Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jamie Saam. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Jamie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

Start Something Studio is the brainchild of Jamie Saam and Lisa Koivu. Jamie, Lisa, and teammate Ellyn Theis see small businesses as the heartbeat of the economic community and understand that each town needs healthy, local businesses to remain relevant to its community members and visitors alike.

As female business owners ourselves, we have always loved helping others in similar situations, so why not turn that into a business?! Now we get to use our expertise and real-world experience to empower other women to grow their dreams into realities.

Start Something Studio seeks to reach local female entrepreneurs and founders at every stage of start-up. Our goal is to help them grow their business through smart, sustainable support by empowering them to learn and grow or hire the right help they need.

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

Jamie Saam Co-Founder of Start Something Studio, Inc.

Jamie Saam spent the bulk of her childhood and now her adulthood in the Batavia community, and the roots she has formed here run deep. Jamie went to college in Chicago, intending to stay there and raise her family. During her time in the city, she worked as a bartender, server, and eventually restaurant manager, learning a great deal about people and small businesses.

Jamie and her husband moved back to the suburbs and made the leap into entrepreneurship in 2011, forming Bulldog Plumbing Inc., becoming a fixture in Batavia and one of its biggest cheerleaders. Jamie has always had a hand in their plumbing business, but in wanting to make her own mark on her community, she served as an alderman from 2013-2015. She left that position in 2015 to become the Executive Director of Batavia MainStreet, providing Jamie with an opportunity to help revitalize downtown Batavia. This position cemented her place in the community as an advocate for and supporter of small businesses, through projects like the Batavia Boardwalk Shops Incubator Program. This all helped to pave the way for the formulation of Start Something Studio with Lisa!

Outside of her professional life, Jamie loves spending time with her husband and two teenage sons, relishing her current role of Hockey & Rugby Mom! When she is outside of the Batavia area, you can find her in other small towns, shopping and supporting those businesses and communities.

Lisa Koivu
Co-Founder of Start Something Studio, Inc.

Lisa Koivu has been working online for 13+ years, doing a little of this and a little of that. She was an OG blogger at ShopGirlDaily.com and OhSheBlogs.com and a freelance writer for publications such as About.com, the Chicago Tribune, and U.S. News & World Report.
In 2017, Lisa and her family moved to the Fox Valley and she switched gears a bit, launching She Soars Digital. Using the industry knowledge she’d built up over the years, Lisa started helping entrepreneurs create engaging web presences, including designing websites, Search Engine Optimization, and developing social media strategies.

Before living the online nomad life (without the nomad part), Lisa was an Associate Dean of Admission at Lake Forest Academy and the Chicago Academy for the Arts. Somewhere in there, she obtained a Masters’s in Public Administration from DePaul University.

Lisa is originally from the Detroit area but moved to Chicago immediately after graduating from the University of Michigan. She has now lived in Illinois longer than she lived in Michigan but will always be a Michigander at heart. Lisa lives in Geneva with her husband, two kids, and two dogs. She does a lot of work in the middle of the night and while she’s sitting in the car waiting for her kids to get out of school and/or their events. In her free time (ha!), she enjoys reading and planning her family’s next vacation.

Ellyn Theis
Small Business Solutions Consultant

From the time Ellyn was old enough to hold a crayon in her hand, she has held an undeniable passion for all forms of art and expression. She believes communities that not only tolerate but celebrate individuality and growth are the richest- which is why she is proud to call Batavia home.
After studying art at SIUC, Ellyn’s beginnings with Levi Strauss Co. launched her into the world of merchandising where she combined her love for design with her interest in human psychology. She enjoys researching the ever-evolving forms of social media and applying what she learns into marketing and design campaigns to effectively communicate with potential clients. Ellyn’s professional wheelhouse is in brand marketing, merchandising, social media management, and website design.

In her free time, Ellyn enjoys meditating, practicing Tai Chi, spending time with her two mutts Pepper and Blue, reading as much as she can find on whatever historical topic she happens to be interested in at the time, and getting her hands dirty with clay or paint.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Not only have I lived in the Batavia Community and surrounding area for nearly my whole life, but my husband and I started a business here (Bulldog Plumbing Inc.) about 12 years ago. My foundations run deep. But I don’t think that just being from somewhere makes you reputable, known, and trusted. You must genuinely engage.

After moving back to Batavia to start our family, I quickly became active in multiple community volunteer roles. This lead to me running for a seat on the Batavia City Council, and then continuing my community servent leadership into a role as the Executive Director at Batavia MainStreet. Batavia MainStreet is a nonprofit organization focused on engaging the businesses and community members and bringing awareness to the downtown area as the heart of the community.

While I have since left both of those roles, I have not stopped my community service and engagement.

Ideas for this that I have experienced include joining the Chamber Board, being a member of your Kiwanis or Rotary Organizations, supporting local businesses, volunteering at local events, engaging with your kid’s school or sports clubs. The list goes on and on. If those commitments are too much, there are endless options in the networking category throughout every community.

By engaging, people know you. They know you…period. Beyond you selling your business. They know you, they trust you, they like you. Because you engage with them and like the same things they do. I love this community and so do those who I engage with.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

After leaving my position with Batavia MainStreet, I needed to focus on our family business, Bulldog Plumbing Inc. But that was only going to take up so much of my time, and I like to fill my time. So I began using my small business knowledge and skills to help other small businesses in the area with marketing and social media. I did this very part-time for a few years.

During that time, I was able to expand a bit and bring on another mom to give her a bit of part-time work as well. This was awesome because I love working with good people as well as providing outlets both creatively and financially for them to pursue.

As we continued working part-time, we were able to work alongside other part-time businesswomen to support our clients in other realms such as website work and design/branding work. I had a few great contacts for this type of work. One, in particular, was Lisa Koivu of She Soars Digital.

After continuing to send work back and forth to each other, we decided that it would be smarter, and we could be stronger TOGETHER instead of separate! So we joined forces to combine our businesses and expand into Start Something Studio.

That is where we are at today. 6 months in with three of us on the team, going strong helping over 20 monthly members of our Studio as well as numerous other clients.

Contact Info:

• Website: startsomething.studio
• Instagram: startsomething.studio
• Facebook: startsomethingstudio

Image Credits
Photos – 1,2,6,7,8,9 are Katie O’Brien Photography Photos – 3, 4, 5 are April Duda Photography