Sarah Stahl is more than just a simple card maker. She’s the creative mind behind Etsy store Simply Sarah’s – a whimsical, fun-loving place to find greeting cards that speak from the heart. A wife and mother, Sarah draws inspiration from the world around her, adding fun textiles and color combos to her creations. Her work is innovative and unique. Just as the name implies, simply put, it’s not just paper and glue that Sarah uses to put her products together, but heart as well. 
Q. How long have you been Making Cards? A. For 7 months, since January of this year

Q. What inspires you to create your items? A. My husband! When he tells me how proud he is of how I’m doing he inspires me to always step it up a notch.

Q. Do you have any major influences? A. I am influenced by researching what it is people want. That has directed me in which creative turns I make.

Q. When did you decide to start your own business and what prompted you to do so? A. I had a passion for photography, but wasn’t very good at it. My husband wanted me to try to sell some of my pictures but I wanted to, first, get a very expensive professional DSLR camera. So I thought I would do something in the meantime to earn cash and save up for my camera. Well that was a short lived idea because I immediately enjoyed making cards much more than taking pictures. With card making I didn’t have to leave the house and I can include my daughter in the process as well. So now here I am selling to invest further into my business.

Q. Has being a military spouse had an impact on your business? A.I think it’s a little bit of a help and hindrance at one time or another.

Q. How so?A. One thing that comes to mind is I live my very happy life, mostly, right here on base. I would like to get my cards/service out to the local community a bit more but it’s tough to go around trying to make pitches with a 1 and 4 year old. However my biggest customer has come from right here on base.

Q. How did you find ETSY? Has it been beneficial for your business – good /bad? A. A fellow military spouse told me about Etsy one day during story time at the library. Thankfully I found out about Etsy about 2 weeks after I started my business so I hopped right on and haven’t looked back. Since the 31st of January I have 163 hearts and 41 sales. I am pretty pleased considering the large pool of competition among other fantastic card makers on Etsy.

Q. How did you come up with the name of your store? A. Before I started my business I had plans to have a website in which I would leave daily posts on living as a mother, for me. The things I learned, the mistakes I made, the projects I do with my kids, the meals I created, money saving tips and so on. I live a simple life full of complexities…if you know what I mean. So I thought why not simply lay it all out there in order to help encourage other wives and mothers going through the same things. So then came Simply Sarah. The name encompasses all that I am and all that I hope to share. Although my card making business has a defining prefix. Simply Sarah’s Paper Perfections. What do you think?

Q. Do you sell outside of ETSY? If so, where? A. I sell a few other places for now. A local crafting consignment shop downtown Panama City, through a local Yahoo “Buy and Sell” group and I sell through Ebay at times when I have advertising bills to pay. But I use ebay sparingly because people always want everything for .99. The time alone that I put into each card is worth more than that.
I have also come up with a new way of selling I just started in which I offer 10% of the profits brought in by folks who want to do the promoting and advertising for me. It’s nice because I don’t have to pay anything up front and it’s a win win for us both. I have 3 ladies right now that will be doing that for me. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Q. Do you work outside of your business? A. No other work that pays….just the work of a housewife!

Q. How do you juggle being a military spouse and running your own business? A. Not so much. This base doesn’t have an active spouses group so I mainly take care of my kids and home all day then work on my business at night and on weekends. The weekends my husband needs me to whip up a BBQ or something for his office…my business just gets put on hold until another day.

Q. How did your spouse/family react to you starting your own business? A. My husband asked me to do something on the side but was ready to put a halt to it once he realized how slow sales are. I encouraged him to give me some time since that’s what it takes to get established, trusted and known. He has since left me to work at it as hard as I can with the time that I have!

Q. What are your hobbies? A. I enjoy exercising, gardening, reading (but I would love to actually finish a book!), learning to live a ”homemade” lifestyle and being outdoors no matter what the reason.

Q. What is the best and worst thing that has happened after starting your business? A. The best thing was my recent turn to fulfilling custom orders for Weddings, Birthdays, Graduations, Parties and New Babies. I love the one on one interaction and creating something fantastic for each and every customer
The worst thing was when I made a “custom” graduation announcement pack and the customer didn’t want it. So I put it up for auction on Ebay and she ended up bidding and winning the set for .99 Tip: Always get payment before you make a complete order even if it’s half. I should have listed to Amanda!
 

Q. Is there anything you would change? A. I would change where I have spent my advertising dollars. The more I learn the more I cringe at my early advertising decisions. They have not brought me any business, as of yet. So far they have been wasted dollars.

Q. If you had one wish what would it be?A. I would be more like Jesus!

Q. What is your goal for the next 6 months?

A. My goal is to grow and get my name know in the community to have a steady flow of orders.