For our Women in Business series, our next interview is with Shannon Cornelius and Lori Frost, co-owners of Plum Street Prints, a print and iPhone/tablet case company.As wives, mothers and co-owners of Plum Street Prints, Shannon and Lori are doing it all. While they make it look easy, these women are the first to admit that running a full-time business and juggling family life can be hectic.
“We learned an important lesson early on that working from home isn’t good for parents or kids if it’s interfering with our time together,” Shannon admits. “Let’s just say our kids were a tad cranky and missing us when we first started our business!”
These women quickly learned a few tricks to help balance work and family, and now, two-and-a-half years after launching Plum Street Prints, the company has drawn the attention of Glamour magazine, Tory Burch’s merchandising team and smart phone/tablet users searching for a case they are excited to sport.
Shannon and Lori share what they’ve learned about managing a growing household and a growing business.
You’re both wives, moms and co-owners of Plum Street Prints. So basically, you’re wonder women. What’s your average day like? We sure aren’t wonder women! We both just try to get as much as we can done each day and be disciplined about our time. When we started Plum Street Prints, we found that there were always more things to work on. We both found ourselves working way too much during the day and on the weekends. After being open for a month or so, we both set a goal to only work when our kids are napping, at school or sleeping at night. This has helped us plan and manage our time so well. When we are with our kids, we try to be with them and not working. Once they’re at school or napping, we prioritize the things we need to get done. This actually helps us work much more efficiently and keeps us from wasting time. We also have a schedule shared between the two of us so neither has to be working all the time. We keep our to-do tasks in a shared app and are in touch daily with issues that come up.
Our average day goes like this: Up early before the kids to work out and get ready. Once the kids are up, it’s breakfast, cleaning and chores, then either school and/or any outings for the day. Then back home, lunch, cleaning and naps, which means two to three hours of time for us to work in the shop (creating new designs, fulfilling orders, updating social media, contact with vendors, etc.). Then it’s time to make dinner, play with our kids and welcome our husband’s home. The hardest part of this time of day is turning off the creative juices! Then dinner, cleaning, bath time, family time and kids down to bed. Once the kids are asleep, we try to spend time with our husbands. Then it’s back in our offices until bedtime.
How did you come up with the concept for Plum Street Prints? For a long time, we talked about how wonderful it would be to start a business together. Once we were both stay-at-home moms, we brought up the idea again and actually had time to work on our ideas. Our shop first started solely with printables in our Etsy site. We spent a couple of months designing all of our initial prints and launched the site when we had enough to sell. Several months after we opened, we started talking to some phone case vendors about partnerships, got some cases put together and BAM! Just like that, our phone cases became our most popular product. We were lucky to be featured many times by fashion icon Blair Eadie (merchandise manager for Tory Burch) and Suze Yalof Schwartz (former fashion editor for Glamour magazine). We were also featured on MSNBC’s The Look by Heather Armstrong of Dooce.com and have been contacted by Nordstrom to retail in their trendy Savvy and Via C departments.
We didn’t realize at the time we started how important it would be to have a business partner who you work well with, who is hard working and motivated and who you trust implicitly. But to be honest, it just worked out. We were very lucky. We are still great friends after two years of being in business together!
What were some of your reservations about launching a business? Our biggest concern about starting a business was taking too much time away from our families. We are both a bit obsessed with doing things well and we were worried it would take too much of our energy. However, we have found work to be fun and such a needed creative outlet! We get excited when it’s time to work because after talking to babies, toddlers and kids all day, you need something for yourself!
What has been the most difficult part of running Plum Street Prints? The most rewarding? One of the most difficult things as a business owner is learning to be a jack-of-all-trades. Having a design business isn’t just about designing pretty things. We have to be designers, accountants, web coders, marketers, business managers, order fulfillers, etc. When we are learning something new, we might both be up until 3 a.m. for weeks and then up early to greet our kids in the morning. This can definitely strain the family when mom is feeling like a zombie!
The most rewarding part of our business has been seeing so many of our customers happy with their purchases. We try extremely hard to have top-notch customer service and leave everyone feeling ecstatic about the products.
Is there anything you would have done differently with Plum Street Prints? I think we would have the two of us take periodic retreats to have uninterrupted time in-person to work on our business ideas. Being far away from each other and having all our business online makes it tough for us to have brainstorming time together. We have scheduled weekly phone chats and are in touch every day via email and texting, but nothing can replace in-person brainstorming and work!
What tips do you have for female entrepreneurs? Our biggest tip is to organize your time. When you own your own business, you could work all day, every day. There is always something that needs your attention. Unless you say “I’m working today for these specific hours,” then your business will burn out, as well as your spouse, kids, family, etc.
Our last tip is to always be kind and uplifting. We have worked with so many people across the web and in print publications. The people we want to continue working with are those who are positive, kind and helpful.
Thank you Shannon and Lori! For more information on Plum Street Prints, visit www.plumstreetprints.com .
Past Women in Business posts: Q&A with Rubi Jones from The Period Store.
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