We recently connected with Jess Simon and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jess, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear how you think where to draw the line in terms of asking friends and family to support your business – what’s okay and what’s over the line?

being a small business owner is tough, and support from your friends and family is huge! there are so many ways people can support small businesses without having to even pay a penny!
sharing posts on social media, spreading by word of mouth, and writing reviews are small ways that can help make an impact on business owners. when someone’s favorite athlete or celebrity comes out with a new product line, people can’t wait to go purchase their makeup, perfume, shoes, or whatever it may be. when you support a small business, you are supporting somebody’s family and their DREAM. i saw something once that said “when you buy from a small business, an actual person does a little happy dance” and that is so true!

Jess, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Poppy Jane started as a hobby that quickly turned into a passion. I’ve always been a big DIY-er and crafty for as long as I can remember. My inspiration came from when I worked in a hospital, where everyone wore the same blue scrubs every day, and there weren’t many ways to accessorize and uniquely express yourself. I purchased a felt badge reel as a fun accessory but quickly realized it would be difficult to keep clean. That’s when I decided to play around and make something that was not only custom and unique but also durable! Poppy Jane acrylics are all handmade in the suburbs of Kansas City. My website currently has nearly 500 handmade acrylic products. We offer everything from seasonal items, products by specialty, various foods and drinks, animals- and everything in between! If you have something specific in mind and don’t see what you’re looking for, I LOVE custom orders! The possibilities are truly endless. Badge reels were the OG of Poppy Jane and will forever be a favorite of mine, but we have recently been expanding to a larger variety of acrylic products to suit everyone. In addition to badge reels, we now offer dishwasher magnets, ornaments, doggy bag holders, and artwork magnets to show off your kiddos creations!

Let’s talk M&A – we’d love to hear your about your experience with buying businesses

My husband and I started Poppy Jane from the ground up and I would definitely have to say that getting started was the hardest part! As I mentioned previously, Poppy Jane started as a hobby. The more I would wear them when I worked at the hospital, I had so many people asking about them and encouraging me to sell them. As much as I loved making them, I was hesitant to sell them / create a small business out of it. Around the time I decided to dive in, my husband and I were in the middle of moving, we had a newborn, and I also worked full time as a surgical assistant! As much as I tend to load a lot on my plate at once, I was nervous about starting a new adventure this big while also still navigating being a new working mom and wife. Any small business owner who says it’s easy is a liar! There are so many small yet huge aspects behind the scenes that people may never realize. There were several “difficult” parts of the process, from web design, the fun legal things, taxes, etc., but I made the best of it and tried to make it as fun as possible! I have to give a huge thank you and shout out to my husband, Brandon, the tech nerd who helped make many of the different aspects of the website possible!

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

In the beginning when I worked in the hospital, it was {accidentally} easy! As cheesy as it sounds, one day I was sitting in my craft room brainstorming ways to create a fun, yet durable badge reel for myself and before I knew it, most of the unit I worked on wore them and then exposure began to grow to other units in the hospital. I was averaging about 80-100 orders a month, just from the hospital alone. No social media, no website, just simply seeing them amongst peers. When I finally made the decision to start a small business, I also started a few different social media platforms leading up to the launch to promote business and build clientele.
Anytime I do giveaways on social media, I always give extra entries for sharing / tagging friends!

Contact Info:

• Website: shoppoppyjane.com
• Instagram: shoppoppyjane
• Facebook: Shop Poppy Jane
• Other: TikTok (huge learning curve! it’s nothing fancy- I just started playing around with it)