We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Colleen McLean Williamson . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Colleen below.
Colleen , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
When my daughter was 2 – I worked part time as a creative consultant developing marketing and ad campaigns. I’ve always been in the creative industry and I was starting to dabble more in digital design on my own. Slowly teaching myself Illustrator and other design software. Every time I’d redecorate a room in our house (which is quite often), I couldn’t find the perfect piece of art for the space, so I’d create it myself! And then friends and family asked for art and it just spread to the point where I thought “Let’s make this a business!” – hence the birth of Kisco Print Shop.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
After college I worked in New York City for a fashion showroom that housed labels like Kate Spade, Summer Tompkins and Me + Ro. I quickly learned that the fashion industry was NOT for me – so I segued into the creative and crazy world of advertising – managing accounts, developing ad campaigns and styling photoshoots. Needless to say that the creative “bug” was in my blood. I eventually took all my creative energy and went out on my own. I still freelance in the marketing/ad world because I love the complexity and ROI of a good campaign.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
I’ve been bootstrapping my business from day one. I’m not opposed to funding necessarily, it just hasn’t been on my radar like a lot of businesses who have brick and mortars and product development on their plate. And honestly, there are other ways to raise money on your own while you’re starting a business. For me, it was the continuation of my marketing consulting business as well as licensing my art to companies like Minted and TJMaxx/HomeGoods.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
Honestly, everyday is an act of resilience! Quite often my company is turned down for one thing or another, but on the bright side, I’ve also had some very successful partnerships that are worth the rejection. Art is a finicky business – it is very personal. There are a lot of people who don’t like my art style and that’s OK – we all have our own style and if I let people who don’t like my products bring me down, then I wouldn’t be here today. My focus is on the niche who loves Kisco’s style – creating art that will hopefully resonate with their design aesthetic.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.KiscoPrintShop.com
- Instagram: @kiscoprintshop
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colleenwilliamson/
Image Credits
Colleen Williamson guest house shop Melaine Thompson