Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Shana Wanco. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Shana, appreciate you joining us today. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. So, we’d appreciate if you could open up about your growth story and the nitty, gritty details that went into scaling up.

My business really transformed in 2020/2021 when I decided to no longer print all our work by myself, & shifted to taking work outside of my community & state. I realized I needed someone to help me in the studio to assemble all the work as my business got larger. I started with interns from the local university, which didn’t always pan out. I had a few good ones, but they obviously moved onto better things after they graduated because at the time, I still couldn’t pay them a livable wage. I still kept an intern to help with the small things, but my first real employee came on at the same time. I decided to hire my mom who had recently retired. She became the production manager. She was & is still very part time & on an as-needed basis, but she knows Iris + Marie really well – better than all the interns.

Eventually we both realized there was a lot of admin work that I just couldn’t always get to. My business was growing & I needed someone behind the scenes. Originally, my mom was going to take over some bookkeeping / admin work since she has past experience, but it was hard to find the time in her schedule. I reached out to a virtual assistant I know & she has been with the team for a while now! Her name is Erum & she’s in Chicago. She takes care of all our emails, invoices, contracts, etc. I give her odd jobs sometimes like proofreading client addresses or another one-off task. I’d be lost without her! While all this was happening, I had in the back of my mind that I needed a second designer that was a contract employee. Someone to make some assets that I can’t find the time to get to, or someone that is better at a design aspect than me. Our designer, Genevieve reached out on her own on a whim & she’s been a huge asset to the brand!

Just in the past year or so I hired another intern & he surprised me. He’s the first intern that didn’t feel like one; he felt like a real designer. I told him that I want to keep him on full time once he graduates & I’m currently working towards financially making that happen.

On top of all this, we have friends that come help when we’re in a pinch & I pay them what my in-house designer gets. We all work as a team really well & I am so happy they all came into my life & the business life when & how they did. It’s been a slow scale over the years, which has always felt really natural to the growth of the business.

Shana, 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?

My name is Shana Wanco & my company is Iris + Marie, which has been operating for the last 9 or so years. We are based out of Columbia, South Carolina, but serve clients all over the country & sometimes the world. Our main work comes from weddings – we create very intentional, illustrative, meaningful, colorful & personal wedding stationery. Most of our clients start with save the dates & we work with them through to the wedding day. Some clients are repeat clients when they have their first child, or when another life event happens.

We also work with small businesses to create their brand identities. I think that all of the businesses we’ve worked for have been women owned, which is really important to me. Our clients include interior designers, photographers, luxury travel advisors, creative retreats, home decor store, & more.

I also license my artwork to a few brands such as LaRoque for clothing, Paperless Post, Morgan Julia Designs for needlepoint canvases & some restaurant work. Our branding & wedding work isn’t always attainable for everyone, so it’s nice to be able to offer other ways to enjoy my work.

We absolutely love working with clients that appreciate art & the process. Our inspiration is derived from our clients & their stories. We dive deep with them on the first call together to understand the ins & outs of their relationship, even the parts that they don’t think are relevant to stationery. Sometimes, those are the most fun & exciting details to learn! I enjoy turning those details into custom artwork, patterns, icons, die cut shapes, paper sourcing & color play. It’s a real privilege to get to do what I do & meet the people I get to meet!

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

I wish I knew more about finances – getting & working with a financial planner, getting all that I should out of my accountant, becoming an S Corp, etc. Money is extremely important & setting yourself up correctly is, too.

Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?

When I transitioned my business in 2020/2021, I saw sales dip. I had to stop paying myself & I was so lucky that I had my husband to support us. I decided to still invest in a business coach with the little money I had & she told me to put myself out there with the mindset that I am wealthy. My work is worthy of people seeing & wanting for themselves. I started to put down the scarcity walls & realized that what was going to come, was. It was a great break for my brain to realize that all I had to do was share my talents & plant the seeds.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.irisandmariepress.com/
• Instagram: @irisandmariepress

Image Credits

Photos with humans by Josie Derrick, others by Shana Wanco