Krmbal showed us her epic tees 6 months ago. Let's see what Tessa's up to now!
What does a typical day look like for you?
I
wake up, make coffee, play a little with Nick Fury (cat and director of
S.H.I.E.L.D.) and feed her if Mel hasn't fed her yet and then get to
work! On Mondays I'll brainstorm my to-do list for the week and then
start working through it. It can change week to week what I work on, I'm
doing a lot more contract graphic design work now than I was the last
time I was featured here, but the Krmbal shop is doing well and I can
still usually ship all orders by the next business day!
How do you take your caffeine?
As
coffee with coconut milk, although I don't mind it in chocolate either
:) Sometimes in tea as well if I need an extra jolt later in the day
What do you know now that you wish you knew 6 months ago?
I
wish I'd known to stock more Shop Indie tees - especially in the
ladies' style! They've been flying out of here. Also, I wish I'd done
the research to have a backup supplier - I kept meaning to, but other
things kept popping up and then I learned that one of our items got
dropped and I'll really need to have another option soon!
How has your shop grown in the past 6 months?
Krmbal
went from inconsistent sales to selling pretty consistently after the
beginning of the year. I got better photography by outsourcing it to
Verte Photo and also improved at taking photos myself! I was really
happy with the new art print photos I recently took. My graphic design
freelance/contract work has also bloomed quite a bit. It took a few
months, but I've now got fairly steady design work coming in, which is
great b/c that's the first step toward being able to sustain this
business as a real business instead of a hobby business! It's also
awesome because I've been able to work with some other indie businesses -
like Little House of Crafting - on their logos, which is super fun and
rewarding :)
Where would you like to see your shop in the next 3 years?
I'm
hoping to continue to grow in both sales and graphic design work, but
stay consistent - part of the struggle of being a small business owner
is dealing with the ups and downs of busy times of the year vs slow
times. Eventually, I'd also like to have a dedicated additional designer
to work with me in my 'firm' instead of the loose partnership between
myself and a few other freelancers that I have now. I'm also hoping to
add in embroidered organic cotton polos and have a line of geeky, cool,
work wear - hopefully launching with a design or two later this year! I
also have some new ideas for expanding the line of up-cycled items, so I
hope in 3 years I have a wider selection of up-cycled products made
from textile scraps. I'd like to continue to be able to put out new
designs and keep both our Classics line and our KGeek stuff! In
addition, I hope to expand our custom apparel projects (I just did a new
one for Zeleny Fair, which is awesome!) and get the word out that I can
design tees and get them printed in small batches for fundraisers,
events or whatever you need them for!
Keep your eye on Krmbal to watch out for those new polos!
Say hello!