A Recap of 2021

This year has been a tough and amazing year for so many reasons for everyone - we all have been living with Covid and its (seemingly never-ending) effects. This was also the first full year of me being full time with Slate + Brush. Last December my boyfriend of four years and I broke up, I quit my corporate job of five years, and I moved my dog and I back home to Maryland after ten years of living in other states. I completely uprooted my life and said goodbye to the friends and life I had lived for almost six years. It was a lot of emotions, but the best part was that I could truly focus on Slate + Brush and grow it as best as I could!

Here are some of the things I created/did in 2021:

-33 wedding invitation suites, Save the Dates, and party invitations

-Over 600 online sales

-12 shows and markets

-2 wedding expos

-Added 45 wholesalers to my stockist list

-And so much more!

While I’m so grateful for all of my clients who trusted me with their wedding stationery, pet portraits, logos, and custom work, I have to be honest with saying that this year hasn’t been full of highs. It has also been full of some pretty low lows. No one really talks about how lonely entrepreneurship can be. I spend most of my days and nights at my desk by myself listening to music or podcasts. While I have some incredibly supportive friends and family, it still doesn’t replace having in-person co-workers that I could bounce ideas off of and just talk with throughout the day. I also made some big, expensive mistakes. The kind of dumb mistakes that cost hundreds and hundreds of dollars in re-prints and almost completely eat away at any profit I had made for that product (I did lay down on the couch at one point questioning everything with some pretty free flowing tears after the realization of one giant mistake in particular). However, it was all worth it in the end. The worst day I had with Slate + Brush was still so much better than the worst day I had at my corporate job!

As I start planning and prepping for 2022, I have some pretty big ideas and plans for the business. I made my biggest educational investment ever, ordered new machines to print bigger items, and more! I’m thinking outside the box for my clients in order to create something better than they could ever expect. I’m going to test out new products and try new markets as well to see what works best. I can’t wait to reflect this time next year and see how much these numbers double and tripe.

Thanks for being along on this wild ride with me! Cheers to new beginnings and a phenomenal 2022 for everyone!