonderful job of teaching and is looking forward to the April series!  Once again, card classes were popular and attendance at our Open Crops increased through the month!  February also developed a relationship with The Canfield Heritage Society who oversees Loghurst Cabin in Canfield and we are proud to be their Scrapbook Supplies provider! 

And into March like a lion!  We begin the process of planning our October 22^nd Breast Cancer Fundraiser; we host The Crop For The Cause for Close To Home Animal Rescue and reserve the Crop Room for The Niles Friends & Family Relay For Life Team event on April 2^nd.  It’s important to note at this juncture that one of the most important intentions of opening The Scrapbook Studio is to give to the community.  We are so blessed in so many ways that if we can make even just a tiny difference to a recipient of our fundraisers, then hopefully it will make our community a better place.  While March was a VERY busy month, April is here and we are looking forward to:

Another Scrapbook Design & You Series (although now it’s called Spotted Canary – why EK Success changed the name, I will never understand), an Easter Card Class, The Relay For Life Crop, our FIRST BOOK CLUB MEETING which I’m very excited about and even more classes and crops!

These 4 months have not been without challenges:  significant plumbing and space issues, overcoming the learning curve that every new business (and employer) must endure, the horrible music from the gym next door, crappy weather and a struggling economy.  But we scrapbookers are not only creative…we are PERSISTENT!  So we will continue to overcome these and future challenges!

As I use up the rest of my Blog space with this State of The Studio Address, let me finish by saying that I will try to continue update this blog more often so you can all get a glance into the operations of the business and me, as the owner and how we are constantly trying to evolve, grow and become the best we can be.  If we can make just a small difference to YOU our customers and our community, then we have already succeeded.  God bless…and a heartfelt Thank You to our customers and our friends & families who’ve supported us!