We were lucky to catch up with Jillian Oliver recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Jillian thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

I chose the name Gert & Co to incorporate pieces of both my Grandmother (Mimi) and Mother who fostered my love for color & creating ever since I was a little girl. It also playfully nods to my love for my mini-Goldendoodle, Gertrude!

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?

Sure! My name is Jillian Oliver. I’m the artist and owner of a paper goods and home décor company called Gert & Co. Prior to owning my own business, I spent nearly a decade curating home furnishings brands and creating product for mass markets while working at a large e-commerce furniture company and later an area rug manufacturer.

I started Gert & Co as a side project in 2019 as a way to get more creativity into my life and to design products that helped bring my personal love affair for color to life. I’m a self-taught artist and graphic designer (yes, I’ve learned Photoshop via YouTube University)!

Gert & Co products are inspired by my home state of Maine, celebrating the little things, champagne happy hours, and vibrant pops of color. The goal of Gert & Co is to bring a moment of delight and a pop of fun to a world that can often feel less than joyful.

How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.

I knew I wanted to sell my products both D2C and B2B so I’d have multiple revenue streams. All avenues of selling have pros and cons, but I ultimately chose to sell via my own website, Etsy, and Faire.

The biggest con for any website that isn’t your own are the additional fees that are implemented (although there are fees with your own website as well). My view on ‘selling fees’ is that they’re simply a cost of doing business. As long as you know your finances and price your products accordingly, fees shouldn’t be a reason you can’t make money on a platform.

The number one pro of using a selling platform (in my opinion) is customer awareness and their marketing power. I personally don’t have millions of advertising dollars to spend on acquiring customers, but Faire and Etsy do. I’m able to reach a massive audience that I otherwise wouldn’t be able to access.

Have you ever had to pivot?

When I started Gert & Co, I was mostly focused on wedding stationery design. I quickly realized I didn’t actually like creating custom invitations because I felt way too much pressure from clients (even if it was self-imposed). I wasn’t designing for me anymore and a business that was meant to be a passion project of mine was no longer something I loved. In 2022 I decided to stop doing any wedding-related products and focused solely on my own designs. It was a huge shift in my business, I absolutely took an initial financial hit because of it, but I also wouldn’t ever change that decision. I am finally growing a brand and designing products that I absolutely love!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.gertco.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gertandco/

Image Credits
Elle Darcy; Marissa Campbell