Sunday, April 24, 2011

Why "JUST LABEL IT"?

We have considered changing the name of our business from “JUST LABEL IT”, but have learned that in this day and age it is not an easy feat to change the name of a business. While “Just Label It” has expanded well past offering “just labels” it is not easy to find a name that fits our growing company and a matching domain name that is still available. So for now we are staying with “JUST LABEL IT”…but, we are always open to suggestions. In the meantime we would like to explain why we are called…

“JUST LABEL IT” actually didn’t start as a business at all! It just started out as a way to save money and time for a mom of 2 young children who were constantly being invited to birthday parties. Weekly, I would run to the toy store to buy birthday presents for that weekend’s parties and then to the card store or supermarket to try to find cards for 99 cents. I love stationery but let’s be honest, a 4 year old kid is not looking at the card, they are pulling the wrapping off the gift. So 99 cents seemed like the right price to pay for the cards! At the time there was a toy store in my area that offered “free” gift wrapping and a sticker (that had blanks where you could filled in the birthday child’s name and the gift giver’s name). The “free” usually was covered in added $$ to the price of the toy, so I continued to buy my gifts at other toy stores. One day when I couldn’t find any nice .99 cards and I thought about making my own gift stickers. My parents had just bought my son his first computer and I borrowed it to browse for an image (clipart) that would look nice on my gift stickers. When I put together a collection of these gift stickers my husband suggested that I tried selling them. I took them with me to a mommy and me class and was surprised and excited when I got my first orders. Then I panicked that someone would turn on their new computer and see the same clipart so I decided to try drawing my own images. To add a bit of sparkle I added some glitter to some of the stickers. One day my mother-in-law asked me to make note cards as a baby gift for her bosses new baby girl. After some research I found I could make note cards too!

There are a number of people that I would like to thank for helping to take “Just Label It” well past being about just labels… family who encouraged me, friends who gave me suggestions on how to move forward and included me in all of their events so I had an opportunity to introduce “Just Label It” to our community and my customers (initially many of whom were the same friends who encouraged me to grow my business) for the times they ask me to design something new and special for their party or event forcing me to be more and more creative. A special thanks to my husband, Jeff, who encouraged me to start my business, and to my two children, Jared & Emma, for always being willing to stop their homework to let me know if they liked a new design.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Make Someone's Day Special - Let Them Get A Note From YOU!

Today is Valentine’s Day. One of the national news shows had a story about the lost art of writing love letters. It seems that President Bush had written many love letters to his wife, Barbara, during the war and continued writing them to her even after he returned home. The story made many people think and reminisce back to the days when a person took the time to sit down with a pen and paper to write a note or a letter. There was always a special feeling to getting a letter in the mail, ripping open the envelope, seeing the beautiful paper and reading what was written inside. These are the memories that people keep and cherish for many years.

I have to admit that over the past several months I have thought about the lost art of writing a letter or note. It seems everyone is so busy that e-mails and texting have replaced writing letters. Then I started to speak to people and found out that when one someone takes the time to write them a letter it is like getting a gift in the mail. Young and old people seem to love to get mail.

I was discussing the lost art of writing with a friend who was the head nurse at a hospital. She told me that she had been directed by her administrator to always handwrite letters of commendation, because it had more meaning.

I also spoke to girls who go to sleepaway camp and they told me that they loved getting letters over getting emails. One camper, who was 13, explained to me that the other campers were jealous when she got mail and all they got were e-mails.

So I have changed the header on my website to say…

We all still run to the mailbox….
MAKE SOMEONE’S DAY SPECIAL –
LET THERE BE A NOTE FROM YOU!