We were lucky to catch up with Stephanie Moore recently and have shared our conversation below.
Stephanie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you tell us about an important lesson you learned while working at a prior job?
In 2010, fresh out of college, I landed a job a the front desk for a local gym. It was a job I had really wanted because it came with a free gym membership and as a broke twenty-one year old, I was all too happy to eliminate a bill. I worked the opening shift, coming in just before 5 am to open for all the early birds. This wasn’t your typical chain gym, my boss required me to learn and greet every customer by name when they came through the door, whether it was 5am or noon. There were times where I’d forget to greet someone and my boss would scurry out of this office and remind me how important it was and I never really questioned why. Im no morning person so sometimes it was painful to joyfully announce someones name in those dark early hours, especially if they too enjoyed their morning silence like me.
It wasn’t until recently that I realized how important that small gesture was. Making sure that every person who walked through the door didn’t just feel seen, but felt like a gym family member rather than just a membership fee. He was able to not only extend the membership life of a customer but he made those customers want to come in and use the gym rather than let themselves be charged a monthly fee and the gym going unused. To this day I can still recall full names, protein shake orders and class preferences when I see an old member out in public.
I’ve taken this lesson with me and applied to my own business and I think that the personalized way I work with customers, especially on custom orders, and the comfortability I offer contributes to my customer retention. I think Maya Angelou said it best, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”.
Stephanie, 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?
Hi! Im Stephanie Moore, first a wife and mom, and now a second time small business owner. Im lucky to have navigated most of my life with my husband by my side, my high school sweetheart. We have two beautiful boys Brayden 7 and Hayes 6. We reside in Leicester Ma, a nice change up to the city life in Worcester where we were both raised. Im a lover of all things Summer; from beach trips to pool days, bonfires and backyard gatherings with good food, drinks and company. In 2018 I found myself at the end of a major chapter in my life; after spending decades dancing and performing, studying dance, instructing dance and operating a dance studio, I decided that I was done with the “Dance Mom” drama that surrounded it all and decided to close the doors to my first small business. Four years later, you can now find me kicking sawdust around in our garage as I work on scroll saw, creating personal and business signage. Dance instructor turned woodworker is definitely a head scratcher for some, but here I am all thanks to some creative soul searching and a supportive group of family and friends who unknowingly pushed me in this direction.
It was only a couple of months after closing my dance studio that the creative itch inside of me had to be relieved. I was officially a stay at home mom to my two boys and while I was glad to finally be able to slow down and be more present with them, I knew that I needed something more than diapers and naps. Around that same time a friend asked me to make her a nursery sign, and while I’ve always been the type of person to take on or try anything creative and crafty, this was an odd request since I wasn’t a sign maker or a wood worker. I obliged and with lots of help from my husband and after dusting off my old Cricut machine, I pulled together a nursery sign. I was instantly hooked and after posting this first sign to my Instagram I had further requests from family and friends. At that point my husband was cutting my wood and framing all my signs after he came home from work or on the weekends and while I was grateful, I was impatient. Within a few months I learned to used a miter saw, circular saw and nail gun and began to frame my own signs. Those first few signs I made on my own were funky to say the least and it’s a little cringy to think that they may still be displayed somewhere in someones home but it’s always humbling to see how much I’ve learned in the last few years.
A Little Moore co. became social media official in December 2018, after I attended my first local market. From there I spent 2019 making things official behind the scenes; I set up an Etsy shop to start taking online orders, I started a Facebook business page and was even asked to sell in a local home decor shop, Laurel Grove, in Sudbury Ma. Things were going great until 2020, a year that needs no introduction. I was genuinely surprised by the outpouring of support for small businesses during the first half of that crazy year. While I was grateful to be able to still work and earn money from home through online sales, it was during this time that my husband I made the decision that I should home school. We were not keen on our boys being masked all day at school or being asked not to socialize as children naturally need and want to, and because of that I had to take a step back from creating.
During those slower times and aside homeschooling, I was able to reinvest in myself and my business by purchasing new tools and learning new sign making methods. In 2020 I purchased a scroll saw, a tool that elevated my sign making and helped me to offer 3D signage like custom baby names and business logos. A scroll saw is essentially a smaller band saw, it gives the user the ability to “free hand” cut different varieties of wood creating things like lettering, sports logos to beautiful florals. In 2021 I added a c02 laser to the mix, allowing me to work with new materials like acrylic, rubber and leather as well as offer engraving services. From 2020 through 2022 I was a frequent seasonal vendor at The Pro.Found Market and through those weekend long events I was able to connect with other makers, many like myself at home with their children, and create a new local customer base. It was only last Fall 2022 when my boys finally boarded that school bus and headed to a full day of school, leaving mom home to dive head first back into the business that waited on the back burner for her.
Since then I’ve been trying to slowly build back up to where I was previously with sales and with my social media presence. I’ve added selling in person at District V House in Manchaug Ma to my resume and spreading my online presence with the addition of a personal website, Pinterest business page, and TikTok. More recently I’ve decided to step back from the custom work I enjoyed so much during the slower years and to start getting back into wholesale orders for local, and hopefully national, home decor shops.
I love that this business has allowed me to have the best of both worlds; I work for myself, in my own home, on my own terms and I also get to see my two boys off to school in the morning and back home in the afternoons. I can always have a clean home (an obsession of mine) and make sure the dishes and laundry don’t over pile. I get to eat dinner with my husband each night, sit at football and soccer practice during the week and cheer on sports games each weekend; things I would not have been afforded if I continued operating a dance studio. The circumstances of my life changed and I reluctantly had to change with it. Im so glad that I survived the mental gut punch to my ego when I closed my first business and Im proud that Im now more confidently juggling life, being a both a home maker and a sign maker.
If anything I hope that my story can inspire and motivate, whoever needs to hear it, to slow down and pivot if necessary. Being a small business owner should elevate your life, compliment the type of person you are and the life you want to live. It goes unsaid but life is too short and we all deserve to be happy. Im so glad that I found my happy.
How did you build your audience on social media?
When I started A Little Moore co. in 2018 I was still using my personal Instagram account, with about 200 followers, to showcase my work. My main audience and customer base were family and friends but I knew the longevity of that group supporting my business with a purchase was going to be short. In the first few months of 2019 I knew I had to spread myself out over multiple platforms so I converted my Instagram over to an official business profile, started a Facebook business page and opened an Etsy shop. It wasn’t until last year, but I also converted my Pinterest over to a business profile and just recently joined TikTok. Over the past four years I’ve slowly but steadily grown my following through attempting to just stay consistent and not get overwhelmed by trends and the comparison game. I personally don’t like to get on social media and talk to my phone screen, I also don’t prefer to dance around my front yard with a sign while my neighbors question my sanity, and thats ok. I may not go viral and I may not get as many views or likes as the next person but Im in my own lane and I know that if and when I want to step out of my shell, the opportunity will always be there.
These are some of my best tips for those just starting to build a social media presence….
Get on as many platforms as you can and turn on all cross posting, work smarter not harder. If you can post to instagram and at the same time it will post to your Facebook, do it! You can always go back to any platform and revise a post so it better suits that audience.
Make sure your tag/screen name is the same across the board! Match this up with you email as well as your website domain to make it easier for people find you.
Clearly state your name in your bio on Instagram. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to scroll through someones pictures hoping to find a “meet the maker” post to get their name so i can properly address them. Having your name right at the top of your profile next to your business name will help people to make the association. Instagram has recently offered pinned posts so it might be a good idea to pin one of your “meet the maker” posts to the top so that people can easily read about you, your story and the brand without any scrolling.
Stay consistent! Don’t post every day for one week and then go radio silent for the next two. Take on what you can, if thats posting two reels a week and a shop update story thats fine. Keep your pictures and videos on brand and make sure that people always know what they’re getting when they come to your page or see your photo pop up in the stories bar.
Don’t only follow like minded community members. While it’s great to connect with and be inspired by people in the same field as you on social media, if your goal is to convert social media relationships into sales you need to start following a different set of accounts. Find your peers and blanket accounts that will help you to collaborate. For example I make nursery signs, if I only follow other people who make nursery signs Im probably going to make some great online friends but I’ll make zero sales. If i start following and engaging with my peers, mothers to be specific, I’ve just opened up the opportunity to make a sale of a nursery sign. If I go further and start following and engaging with accounts who sell nursery furniture or an interior designer that specializes in children’s decor/rooms, I’ve now opened the door to collaborate with them and gain referrals that will lead to not just one but possibly many sales.
Last, don’t get stuck on the number; your follower number doesn’t define you or your brand, instead rely on metrics to help build your following. You want people to engage with your content, so don’t let that account that has 200K followers, but only 100 likes on posts, fool you. The best growth is slow and steady, so just stick with, worry less about the number at the top of your page and create real relationships through your brand on social media.
Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?
Aside from selling in person at vendor markets, I sell on both Etsy and through my website, hosted by Shopify. I also utilize Square and PayPal for event payments and invoicing.
I opened my Etsy shop in 2018 but didn’t list any products or start selling until Spring of 2019. At the time it was scary to put myself out there online and hope that a sale came in. If i remember correctly it was about a week of crickets until my first sale came in, but when it did it slowly and surely remained steady through 2020. What I love about Etsy is that they do all the hardworking for you and that its a great starting point for first time sellers. They have a great seller dashboard that helps you to organize your orders, make note of personalizations, shipping deadlines and you’re able to print discounted shipping labels right through their platform. I liked being able to see my progress on the stats page with shop views, listing views, click throughs. They have tools to help you with SEO and listing keywords and also offer an opt in, at cost, ad program if you want more eyes on your listings. Overall Etsy has been good to me but I have found that some of their policy changes to the platform over the past two years have made it harder for sellers.
Etsy does not charge you to be a seller on their platform, but they do charge a listing fee, processing fee and they take a percentage of your sale based on whether someone directly arrived to your shop page or clicked through an ad. Because of a new ad program that you are unable to opt out of, I’ve had to pull some listings from my shop to avoid losing my profit on custom and large signage. Other cons of mine are that Etsy pushes sellers to offer Free Shipping, to compete with Amazon. If you are unable to or do not offer free shipping your listings are pushed back in searches and not featured on the first page as others would be. For me personally offering free shipping was cutting too largely into my profits and with the growing cost of shipping and growing frequency of damaged shipments, I decided to stop offering it. Since making that decision the views on my Etsy page and listings have dropped dramatically and my sales have decreased. Lastly, while Etsy claims to be the go to spot for handmade, they are moving away from that and it has hurt true artists. Drop shippers are taking over the site and I see more largely manufactured items for sale than the hand crafted goods that were once so easy to find through their platform.
While I don’t see myself ever leaving Etsy I do feel that their care of sellers has shifted and they are not as great at they once were. I would still encourage small business owners, who offer physical or digital product, to sell on Etsy because you just never know when someone who finds you there will connect with your brand and become a long term customer.
In 2021 I decided I wanted my own website and after much research went with Shopify. They charge a monthly fee to host your website after you make an annual payment for your domain name, and they also offer app add on’s for an additional cost. My goal with having a website was to have a place that I could tell more of my story, list more custom signage and direct sales that came through social media. The pro’s to having your own website are that you can make it your own, whether you do it yourself or hire someone, your website can become an extension of you and really set the tone for your brand. Platforms like Etsy let you upload pictures or a banner but the over esthetic is the same for each shop. What I instantly liked about Shopify was that, like Etsy, it keeps your orders organized on your dashboard and offers discounted shipping labels, so it was a familiar platform for me. Another great tool that I’ve utilized is the Pinterest app through Shopify. I became a verified merchant on Pinterest and after that process I was able to grant Shopify access to my Pinterest page to automatically post my product listings with clickable links to make a purchase. Since doing that I have seen my monthly Pinterest page views increase ten times over and I’ve increased the click throughs to my website as well. The only con I see of having a hosted website is that it is extremely hard to drive traffic there and in turn make a real profit, without major advertising costs. I am able to cover my website fees each month with sales but would like to continue to spread my reach through better SEO and continuing to cross post links on social media.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ALittleMooreco.com
- Instagram: www.Instagram.com/ALittleMooreco
- Facebook: www.Facebook.com/ALittleMooreco
- Other: www.Pinterest.com/ALittleMooreco
Image Credits
Jenny Lee Photography – Jenny Stanwick Stephannie Camosse Photography – Stephannie (Camosse) Duffy