5 Years - in our construction era
From Molly
Whew! Today is our 5 year anniversary and I can’t begin to tell you just how ready to celebrate we are.
This year has been exhausting to say the least. Just like the guys sanding drywall in our shop right now, let’s get the rough parts out of the way first. After we moved in in March there was virtually no construction done until last week for a variety of reasons. For the past 9 months, we had to do all of our screen work in our home basement. The best analogy for you non-printers? It’s like running a restaurant but your kitchen is a 30 minute drive away and you’re still open for dinner service 7 nights a week. To say it’s been challenging is a huge understatement. But truthfully? The hardest part was walking into a shop every day that we didn’t want to be at. Every day we walked in to exposed walls with insulation falling out. We couldn’t install any of our shelving or flooring or storage so the place was a constant mess. 9 months and it never felt like home.
However, if you know Nick and I, you know we don’t do well sitting on our hands. The highlights of this year were so bright and truly were the reason we kept at it. When some chaos struck HonFest, we reached out to Planned Parenthood MD and printed hundreds of tees for their supporters. HonFest was a sea of pink and we donated about $3,000 directly to PPM. Later that month, with talks of some major unions potentially striking, we teamed up with the Baltimore DSA to host a music fundraiser (with tees of course) to raise money to build up the Baltimore Strike Fund. We reached out to several of our clients for donations for the silent auction - all of whom were exceedingly generous and blew us away with their support. The DSA ultimately ended the day with about $5000 raised.
Those are the reasons why we started this business. As former teachers, supporting our local community will always be our number one priority. Being fortunate enough to be in a position to actually help such important groups and causes in our community is exceedingly humbling. Being fortunate enough to get to know these people is invigorating. We always say that “we’ve had a beer with at least 75% of our clients.” While that was true 5 years ago because the only people we printed for were friends first, it remains true because when we acquire a new client, we genuinely make a new friend too.
And then finally, after what felt like eons…
This Monday the first drywall panels went up! It will still be awhile until everything is buttoned up, but I never thought seeing a blank wall would make me tear up. We’ve thought about our 5 year anniversary party for the better part of 5 years. Bands, beer, cake! Since we’re still under construction that obviously won’t be happening today, but here’s an official IOU. Today we’re just printing tees in our partially constructed, very very cold (heat won’t happen for another few weeks) shop that, little by little, is starting to feel like home.
So most importantly, THANK YOU from the bottom of our ink jars. Thank you to everyone who dealt with our flakey deadlines this year for reasons outside our control. Thank you to everyone who continues to order and keep championing our name with referrals. Thanks to some very tolerant parents and friends who must be exhausted listening to us complain this year. Thank you for trusting us. Thank you for sticking with us for 5 years. Keep an eye out for the 5 ½ year anniversary party next Spring. We can’t wait to spend 5 more years with you all.
