Hey everyone, Spring is well underway and it feels like the months are beginning to move faster and faster. As we began to prepare for much larger projects down road, March was not necessarily a busy month but it definitely didn’t slow us down. Check out what we’ve been up to in our March Month Rewind!

Our SPP Family Grew: Say Hi To Margaret!:
This was possibly the most exciting development in the month of March. We hired on Margaret as our new “Retail and Shipping Assistant”. This was a position we created with a lot of thought in mind and something we’ve really needed for awhile. Both our retail and wholesale businesses are growing (which is GREAT) but it also means that our Retail and Shipping Managers need some extra hands to help. However, as you may or may not know, the hiring process is a very grueling and time-consuming one. Margaret, however, has proved to make the entire process seamless as she is a smart and talented lady full of smiles! Be sure to stop by our Retail Location and say hi to our newest family member!

New Release Updates:
In case it wasn’t obvious from our social media and blog, we have been deep in the midst of creating a New Release! While it’s a long and tiresome process, it’s arguably one of the most important ways to continue growing and refreshing the SPP brand. In the month of March, we officially approved all new product styles that will be apart of this New Release (which I mentioned earlier is over 40!) as well as printing our asses off. We have also slowly begun receiving our outsourced gift items such as gift wrap, mugs, and magnets which are printed off-site in the USA. We are so proud of all the new items we have created and can’t wait to share them with the world!

(NOT) Down With The Sickness:
It was definitely a hard month in terms of germs and SPP. Our team got hit with a flu that quickly passed through the ranks and all but 2 people remained standing for a couple days. Needless to say, we went through A LOT of Clorox wipes in the month of March. Fingers crossed we won’t have that happen anymore, UGH!

NYNow Booth Booked:
It’s official: SPP is heading back to the Big Apple for NYNow August ’19. This is always a huge step to take because it is a very large investment of time, money, and man power (especially for a small business). But, after starting back to the trade show circuit last year, it has proved worth all the blood, sweat, and tears. One of our goals is to continue growing our wholesale brand and we can’t properly do that without putting ourselves out there! It’s also a great opportunity to showcase the new release we’ve been working so damn hard on with over 40+ new items coming out! We really couldn’t be more excited to hit the road again and see new (and old) faces. Keep your eye out for more details in the coming months!

Chicago Print Crawl:
This is a brand new project that Steel Petal Press officially decided to be apart of this month (although it’s not until May) It’s meant to share and celebrate the art of printing and letterpress which is one of our main goals here at Steel Petal Press. Our printer, Dan will be operating the press and open to questions on the day of the event. In the coming months, he is also creating some small educational visuals for guests to look at and learn more about what exactly we do here. We are so excited for May to get here and to kick off Print Crawl. If you’re interested in learning more, here’s a link with dates, times, and another other important info!

That’s the end of our March Month Rewind. These next few months are bound to get busier and busier but it is nice to be able to pause a couple moments and reflect back on what we’ve accomplished. Thanks again for reading and stay tuned for next month’s!

We know we say this every month but where does the time go?! SERIOUSLY, THOUGH!? We couldn’t be more excited with how the first month of 2019 has gone! January was definitely a strange month with lots going on so please enjoy our January Rewind!

Year-End Inventory:
As you could probably guess, the year-end inventory isn’t the most fun task to do here at Steel Petal Press but it is totally necessary! To sum it up, a year-end inventory means we count every single item we have in stock from the back to the front. This includes everything from envelopes and sleeves to the candles and tea towels on the sales floor. We then reconcile any differences between what we counted versus what our computer count says we have. This allows us to accurately account for inventory so we know what/when to order things, identify any theft patterns, and let us know how much dollar amount in inventory we have on hand! The team totally killed it and this was by far the most seamless inventory count we’ve had! WOOHOO!

Karaoke Room:
Steel Petal Press likes to do an “employee fun time” once every quarter as a reward for all the hard work our team gives! This quarter’s fun time happened to land right at the end of inventory so everyone was ready to blow off some steam! We collectively decided to rent a karaoke room in Lincoln Park and sing our little hearts out…and boy, did we! 🙂

(Our favorite pic of the night goes to Dan, one of our retail employees/printer and his gf, Anna!)

America’s Mart (ATL):
We had been working tirelessly to prepare for our very first time attending America’s Mart as a vendor and all the hard work paid off! The set-up and tear down were pretty much seamless…we even got to enjoy a “free” day around Atlanta!

We were very happy with how the booth turned out – bright, colorful, and welcoming (which is everything Steel Petal Press is about!) One more special thing about our booth at America’s Mart was that we were in the “On Trend” section which is juried. This means a panel voted that our products “Juried” means that a met their criteria to be considered “On Trend”. It’s very important in a huge show such as this because it sets us apart from the VERY  large pool of additional vendors.

Steel Petal Press  had a few days that were a bit slow but in the end it was deemed a successful first time showing at America’s Mart! We walked away with 20 orders, most of which were new accounts for us! We are looking to get more reach in the south, so definitely a good start to expanding in this area.

We also measure a show’s success by  how many contacts were made even if they didn’t place an order. This is because it’s very possible they could place an order in the future! Once we arrived home, we counted about 30 new potential retail leads (which is very good) but they also felt like stronger leads than the one’s we compiled from New York Now in August. In fact, we’ve even had 2 new account open from those leads!

The show going well did not spare Shelby or Shayna from utter exhaustion which can best we summed up by this photo from the plane right home.

Justin Timberlake Concert:
Since Shelby and Shayna worked their asses off at Steel Petal Press’s first ever America’s Mart, they decided to treat themselves to something super fun while in ATL. They decided to go see Justin Timberlake who happened to be playing at the arena right down town…and it did NOT disappoint (not even a little). They were able to rock out and enjoy an incredible show despite all their drooling and swooning (because let’s be honest, he’s both cute AND sexy which isn’t an easy feat!)

Las Vegas Show:
For the first time, Steel Petal Press showed at a tradeshow in Las Vegas with our sales rep group: Lynn Mitchell Group. Shayna also decided to attend on behalf of SPP since we were sharing the space with other brands from LMG. It proved to be an interesting learning experience since we had never seen our sales reps in action!

Polar Vortex:
Last, but not least, for the first time ever Steel Petal Press’s flagship retail location in Chicago was closed for 2 days due to weather!

The temperature reached between -20 to -30 degrees both days. The entire staff working those days walk to work which was just too dangerous when it’s that cold! (Trust us, it was miserable out!)

February is already underway so stay tuned for next month’s recap!