The STUFF Sisters - Small Business

Big Brother

In this world of “big brother” advertising, where Google tracks your searches, Facebook targets what ads you see and every click you make is sold to a marketer somewhere in the world, I had almost forgotten about targeted snail mail. In my former career I trained organizations on the importance of targeted mailings and phone calls.

When this catalog arrived at my home my first thought was “Wow, how did they do that?” My daughter and I share our home with a Bernese Mountain Dog and a orange tabby kitten.

I am sure the technology is already available. I am sure the day when we start receiving snail mail pieces with photos that are selected specifically for each of us is just right around the corner. Just think if the front of each catalog was printed with you, your pet, your car, your sofa, etc on the front. It has already happened to me.

: Emma & Google ?

Kisses

We wish you the happiest holidays and we hope you get everything you wish for. Hugs and kisses – Casey and Sloane

Kisses linger.

Kisses warm.

Kisses soothe.

Kisses bless.

Kisses carry silent messages and lasting emotions.

Every kiss we hand out during the holidays carries all of our well wishes and dreams for our customers. You have lingered with us over great stories, and you’ve warmed us when life got too chilly. You have blessed us with your business, and you’ve left the artists we represent soothed by the knowledge that their hard work is well received.

We wish you the happiest holidays and we hope you get everything you wish for.

Hugs and kisses.

Casey & Sloane Simmons
Sisters & Co-owners

Every Little Bit Helps

I am patting Office Depot on the back big time.

I am patting Office Depot on the back big time. At a time when the Earth’s going a bit crazy with dramatic weather tantrums and clearly pointing fingers at the humans who brought on the global warming, Office Depot sends us our order in a bag. Rock on!

For years they have sent us our toner cartridges and other items that can’t be found at my neighborhood store in too huge boxes filled with packing – bubble wrap, air pillows, etc. It was a terrible waste, even though STUFF reclaimed and recycled every piece of it. But now, welcome to the new delivery vehicle.

I’m lovin’ them.

Sloane

Stay Sharp

We are working on updating our website this week, and I just wanted to give a big SHOUT OUT to the black Sharpie marker. Without this iconic marker, our website would be quite dull indeed.

See for yourself…start here.

PS…Stay tuned for the new website design. I promise it will be fantastic.

Sloane is Mourning

Please be kind to my sister this week. She is in mourning. I opened an email earlier this week that read…

I have spent 25 minutes on the intenet and, I’m very sad to announce, that the bic accountant fine pen is no longer made and is currently being bid off the charts on ebay. $35 a box!! (I used to pay office depot $11)

I’m very sad because they were awesome for pricing labels, credit card receipts and check signing because they never left ink blobs.

I’m very sad and I guess need to find us the next best alternative.

But not now. Now I’m just in mourning.

– sloane

Please give Sloane her space and time to grieve for her loss. It is hard for me to see my sister’s sadness. I think we will need lots of long lunches to deal with this pain.

Soap Box and a High Horse

I have been trying not to get on my soap box for over a week. Besides, I can start to sound like a zealot when I get too focused. Not anyone’s best trait.

I’ve spent 15 years building a business with my sister that – at its core – is dedicated to hand-crafted items by local artists. When we started, we didn’t allow people to take photographs of pieces in the store, because we were so overly protective of the artists and their labors. We had convinced ourselves that anyone wanting a picture was just being devious and was going to run home to their studio – where they hadn’t had a fresh idea in months – and incorporate someone else’s talent into their work.

Then the advent of the internet hit, and we loosened our collars. We let photos and uploads happen right on the floor of our store while we watched. We argued with ourselves that sharing artistic endeavors and ideas is good and that we would all rise from the swell of creativity.

At the same time, we watched friends have their ideas lifted and twisted into art by someone else. We sat dumbfounded as a friend in the design trade had whole designs for his furniture “stolen” by a large company and manufactured without a “how do you do” to the parent.

Nine years ago, I stopped shopping at Walmart because I had watched it wreak havoc in small towns all around Missouri. I had seen bucolic towns decimated by a lack of trade on their Main Streets. I also watched as that massive company signed licensing deals with small companies and, when the party was over, leave that company stripped bare of its ability to do business on a smaller scale for many reasons.

Over 3 years ago, I stopped going to Target for not quite the same reasons. Although they embrace design and the artist’s touch, they also bastardize all that is good about hand craft. They have made it their business to push American artists into licensing deals that insist on overseas production.

We must all be wary of these large companies that continue to ruin what is great about hand-crafted work. I think purchasing handmade items is essential. You can see and feel the artist’s “touch”. You can carry home the great feeling that you made a difference in the life of an artist by buying their work. You can rest assured that you are continuing to fortify the experience of making a living while making things with your hands and your mind.

I have two friends, Patricia Shackelford and Shelly DeMotte Kramer, that I follow on Facebook and their personal blogs, and in the past month they both posted concerns – either that they authored or shared in the ether – in and around this very issue. You can see the articles they featured here and here. After reading them, I knew I wasn’t alone in my battle and in my beliefs. I felt my blood rise. I felt my ire beating in my veins.

I felt myself getting ready to jump on my high horse. But for all the right reasons.

Sloane

Blank Screen and Blocked

This is what happens when I am depleted. I can’t think. I can’t create.

Does there really need to be one more blog about some small business owner trying to get the creative juices flowing? I don’t know the secret. I can’t help you right now, because at the moment I can’t seem to help myself.

The truth is, I really wish we had a million more customers that already knew how fantastic our store is and how hard our artists work and how creative our team is and, and, and, and blah, blah, blah.

Because at the moment, I am stuck. I am wide awake and ain’t got nothing happenin’.

I don’t want to be overly dramatic. Our store is good. We have managed to haul our butts thru this “economy from hell” with smiles on our faces. We have done with our store what most people told us couldn’t be done. We have grown, evolved and taken risks. And it keeps working out.

It’s just some mornings, I wish so deeply that I would wake up to a truckload of new customers that just magically discovered our store. And were standing outside waiting for the door to open.

Then I wouldn’t feel the need to stare at a blank screen at 12:57am on a Monday night trying to think of the next idea that will create sparks and light the way to our door for that next group of new folks.

Casey

Circus Act

My sister Casey and I have never studied with Ringling Brothers. I’m sure it would be time well spent at their school in Sarasota, Florida.

We have, however, spent countless hours perfecting our own style of retail circus performance. Standing on a ladder that’s a bit too short for the task with one leg resting on the ladder and the other on a 7 foot tall cabinet for support while you heft a 4′ x 6′ canvas off the wall with both hands. Or, climbing under a table that’s a bit too heavy to carry fully loaded the 4 inches you need it to move and arching your back to make contact with the underside so as to lift the entire table into its designated spot.

Both of these moves, and many others too risky to mention here in case our insurance agents are reading, always have a spotter. You know. A trained professional to help problem solve and call 911. STUFF has two of those on staff. Me and Casey.

This, however, is my favorite of Casey’s recent fantastic feats. She’s so far off the ground and she is relying on the ball to keep her safe. She makes it look effortless and simple.

I won’t try this one myself. I’m too scared. Besides, if she keeps doing this all day every day and I’m her spotter, when will I have time to learn?

Sloane

In Retreat

Sloane and I are in an Internet retreat learning fabulous tips and tricks for our blog posts. We know you will be very impressed with our new skills. Okay, not really, you probably won’t notice anything, but please feel free to find joy in knowing that we are learning new skills to throw around our blog.

Casey Simmons and Sloane Simmons working on pursuegoodstuff.com — Website work is so much fun!

The Big Time

This past week while we were in New York City, we ran into a friend from home in one of the long aisles at the convention center.

There it was. A rack of Zippernut Press cards. So pretty. So tall. So ripe for the picking.

STUFF can no longer state emphatically that these homegrown cards are “only available at our store” because other stores in the nation can now get in on the sweet action. These cards are very, very funny and it’s past time for them to be in the limelight. We will still have the nation’s largest Zippernut collection – especially of the cards dedicated to cancer that benefit cancer research at the KU Cancer Center – and we are ready for this wild ride to continue.

Kansas City knows how to grow an entrepreneur, and we’d like to think that we had a part in making this dream come true for this local artist.

Sloane