We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Lindsay Ashley a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Lindsay, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.

Being a small business, it’s obvious that my production process is going to look a lot different from that of a larger stationery company or printing press; it’s the same for any small business/maker. One thing that I’ve done differently from other small stationery businesses, though, is producing every product in-house.

Most micro-businesses that offer paper goods are designing them, then finding companies to outsource the production to. Because of my own naivety, I did not start out this way and have continued to keep the model of in-house production. Coming from a teaching career, I knew nothing about running a business, outsourcing and finding production partners, OR how to make notepads myself. The easiest path at the time seemed to be buying the supplies I needed and trying it myself because, while there was an upfront cost, it was nothing compared to the high minimums that most printers require.

Flash forward to my business now, years later, and I have upgraded and added to my equipment to make all of my processes easier, but all the action is still all happening in my at-home print shop. The benefits for customers include being able to offer more design options and, most importantly, the ability to customize anything I make. In addition, I can offer lower minimums for my printing services. Customers know that their product is made with SO much love and care because it’s me designing, printing, and assembling every single part of it, and I think many people value that since it’s hard to come by.

Lindsay, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Out of college, I pursued a career in education, teaching middle school math and science for several years before having my first child. I left the job when he was born, and was unsure if I’d return as it felt like a privilege to stay at home with him. I did, however, crave something “grown up” to do to keep my mind busy and get a little more stimulation than life with a newborn can provide.

With a 4-month old in 2014, a friend and I decided to open an Etsy business selling hand-lettered prints and cards as a fun hobby. Figuring out how to start a business and how to make prints was frustrating and fun, as I had zero experience with business OR graphic design. It snowballed and soon we had makeshift equipment to make notepads, then notebooks, and more complex designs. It was still a hobby, but I had gained a lot of skills.

In March 2020, with my 3rd child being a few months old, I had a lot of time to reflect (didn’t we all?) and decided that I really spent too much time on our Etsy shop to call it a hobby anymore and wanted to pursue it more seriously. I rebranded and re-opened in June 2020 as Sound & Circle with a new name, new products, and a more cohesive identity.

Since then my business is a part-time endeavor that I work on after bedtime or the brief times all 3 kids are at school. I have grown both my retail and wholesale sales and offer more products than ever. Everything I offer is produced in an at-home print shop we built off our garage in 2021.

My biggest priority is to design tools that provide REALISTIC organization strategies. We don’t want planners that require us to completely overhaul our existing habits; rather, we want tools that fit into our lives seamlessly and help us find calm in a bit of organization. Our motto is: Perfectly Planned, in a way that’s perfect for you.

I offer planners, journals, notepads, meal planners, calendars, address books, cards, and more! Notebooks are both coil-bound and perfect-bound (glued). There are tons of layouts, styles, and dating options with our weekly planners, so there’s definitely a format that will work for you!

We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.

I sell both on my own website and on Etsy (as well as Faire Wholesale), and there are pros and cons to both so I don’t see myself closing either one and have found it beneficial to have both platforms.

With Etsy, there are very low start-up fees and you are automatically given traffic. There are really divided feelings on Etsy, especially around its fees, being oversaturated, and letting non-handmade businesses join. However, there’s not really an easier way to get started and it provides a crash-course in opening a shop. You can work on the SEO of it as much or as little as you want, and there’s really no risk in being there. Customers trust the site, too.
The drawbacks of Etsy ARE the oversaturation in some industries, which can bury your products. Also, while some sellers have great success using it as their full-time platform I found that I wanted a standalone site to look more… professional or legitimate as I branched out to wholesale. But that’s personal preference.

With a standalone website, there are larger startup costs (and still fees involved with every sale!). But, you have limitless options for customizing your site and truly establishing your brand identity. You can also drive traffic there with blog posts and other add-on pages. Setting up and maintaining a website can be a lot; with selling planners with TONS of options, I’m always troubleshooting something that’s not working quite right. But, I like the freedom it gives me and the feeling of “legitimacy” it gives my business.

While taxes can be a pain with two sites, overall I am happy to have both.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

As mentioned previously, I started the business with a friend as a hobby, and we ran it for about 5 years before closing up shop. It was a difficult decision to make, and extra challenging to make that change with a friend. I think the mistake we made initially (and due to no one’s fault, just being naive) was never establishing expectations or communicating our goals with the business. There was no equal division of labor, no goals we were working towards, no clear vision – because it was a fun hobby in the beginning! So, as it grew or stayed stagnant at different periods, we were never on the same page with what we wanted to do or what we wanted the business to look like. That would be my biggest piece of advice for someone starting out with a partner: really taking time to establish your expectations within the partnership and making intentional time to revisit those frequently.

When I decided in March 2020 that I wanted to re-open as a solo owner, that was a major pivot. I came to the realization that I wasn’t planning on going back to my career any time soon, and I wanted my paper goods business to be just that: a business and not a hobby. I had worked SO hard over the years to puzzle through how to design and produce everything I wanted to offer, and there was so much trial-and-error and wasting money as I worked through it. I was ready to apply that learning to a new business.

Creating the opportunity to start fresh allowed me to really be intentional with my branding, my product offerings, and my business plan. While there is still a lot of “winging it” I was able to get up and running, and grow more than I ever have. In the end I’m grateful for the path I took, and know it was the right pivot for me.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.soundandcircle.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/soundandcircle
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/soundandcircle

Image Credits
Cast and Forge Photography