Today we’d like to introduce you to Sara Woznicki

Hi Sara, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?

It’s difficult to pinpoint where this story starts — perhaps the day I was born, perhaps a little over a year ago. For the sake of brevity, let’s go with last year. I have a full time job, but have always loved having a side hustle. Something that I feel like I can own, direct and be creative. My sister is more creative in a literal sense in that she can draw. I kept telling her I wanted a side hustle, and then one day she saw someone post on Instagram that they made six figures selling stickers online. She said, “Sara, I can draw better than that.” So I challenged her to do it. I know how to build a website, sell products online, create social media content. If she can make designs, I can get it out into the world.

As an adult, my sister and I both have loved to travel and go on what we call sister trips together. When we were bouncing ideas off of each other about what exactly Louanne would be drawing, it seemed obvious to us to focus in on our love of travel. From there, the idea for Woz Here Co. blossomed — we’d focus on making watercolor, unique hand drawn travel mementos. We want to become *the* site where travelers go to get their city stickers to pay homage to their favorite trips.

We had big plans to launch pretty quickly, but then realize just how much we needed to do. There was the business license, building the website, then establishing the production plan. We both work full-time, so this is a weekend / evening endeavor when we’re also living full lives. Everything took longer than we planned, and it’s all been a learning journey. But, it’s been very worth it and very fun.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?

Of course it hasn’t been a smooth road, I co-launched a side hustle with my sister. I’m kidding, it’s been a challenge but working with my sister has actually been a really wonderful opportunity to collaborate with each other. What truly has been the challenge is just how much of our journey has been a learning opportunity. Launching a business has a bunch of steps, then figuring out how to turn our art into products is another huge process — ordering and testing the products, working through designs. Then we had to figure out pricing and fulfillment. And now the big next hurdle of actually marketing and getting our products purchased.

However, we didn’t come into this to make millions of dollars, we came into this to make fun art that bring people joy. The learning is part of the process; and part of the fun.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?

We are a sister duo that celebrates travel with hand-drawn, unique travel souvenirs including stickers and magnets. We both love to travel and collect fun mementos from our trips. However, it’s annoying to make time to find a gift shop while traveling, and then having to carry around travel souvenirs from location to location, trying to make sure it doesn’t break when cramming it into an already stuffed suitcase.

Our goal for Woz Here Co. is simple — we want to make unique, hand-drawn travel mementos that will make you smile when you think about that trip you went on. We plan to continue to release new products that represent more places so that you can rely on us to continue to celebrate a well-traveled life. We like to encourage our customer to make the travel memories, while we make the travel mementos.

What sets us apart from others is our hand drawn designs, which is also what I’m most proud of. We use bright fun watercolors and bold pen lines in our designs to really make them pop, whether you’re purchasing the stickers for your luggage or water bottle, or filling up the side of your fridge with our travel magnets. While one magnet or sticker looks great on its own, my water bottle with a bunch of our stickers look truly cohesive and beautiful. They make an awesome collection.

Along with our city design stickers, magnets, ceramic coffee mugs and tote bags, we also offer wholesale sales and custom designs.

Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?

My one big piece of advice is just to give yourself grace. We had a launch plan and continuation path, and it became very clear very quickly that we were going to have to adjust, change and modify our path. Don’t be afraid to change course. For example, we planned to only sell online and outsource our fulfillment. We quickly realized that bringing fulfillment in-house would greatly increase our margins, so we pivoted. Then we tried doing a small vendor market in Richmond, and discovered that it was a fantastic way to build a local and engaged customer base.

Don’t be so married to your original vision that you miss what opportunities exist to you that might not have originally seen.

Pricing:

• Stickers: $4
• Ceramic Mug: $13.99
• Tote Bags: $24

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.wozhereco.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wozhereco/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wozhereco
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@WozHereCo
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/woz-here-co-richmond