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

Hi Ruthie, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear how you think where to draw the line in terms of asking friends and family to support your business – what’s okay and what’s over the line?

Starting a small business can be nerve-wracking because the support from friends and family, although vocal, may not be tangible. While their verbal encouragement has been impactful in my designing, I was nervous about selling my products to others because I feared that they might only be buying from me out of love rather than genuine interest in my business. However, I learned that their support was the fuel I needed to branch out. Their recommendations of who to reach and market my designs to drastically encouraged me. I felt like I was very clear with myself that I wouldn’t push my friends and family to buy into what I was doing. Rather, I would simply share the path I was on and let them invest in any way they wanted. It was so special to see and experience friends and family enjoy and be brought together!

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.

Hello! My name is Ruthie Bolton and I run A Drop of Orange Designs. I am a small-business freelance designer and I work with a couple of clients in different fields. One of my focuses is on internal pages for book publishing. I work with clients to ensure that their work is formatted and placed in a way that is readable, stylistic, and just as they dreamed in the final stages before publishing. This experience has been rich in my understanding of using design as a tool to tell stories. I love that the words on the page tell stories and I love the ability to place the words in certain places to tell stories as well.

I got into design so that I could use my unique perspective on the world to tell my own story. The name of my business is A Drop of Orange Designs because orange is color that holds deep meaning to me. By weaving “A drop of orange” into everything that I produce, whether the actual color or just parts of me, I am able to tell more of my story and who I have been created to be.

Also through A Drop of Orange Designs, I am a designer for Kepha Coffee, a local coffee roasting start-up. It has been so fun to become more a part of the coffee community and bring people together over their common love of coffee. Designing for Kepha Coffee has allowed me to do a full branding effort and share my work in order to help the small-business reach people.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My creativity comes from my desire to glorify the Lord using the skills and mind that He has given me. I know that the Lord is the ultimate creator and has given us the opportunity to create in His name. I hope that my creative journey is reflective of His beauty. Out of this desire to serve the Lord, I hope to honor His people through what I create. My philosophy in design is to meet people right where they are and inspire them to reach their own creative potential. I achieve this in works that stretch the imagination and encouragement to pursue awe and wonder. I know that the skills I have learned can help others accomplish their dreams. It is so fun to take an idea or a concept that a client has and make it a reality in a finished work.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

The most effective strategy has been word of mouth and meeting people. Growing firm connections with those who can connect me to new clients has been fun and rewarding. I am able to produce results that encourage client managers to approach me and ask for similar work or new work that they believe I can achieve. Being able to tell others about what I am working on and have pieces of design to show my experience has opened doors to new relationships, jobs, and passion projects.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://adropoforange.com
• Instagram: @kephacoffee
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruthie-bolton/