Who are you and why are you doing this?
I am a mechanical engineer who enjoys organizing and woodworking. My wife is an avid paper crafter. As her hobby grew, I designed and built a variety of items to get her work area organized. Because space was at a premium, I had to develop designs that were space efficient. What started as some small drawer units in a corner of our dining room eventually became a desk full of Ink Pad Holders, shelf and drawer units as well as a tower of Paper Holders.
Her stamping friends would visit and were impressed with how neat and organized her area was.
2009
I decided to build a few items based on those designs to see if anyone would be interested in buying them. We started on eBay and there was enough demand to keep going. In the fall of 2009, our first website was created and we began our first online marketing campaign.
For the next couple of years it was a nice hobby business. The marketing could be managed on and off as there was time to build products and fulfill orders.
“This is fun, but it’ll never pay the mortgage.”
2012
Things started to change in early 2012. We launched our first Punch Holder and within a few months it was our best-selling product. In May, Splitcoaststampers completed a Product Focus on Stamp-n-Storage products with a featured headline in their Weekly Inkling subscription newsletter. The response blew us away and we were scrambling for several weeks to get caught up!
Throughout the summer of 2012, some serious soul-searching took place. This was no longer a hobby business, it was nearly a full time job, however I already had one of those! Something had to give. The security of a career in engineering management was set aside for this crazy idea of building specialized storage cabinets.
“This is fun! I sure hope it pays the mortgage!”
In September 2012, the business was moved out of our two-car garage and into a 2,000 square foot shop. Over the next 18 months, we started adding employees and there were five full-time and several part-time staff taking care of business.
2014
This was a very busy year! We re-branded the business with a new logo and look, launched this new website, and we moved to a beautiful new location.
2015
We took more big steps this year:
- First print catalog
- First craft expos visited
- Crafted Spaces video series released
As this year comes to a close, we have eleven full-time employees!
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We're VERY thankful that this business has been blessed so richly, and we're thankful for every customer who sends a little business our way. None of it would have happened without you, our faithful customers. THANK YOU for buying our products and providing your valuable feedback. Your comments, encouragement, and ideas help us constantly improve our products and service.
Stay tuned! We're not slowing down!
Brett Haugen
Founder
Stamp-n-Storage