We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Emily Ornelas. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Emily below.

Emily, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So, what do you think about family businesses? Would you want your children or other family members to one day join your business?

Family businesses have the capacity to be amazing. Your family members know your greatest strengths and weaknesses, so they are good judges of character when it comes to selecting the right jobs for each person. Sometimes there are differences of opinion and boundaries to navigate, but at the end of the day, working with your family bonds you together in a sense of pride in a job well done. I’ve worked for several other families’ businesses and now as an owner of one, I am taking all the lessons I’ve learned along with me for the ride. I am excited to teach my sons the power of positivity and how to provide excellent customer service, as well as important skills like cash-handling and financial planning. Our family is our “why”, and it makes sense that it should be our “how” as well. We go well together and play to each other’s passions and abilities to create a wonderful atmosphere for growth.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

The story of Daisy Print Company began when, in 2012, I started practicing letterpress printing as part of my studies in the printmaking department at Louisiana State University. I quickly fell in love with the process of designing and printing wedding invitations and took every opportunity to provide my services to family and friends.

After graduation from LSU in 2013, the Daisy Print Company shop on Etsy was born, which features a line of her illustrated greeting cards and small personalized gift items. After fine-tuning what were the best products for the brand going forward, we continued to add more product listings to the Etsy shop catalog, including a set of postcards featuring watercolor paintings of several state flowers.

Daisy Print Company continued to grow as a fun side-hustle while I gained experience working in the field under several established stationery and invitation businesses. That mentorship provided me with invaluable expertise on etiquette, print methods, and design styles. I also learned key components of building vendor and customer relationships.

In June of 2016, I relocated to Dripping Springs, Texas, with my husband. Since then, our family has grown to include two little boys. Moving to the Austin area inspired the creation of our best sellers: The Austin Series, a set of 12 watercolor and pen-drawn artworks of local landmarks and culture printed on postcards, which has since expanded to include several Dripping Springs locations in the collection as well.

Daisy Print Company has continued to gain momentum by adding more products to their catalog, like seed-embedded paper greeting cards, which can be planted to grow wildflowers. The online store expanded onto more digital retail platforms (like Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest) and opened up wholesale shopping options to brick-and-mortar retail stores. The Etsy shop has served customers across the globe, in over 7 countries and 48 states.

In September of 2020, my husband and I began building my studio, which is a tiny-house style office building on top of a flatbed trailer. I love serving my community with the option for contactless porch pick-up. As a mom, I know that sometimes life doesn’t follow traditional business hours, so I make it easy for her customers to shop in a more flexible manner.

I love to collaborate with other local vendors, like wedding planners, venues, and florists to create a cohesive look throughout the event. My favorite recent projects include: calligraphy on mirrors and acrylic pieces; pet illustrations for wedding napkins; custom monogram logos for printing on cups and koozies; and handmade personalized vow books.

When available, I also provide classes and tutorials for the community. I am experienced in calligraphy, mural painting, book binding and paper-making and loves to help spread my love of stationery arts.

Daisy Print Company offers full-service graphic design and printing for business and personal needs. We strive to ensure quality, craftsmanship, and excellence in design with beautiful paper products and handcrafted gifts. We serve the Austin area and beyond and offer options for every budget and style.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

Daisy Print Company started out small… and grew through bootstrapping and a long time of being a side-hustle, partially supported by my day job. We learned along the way and only bought materials or supplies when we really needed them. We have always operated from a home-based office, so we don’t have many expenses or a large overhead. Thanks to our online presence, we have been able to grow at our own pace and hope to continue to do so!

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

The key to doing anything is practice. Start BEFORE you’re ready. You’ll have some growing pains and need to learn along the way. But over time, you’ll see your style and story start to take shape through your posts. “The expert in anything was once a beginner.” My social media strategy is consistency. I have a loose schedule of a theme for each day of the week, and I conceptualize, create content, and schedule posts around those “pillars of content.”
I love the app/program Tailwind for planning and scheduling social posts. They have some amazing features that are totally worth the subscription! They do a free version for anyone who wants to try it out.
Another thing that helps boost your social media presence is to interact with others! This is a SOCIAL network after all, so by liking, commenting, and sharing (with authenticity) you can grow and connect with so many other amazing people out there.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.daisyprintcompany.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/daisyprintcompany
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/daisyprintcompany
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/daisyprintshop

Image Credits
Image and Grace Photography Baila Milliken Photography Lauren Crumpler Photography