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

Karen , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your business sooner or later

My partner Jen and I started A Little More Special at the end of August 2025. I had already started creatively sharing recipes, well-balanced lifestyle ideas, beautiful table settings and hosting tips in April. I decided the partner route was a positive move because we are more creative, have better ideas and stronger strategy direction together.
In the beginning of March 2025, I was let go from my job at VP at a design agency. We had lost our 2nd largest client and as the highest paid employee, I was the first to go. Wounded and reeling, I went straight into a full job search for my next employer. But when there were rejections or crickets for every job I applied for, I stopped and thought “maybe I’ve aged out of this industry” AND “maybe I need something different, something I can rely on myself for”.
My career has been in package design and brand strategy for 28 years, so I have always had a strong tie to great brands and creativity overall.
In my personal life, I’ve spent decades cooking great meals, setting pretty tables (highly influenced by my mother), figuring out healthier swaps for foods, feeling good about working out (power walking, peloton, pilates, etc.) and always making my home warm and welcoming to my loved ones. It’s always brought me so much joy when it is visibly and verbally appreciated b my friends and family. People have often said that I should figure out a way to make it a business.
I know deep down inside that my last job had started to become less inspiring, so your question on “starting sooner” made me think that I wish I had. I do believe that one is “never too old and it’s never too late”, but I am 62 and have been thinking about the impact I want to make as I am fully in my third act of my life. If I could do it again, I might have been inclined to have started this a few years ago or so….I wonder where I’d be today if that had happened?
But I can’t go backwards and look to the present and future now. My partner Jen has a shared love of cooking and entertaining, also for decades. We raised our kids together and have been through a lot of life’s ups and downs with one another. She has a deep background as Catering Director, has her masters in Journalism and has owned two charcuterie businesses, making them and holding workshops teaching others. She is as frustrated with her current job situation and is excited about our future as co-founders building and growing our business.

Karen , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I may have already tipped my hat a bit on this one in my previous answer, but I’ll add some more info here.
I graduated from Indiana University with a bachelors in Marketing from their business school, and went on into sales, people management and then account management for Nestle Foods. I eventually got my original dream job working for my dad at his design firm, Murrie White Drummond Lienhart & Associates as a junior account executive. I was thrilled to learn all about design and strategy for major brands and bring my account management skillset to them. Originally my dad was very against me working for him – one for his dislike of nepotism and two for the fact that I didn’t have a design education. I was lucky that his partner retired and talked him into hiring me! It took some time to develop the trust of others there, but I earned it and created some lifelong friendships. They taught me all about creative design, strategic design and the importance of developing relationships with clients, the long term kind. And I did for 17 years growing our accounts with people responsible for many major brands such as Ore-Ida, Huggies, Excedrin, Life Savers and in my later employment places Beech-Nut, Fisher Nuts and Ocean Spray Craisins.

For A Little More Special, Jen and I want to show women how to create a lifestyle that feels more delicious, balanced and beautiful – from menu planning with easy recipes and hosting how-to’s with pretty table settings and well-balanced lifestyle ideas – all which can fit effortlessly into their everyday life. We want them to feel inspired, proud and confident in the joy they can create for themselves and loved ones. We created this space so that we can share what has brought us so much joy in our lives for decades. We believe that life is too short to just get by and that small efforts can make a big impact for a better, more gratifying life!
There are women who care enough to make the time it takes to make something taste a little better, look a little prettier, feel a little nicer, etc. These women either don’t know how to start or what to do, or they do know but don’t have enough time. So we offer 1:1 Consulting and Workshops to teach them how – how to make a menu plan with easy recipes that are delicious and healthier (most of them), how to use what you have in your refrigerator and pantry to make a yummy meal, how to add a placemat to your weekday dinner to make it feel more special, how to set a table so it’s a bit fancier for a dinner party, how to make sure your guests feel welcome when they walk into your home – playlist music so it’s not too quiet, a nibble to snack on, a beverage to warm up with, a bud vase in the powder room to make them feel cared about and more.
Additionally, we want to be a resource for our audience looking for great tablecloths or chargers, great cooking oils or seasonings. and such. We want to connect ourselves with brands that we love, trust and use regularly that have strong missions and align with our own values. I will always be a strong advocate for great brands, with a little extra love for female founded ones.
A Little More Special is built upon the notion of sharing and not gatekeeping. Jen and I are seasoned, sincere and strong women who know that life is too short to keep it all to ourselves and we want to share it with women who care about the things we care about – the little things that make the biggest impact in our lives. Our values are reflected in our creativity, optimism, authenticity and collaboration with each other and others.
On a day-to-day basis, Jen and I try the “divide and conquer” method for most of what we do to run our business, so far. We are definitely bootstrapping this with minimal investment until we have a consistent revenue stream (and with hopes of having multiple revenue streams). I live in Highland Park IL and Jen lives in Bradenton FL, but we both raised our kids in Deerfield IL. We each have 2 daughters and 1 son, hers all being one year younger than each of mine – they are all in their 20’s. Someday soon Jen plans to move back to this area – we’re hoping by summertime. In the meantime, we have FaceTime calls about every other day for at least an hour planning our content and strategizing for our newsletter that comes out via email every other Friday, in addition to building our workshop curriculum and overall strategy for the next year. Jen will be in town for her 3rd visit next week, since we started ALMS at the end of Aug. She has 2 kids that live in Chicago, so it’s a very attractive place for her to visit.
As a very new business, we have spent the first few months building our awareness through regular social media marketing of who we are and what we do, newsletter every other Friday, plus a lot of networking and attending small business owners meetings. As we roll into 2026, we have a lot on our to-do list: build our website, engage in live workshops, be involved in partner collaboration events, and look to be a guest on a podcast so that we can continue to tell our story. We are very excited about what’s to come!

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

Our very best source of new clients is through attending live networking events, and even some on virtual calls. I think when engaging with some in-person it creates a much stronger connection, especially when there is time to get to know one another better.

How’d you meet your business partner?

My co-founder and I met when our kids were in grade school. My kids are all two year part, and so are Jen’s – each a year younger than mine. So when I was co-directing the 4th & 5th grade school play, Jen’s daughter was in the play so she volunteered to be a back stage helper. It was that year that we started to get to know one another better and I got invited to a Christmas Wrapping Party she was hosting. She had friends over, made soup, served wine and we all wrapped our gifts together – sharing paper, ribbons and gifts if someone had an extra and someone was short. It was life changing for me actually, as I had been wrapping gifts alone in the basement away from my kids each year before then – a pathetic and terribly lonely time (my husband at the time was with the kids and in charge of their bedtime stuff).
Jen had started a “12 Days of Christmas Events” with her friends, and the Wrapping Party was one of those. We became fast friends and I loved all the fun stuff she planned for kids, families and just the grown-ups. It made the holidays so much more fun for me! Eventually I took over hosting the wrapping party and we had our last Cocktail Shake-Off Party with the grown-ups in 2019, as everyone moved on to other things happening in their lives. We’ve been lucky to have stuck with our friendship through all life’s ups and downs, supporting each other each step of the way!
Jen and I still have the fondest memories of those old times – and especially that first one for me!

Contact Info:

• Website: alittlemorespecial.com (not live yet)
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/a_littlemorespecial
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1BVp5bh2kb/?mibextid=wwXIfr
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@a_littlemorespecial