We recently connected with Nicole Prettyman and have shared our conversation below.
Nicole, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?
My business is named fiftyfourdegrees because 54 degrees is the angle that you hold your pen at when you’re writing in calligraphy. When it came time to make social media for my business I couldn’t get this name out of my head. I loved the simplicity of it and how specific it is to the industry.
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?
I started out by taking a Copperplate Calligraphy class in college with some of my friends. I ended up doing the invitations for all their weddings! Turns out I was really good at it and enjoyed the stress relief it provided from studying as an engineer. It took off from there and a couple years in I got asked to start teaching calligraphy classes. That has been so fun for me getting to share my craft with others in Atlanta who also want to begin their calligraphy journeys.
I love helping people with their wedding stationery and taking the stress out of the process. I’ve also gotten into a niche of Etsy for providing stationery to recent postbaccalaureate graduates (Doctors, Lawyers, etc.).
We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.
I chose to sell my products mainly on Etsy because of the built-in customer base. Once I got my listing onto the main page it’s almost a passive income source at this point. Etsy does have high fees, but I would always suggest having listings up on your website as well as using a secondary platform in order to maximize profits when sharing links.
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
My favorite entrepreneur book is The Wealthy Gardner. Since calligraphy is my side hustle I love reading books about how to use the money to propel my financial future. I hope this helps someone else in their journey!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fiftyfourdegrees/