I am a huge fan of podcasts, so I was so excited when I found my first podcast that highlighted conversations applicable to creative entrepreneurs: Elise Gets Crafty.
Elise has pretty much done it all. She is a podcaster, a has sold handmade products, she blogs and launched Get to Work Book, a planner for creatives, a little over a year ago.
I had so much fun getting to hear the behind the scenes of her journey as a business woman, and I know you will love it too. Enjoy!
I’m Elise Blaha Cripe. I own a business called Get To Work Book which is a brand designed to help people get organized, set goals and get to work. I host a creative small business podcast called elise gets crafty. I live in San Diego with my husband and our two daughters. It’s an honor to be here chatting about business with you!
#pressplay below to watch our recorded Skype interview, and check out her answers in written format as well as pictures of her beautiful creations. Enjoy!
What did you do before Get To Work Book? How did you decide to start your own business?
I was a business major in college. I started a craft / personal blog my junior year of college and it became a springboard for my creative adventures and handmade businesses. I have been working entirely for myself for about six years and have done a lot of different things during that time! I decided to start my own business because I liked the idea that the harder I worked, the more I benefited. 😉
Can you give us a brief history of Get To Work Book? How long have you been in business? What has your growth looked like? Can you tell us a story of some of the “unglamorous” moments just starting up?
GTWB, my current business was almost a real book first. I talked with a lit agent and began drafting a “goal-setting book” proposal before I realized that it was much more interesting to just build a tool to help people set goals instead of TELLING them how to set goals. I launched my first version in Spring of 2015 and this is year two. Growth has been great, I’ve expanded to more products, leased a warehouse and am gearing up to launch more items and start wholesale selling. I handle all the shipping and customer service so 95% of my job is un-glamourous. But that’s true of any job. If you’re working hard and making money, it’s not fancy.
What’s your big picture WHY? What motivates you to work hard and build your business? What is your ultimate lifestyle goal?
In many ways I think I do what I do because I can’t imagine NOT doing what I do. I can’t imagine not having a business, not generating sales, not creating product. Sometimes my husband and I start to think big picture and I think what we’ve realized is that while money is a renewable resource, time is not. So once he’s through with his very time-intensive medical residency, we want more flexibility in our schedules and more TIME to just relax a bit. I am very careful about the things that I take on so my life and schedule can feel empty sometimes. Empty space is a good thing.
Where did you find your mentors, or resources to help learn about entrepreneurship and running a successful business?
I’m incredibly motivated by my girls. I want them to grow up seeing mom and dad work hard doing what they love. I don’t care what they end up doing, but I hope they see that working hard is a good thing and a normal thing. I celebrate big business wins with them first. I want them to see my joy in my job. When they get a bit older and can understand more, I’ll talk about business failures too. That’s just as important.
In college I was hugely inspired by Ali Edwards and the business that she was creating around her passion. Now – ten years later – Ali is a friend of mine and I still admire her drive and commitment. I’ve called or emailed her many times with questions or when I just needed a sounding board for something. I am lucky, after blogging for so many years, to have friends in the industry who “get” the business. Emma Chapman, Elsie Larson, Amy Tan, Tiffany Han, Kal Barteski, all of these women have offered me helpful advice when I have needed it.
Can you tell a story of a specific failure you encountered while building Get To Work Book? What did you learn from it? What would you consider are your strengths as a business owner?
The first GTWB shipped out without a strong enough back cover. It was just one layer of chipboard and it didn’t hold up. It sucked. I was bummed, no doubt customers were bummed. But I fixed it for the next version and made it stronger still for the third version. I emailed customers who bought the first and offered to ship them a new back cover to replace the first one. It wasn’t ideal, but it was something. I am still glad that I launched when I did. It’s hard to work out the kinks of a product “live” but I think if you’re open to feedback, quick to respond and HONEST about what you are trying to do, people appreciate it. I am working really hard to improve the product and build a killer brand. It takes time and I am so grateful for customers that are sticking with me while I do it.
Strengths… I am generally quick to come up with solutions. I’m honest about my strengths and weaknesses. My customer service goal is “make it right.”
Do you currently have 1099s or employees? Or are you a one woman show? If you have help, what advice do you have to give about scaling your business and outsourcing responsibilities through hiring to help grow? Do you have any advice on when to start scaling the business and hiring employees, bookkeeping… etc.
I have a VA who helps with online stuff for me. I have a design team that I work with out of Portland to create new Get to Work Book products. My mom retired last fall and she is down in San Diego often, helping me watch the girls or pack books. I have a lawyer and an accountant. I registered the business as a s-corp. So officially the business is Elise Joy Inc and I am paid a salary from the company. 😉
How many hours per week do you work? How do you balance family life with work?
I don’t know exactly how many hours I work. My guess right now is about 25 dedicated hours a week. I have two daughters. Ellerie is almost three and goes to daycare MWF. Piper is almost seven months and is home with me. I hate to work at night and too much on the weekends so I do my best to fit things in during nap time or right after the girls are in bed. My husband works crazy hours too so our time together is rare and special.
I’m Like Brave is about creating an uncommon life. What does an “uncommon life” you love look like for you? How does your business help create this ideal lifestyle?
I think my life feels “uncommon” because I never know what’s going to happen next. Two years ago I couldn’t imagine a brand like GTWB and now it’s so rooted in what I’m doing. I love the excitement of not knowing what the next email might bring my way.
I sold 6000 GTWBs out of my garage last year. That was pretty great. I leased a huge warehouse space this spring and immediately, once I had that space I started having ideas. It’s been extremely fun to grow this business. I have had the chance to speak about goal-setting at a few events the last few years and speaking is a phenomenal high and something I would love to do more of.
What is your ultimate vision for your business in the coming year? Where do you see Get to Work Book in 5 years?
Coming year – I have to get through this round of GTWB sales and then in the fall I plan to launch more products, an A5 version of the GTWB as well as a wall calendar and some notebooks. I would love to get the wholesale side up and running.
Five years – it feels impossible to even think that far. Especially when I think back five years ago. I have grown and changed so much and I can only hope for as much growth. I can see an app for GTWB. I can see more collaborations. I can see more speaking events.
What’s holding you back from where you are now and your end game?
Nothing is holding me back from my endgame. I have blown through my financial goals which is great but also unsettling because you always want more, right? I try to remember that this is enough. It’s enough. It’s enough. The goal now is to keep working hard. Invest back into the product and continue to improve. I feel very lucky to be in my position.
What is it that you need help with right now, and if you could get free advice that would solve your problem right now, what would it be?
I want someone to handle the wholesale side of the business start to finish. 😉 And an app guy or gal. I’d love someone to walk me through that process.
If you could sit down with any entrepreneur for a 2 hour lunch and pick their brain, who would it be and why? What would you ask them?
Amy Poehler. No specific questions, I’d just ask her to tell me about the chapters that got cut from “Yes, Please.”
What advice would you give your “just starting a business” self knowing everything you know now?
Advice to my past self – look beyond the first option. It took me a really long time to transfer to a more user friendly shopping cart site and shipping system. I could cry thinking about how much time I wasted on crap shipping processes.
What does your morning ritual ideally look like?
Morning ritual: get up, drink coffee, scroll IG and read the NYtimes online. I quit reading blogs recently and it’s been amazing. Ideally, I’d have a chance before the girls get up to go in and check email on my computer. I never check email on my phone. I always check the numbers. How many sales yesterday? I’m meticulous about entering that data into my spreadsheet. Then I check my to do list for the day and get rolling.
What’s been the best business book you’ve read?
Essentialism. I read it last summer and it changed 100% how I do business. I’m not interested in doing everything or even many things. I’m interested in doing one thing really well. It gave me the courage to quit my blog and it gives me the courage to continue to go all in on GTWB.
What’s your favorite success quote and why?
Great people do things before they are ready. They do things before they know they can do it. Getting out of your comfort zone – taking risks like that – that is what life is. You might be really good. You might find out something about yourself that’s really special. And if you’re not good, who cares? You tried something. Now you know something about yourself. – Amy Poehler
Closing thoughts to other entrepreneurs or those on the verge of starting a business:
Advice: put your work out there. Over and over again. Show up daily, ready to get it done. Keep trying. Your first idea is probably terrible. And your second and third might be bad too, but keep going. That good idea is there and after you’ve got through all the bad ones you’ll be even more ready to handle it.
Well if you didn’t already know about Elise and her business before, I’m glad you do now. You can find her online store here, and on instagram @gettoworkbook and @elisejoy.
Be Brave,
Hillary
