We were lucky to catch up with Esther Cho recently and have shared our conversation below.

Esther , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

The idea of Milky & Co. started in our living room during the hot summer months of 2020. In the midst of quarantine I found myself scrolling through Instagram posts surroundeding by my newest obsession, bullet journaling. Amazed by my sister’s work, I was fascinated. Although I never posted my own journal, I was dedicated to helping my sister’s account grow by managing collaborations, editing pictures, and coming up with ideas for her newest additions. However, while seeing her interact with different sticker shops and small businesses with promotional posts and collaborations, my own passion for the different designs I could create grew and I started doodling different sticker ideas constantly. I started with simple DIY’s by printing designs that I drew on my phone out and encasing them with packing tape, then upgrading to sticker paper and cutting them by hand, From the start, I knew that running a small business would be challenging, so I enlisted my family for support through a 10-slide presentation that detailed my plan and desire to make Milky & Co. a reality. My sister played a pivotal role in not only creating our main marketing platform through Instagram, but also with expanding our business,and my parents are my main advisors and key to our production line. We started on Etsy, as many do, and I still remember the thrill and excitement associated with each new order we received. The slow and steady expansion of designs led to an increasing audience that we could cater to combined with wholesalers who wanted to sell our products in their stores and craft fairs that allowed us to interact with our customers face-to-face.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

Milky & Co….bringing stationery serotonin to your door. We are two sisters with a love for paper goods and art m and decided to combine these interests to share our designs around the world. We sell stationery products ranging from sticker sheets, die-cut waterproof stickers, greeting cards, washi tapes, coasters, and custom logo/sticker designs. For the most part, we try to keep all of our packaging and processes eco-friendly, often reusing paper, using kraft envelopes, and limiting our plastic usage. I would say our defining features lie in the family aspect of our business as it truly is a family effort all the way down to Milky and Theo who also play their part in the business. On top of this, we try to give back to the community through our best-selling product. We started selling “Oops Bags” after noticing all the paper waste coming from our slightly miscut products that barely missed the cutoff for being sold as a regular product. So, to add an extra aspect to the “Oops Bags” we began donating 50% of our proceeds from our “Oops Bags” and have contributed to causes such as the #StopAAPIHate movement, the Asian Mental Health Project, along with collaborations with causes such as Knock Knock Give a Sock. Milky & Co. strives not only to impact people through our products but also empower them at the same time through our designs, messages, and contributions. Although we are only one small piece of large puzzle, we believe that every step makes a difference.

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

We manufacture the majority of our products at homeWhile we do outsource a few of our products such as our washi tapes and waterproof stickers, we make all sticker sheets and greeting cards at our home studio. We found manufacturers through a lot of research and communication with a variety of vendors prior to committing to one for production. While manufacturing providers definitely speed up the process for products we can’t make at home, our dad has become the master of operating our Silhouette portraits and I primarily man the responsibility of cutting and folding our greeting cards. The home touch that we add to our products is truly special.

Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?

We use Etsy, Shopify, and Faire all in conjunction. Shopify is our main platform as we use it for our personal website and we love how it allows you to completely have full control over how your products are represented, sold, how your customers are billed, and just the overall artistic freedom you are given with how you want your online store to look like. However, we still keep our Etsy active as it is an established and searchable platform – so customers who have not shopped with us before can find us more easily. Apart from those, we use Faire for the majority of our wholesale orders, and it has been a great platform for us to connect with potential wholesale partners and be able to establish a relationship with retailers around the world.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://milkyandcostudios.com/
• Instagram: milkyandco.studios
• Other: TikTok: milkyandco.studios