In this episode, we chat with Melissa, the founder of Grafika, a graphic design business that she started 14 years ago. Melissa shares her inspiring story of the ups and downs of business, the realities of what it’s like and her strategies for staying strong after over a decade in business.
In this episode, you will learn:
- How Melissa started Grafika and how she has grown it over the years.
- The importance of branding and how to create a cohesive and consistent message for your business.
- How to adapt and change your business to the ever-changing landscape.
- How to never give up and always keep learning.
Key takeaways
- Starting a business from scratch is possible, even if you have young children.
- Branding is more than just having a pretty logo.
- It’s important to be able to adapt and change your business to the ever-changing landscape.
- Failure is not an option.
- It’s important to take breaks and not feel guilty about taking time for yourself.
Transcript:
Ameeta
Hello, Melissa, and welcome to the Simple Marketing Solutions Podcast. It’s great to have you here. I am so interested to hear more about your business, Grafica, and how long you’ve been in business.
Ameeta
It always is so wonderful when I hear that women have established their business and have been there for over that 10-year mark, because I think that that is, you know, that’s really that hurdle that people try and reach that five-year mark and then the 10-year mark.
Ameeta
And once you’ve done that, you’re no use solid and things are working well for you. But we’re going to be talking about, you know, the good and the bad in business. So before we do get into all of that, I would love for you to just share a little bit about yourself and your business and how you got there.
Melissa
Well, thank you for having me. I’m very excited to be here. I started my business, yes, 14 years ago. So it has been a while and it hasn’t been obviously a very steady journey of, you know, there’s hurdles along the way.
Melissa
But I started the business. I used to work in an advertising agency and once when I had my first child and then my second child, I realized that working in the corporate world and working very long hours just was not the balance that I wanted in my life.
Melissa
So after my second child, I decided it was time to start the business. And it really was just born from being guilty, feeling guilty as a mum and, you know, dropping them at childcare and having that guilt when you walk away.
Melissa
So it was born from that. And it started in my garage, literally in a bedroom or a room of my home that I just started calling clients and it all stemmed from there.
Ameeta
Wow. You know, and that’s amazing to hear that it can be as simple as just moving your business into your home and starting from there. It doesn’t always have to be a fancy office to begin with.
Ameeta
But then, The thing you mentioned of guilt when it comes to not being able to be there for your young kids as they’re growing up and having that time, I know that there’s a lot of parents out there that feel the same way and are looking for, you know, ways of changing that because it doesn’t feel right for them.
Ameeta
For you, it’s a big challenge though, isn’t it, to take that step and leave paid work knowing that you’re getting your paycheck every month to start your own business. How did you overcome that fear?
Melissa
Yeah, so that was probably the greatest challenge, I think, because I had never been unemployed. I started working when I was, you know, 14 and 9 months. The moment you could start working, I have always been employed.
Melissa
So to take that step, goodness, I think it was just deciding what was more important to me at the time and work-life balance really was my driver. It was difficult to cut off the money, yes, but I think that really was what drove me at the time to keep going because if it wasn’t that drive to bring in the money, and initially it was probably, my business was probably driven by having to bring the money in to keep out, you know, paying mortgage and the family and all those things.
Melissa
And then once that started to develop further, obviously the
Melissa
But that initial step, it’s been a while to be honest, but the support of my family, the support of my husband was crucial because I do remember dropping the business idea a few times.
Melissa
And it was always, oh, look, it’s not the right time. It’s not the right time. But I think he saw that feeling that I was feeling leaving the kids and I just couldn’t function.
Melissa
It was, yeah, it was stressful. It’s quite stressful when you’ve got small children. I mean, now they’re teenagers, so it’s much, much easier. But when they’re little, it
Melissa
probably was what drove me to keep the business alive.
Ameeta
And I think that when you see that that’s where your values lie, you know, that family life, that family stability, then it’s easier to have that drive to make whatever it is that you’re in business wise or employment wise work to match that family value that you’ve got.
Ameeta
And what I’ve seen so many times, though, is that it is easy to just push that down and think that there’ll be time in the future. There’ll be time in the future.
Ameeta
And we just keep plodding along. Yet internally, we feel a bit broken because it doesn’t match what we want from our life.
Melissa
Oh, most definitely. And, you know, we talk about this even in the business that I do, which is branding. And I know I ask this to my clients all the time, you know, what is that one thing that drives you every single day that is not linked to money?
Melissa
I always ask them that question, you know, if money wasn’t an option and you were driven to do what you do. And yeah, for me, it’s that work life balance, finding that time with my family that you’ll probably never get back again, because now there’s time to, you know, go off and do their own things.
Melissa
So yes, you’re right. There is the net, the time in your mind, the time may never be right. Or, you know, it may be one day, but I feel like once you’ve made that step and stepped over that line of fear and moved into just starting, just starting somewhere, you know, whether or not it’s just like I did pick up the phone back then that was, you know, email and yeah, but I would even go around to the clients and just knock on doors and pass them a postcard or a flyer and say, hi, you know, just started a business, this is what this is how I can help. So it’s just
Melissa
stepping across that line is the key.
Ameeta
Yeah, absolutely. Overcoming the fear and being, you know, 14 years in business for you lasting this long, because there’s been a lot of ups and downs over the last 14 years, you know, both economically, within the country, within the world, there’s been a lot of changes.
Ameeta
And also, you know, in terms of graphic design, there’s again been huge shifts in technology over the last 10 years, especially. What for you has been the secret to lasting this long?
Melissa
Yeah, so I believe that there’s probably a few things that have helped me along the way. Obviously, over 14 years, my business has developed and changed and grown. So from me being on my own to now having a team of people.
Melissa
But I think the main thing is having the ability to adapt and change to those environments that we are often faced with. And one of those, obviously, was the COVID crisis that we all faced.
Melissa
And at that time, I had educated my clients in saying to them, you know, this is the time where you have that downtime that you never thought about or had the time for to update your brand or your business, but there are times that we can pivot and change in those times of crisis.
Melissa
You know, another thing that I find really valuable that I think is the key is educating myself. I am a little bit of a self development junkie. So I do do whatever, you know, I always think that you’re never, you can never learn enough.
Melissa
Educating myself, putting myself through courses, networking events, you know, just pushing yourself outside of those comfort zones are always a key. I think a key to my success and educating myself also in my profession.
Melissa
There’s so many things that have changed in our area of expertise. And, you know, one focus that we believe that we are ahead of the wrist on is not just being a graphic designer, because that is sometimes the veneer of the business, but it’s just Educating our clients on the importance of brand and branding yourself rather than just having a pretty picture
Ameeta
in the face
Melissa
of your business. So I think, you know, my motto in business is failure is not an option. Whenever we are faced with things like that, it’s just what are we going to do next to make it work?
Ameeta
You know, I think that that’s a really great motto to have. And as business owners, no matter what size you have in terms of your business, or even if you don’t have a business in life in general, you know, failure is not an option is, I think, something that we all need to just remind ourselves of.
Ameeta
Because even when something doesn’t go the way that we thought it was going to go, it doesn’t mean that you failed. But if you look at it as an opportunity to learn from that, and then just adapt and use that information to do it better, to do it more efficiently, or to, you know, do it the right way the next time. Yeah, definitely.
Melissa
And that’s something that I’ve learned along the way too, is, you know, we may fail, we may do things wrong, or it may not be the right option for us as a business or our clients, but we always step back and say, okay, well, what do we learn from that? Exactly. So yeah.
Ameeta
Yeah, yeah. It really isn’t important. I think that if we’re continuing to learn, and like you said, you know, you’re always affirmed in learning new things, if we learn from our experiences, as well as learning from new material that we’re reading and taking in, then we become better tuned with the clients that we work with as well, and who we want in our world and how we want to be put, how we want to present ourselves as well as a business, as a person.
Melissa
So yeah.
Melissa
I was just going to say, I mean, that flows through our life as well, not just our business. So when I say failure is not an option, some days, you know, there are days when I don’t want to go to work.
Melissa
I don’t want to, you know, I just don’t want to talk to people. And that’s okay. And I have, as I have grown through my business, I’ve realized that that’s okay. And I will give myself permission to have a day off and not feel guilty.
Melissa
There are days when I do feel terrible about not wanting to go to that meeting. But, you know, the day after is always much better. Exactly.
Ameeta
Exactly. And, you know, that comes to the next question that I had, which is around looking after yourself, your own wellbeing, your own mental health. And I think that that’s something that’s really come to the forefront through COVID of when we’re running our business, you know, how do we look after ourselves?
Ameeta
And you said that you’re a bit better at taking those days off. Are there any other tools or things that you have in place in your life that help support that?
Melissa
So I value my health and wellbeing. That is something that is really important to me because I feel like if I am not my best, then I can’t be a great mom.
Melissa
I can’t be a great wife or a leader. So one thing that I value in my life is health exercise. I make a point of putting that into my every single part of my day.
Melissa
So the first thing I do every morning is I either go for a run or a walk or yoga or Pilates, whatever that is. So that’s my time. Another practice that I think is really important for my health and wellbeing is journaling.
Melissa
I have all, you know, I’ve been journaling since it was called a diary. So look, I have to say that it’s not a habit that I sometimes don’t, you know, journal every single day, but I feel like it’s times when you’re often stuck or feel like you need to just get it off your chest or journaling is just a fabulous habit to get into.
Melissa
So just finding that balance, finding the balance between. You know, you’re working hours as well. I feel like the work from home arrangement and COVID was definitely, some great things came out of COVID and one of them was that work from home scenario, which was never an option.
Melissa
Prior to that, I feel like it just didn’t exist. And now it feels like it’s the norm. So I think if you can have that balance between whether or not you own your own business or do work for someone else, having that work from home day would definitely help looking up
Melissa
to your health and wellbeing, for sure.
Ameeta
Yes, I think that that definitely is a positive that’s come out of the pandemic. And like you said, having the routine of, you know, your morning routine starts with exercise and movement and having set hours with work.
Ameeta
Cause I know that that’s often, I was talking to somebody else that I was interviewing for a podcast and we had this conversation about time and time management and that it creates more flexibility when you do have structure in your day with blocking out time.
Ameeta
You realize how much more time you actually do have for other things.
Melissa
So- Without a doubt. And that’s interesting. Because when you first start a business and I am guilty of this, is that you feel like you need to work and work. And, you know, I would work in the morning, put the kids to bed, work again.
Melissa
And it’d be like, it’s a never ending cycle of work. And as I think now, as my business has grown, I definitely have that time. You know, nine to three, I do school hours, that is, and I shut it off after that.
Melissa
So, and structure is 100% the key.
Ameeta
Definitely. You know, and I think from a time perspective as well, like you were saying, at the beginning, you feel like you have to constantly be on with work. However, what I’ve noticed, and I’ve been the same, I’m guilty, you know, of working crazy hours.
Ameeta
My husband who’s employed, you know, will always say to me, you work so much, you’re always working, you know. And I think that there’s time and place for that, but it can’t become the norm.
Ameeta
Because when that becomes the norm, there will be a stage where you hit that wall and you realize, I can’t keep doing this, and it starts to impact other areas of your life as well.
Ameeta
Which is never what we want. So having that work-life balance or time that you’ve set aside for work and time that you set aside for personal life is so important to feeling fulfilled in your day as well. 100%.
Melissa
Yes.
Ameeta
And Melissa, I wanted to ask you with, With your business, what has been the biggest win for you? The biggest
Ameeta
win? Win. Win.
Melissa
Oh goodness. So there’s a few wins, I guess. One of the wins for me is obviously managing to stay in business for so long. That is a huge win. I’m quite impressed with that achievement.
Melissa
Another huge win has been just some of the clients that I have worked with and the opportunities that I’ve had within my business. And they have come through Just networking and being out there.
Melissa
So I had a fabulous opportunity to represent, I was one of four business owners to represent, to be the representative for all small businesses. And I was invited to sit around table discussion at Parliament House, which was amazing.
Melissa
Yeah. So that was with Senator Cash at the time. So I, and that just came from attending a local business network that then asked me to be part of a video series called Ahead for Business.
Melissa
And that was all about looking after your health and wellbeing. And then that rolled into being invited to Parliament House. So it’s for me that has been a huge feather in my cap, because that opened up so many other opportunities for me to appear on podcasts, for example, or to be, you know, have write-ups in newspapers.
Melissa
So from one small win can come lots of bigger, bigger wins. So I think that has been a great option for us.
Ameeta
Yeah, that’s fantastic. Congratulations on that.
Melissa
Yes, that was a fantastic opportunity. I loved it.
Ameeta
Yeah, absolutely. You know, and it’s great because it’s a win for you, but it’s also a win for other businesses at the same time. So that’s always pretty special when we can have that type of impact.
Melissa
Yeah, so that discussion brought up. It just led to a website now that’s been developed for small business owners, and it’s all around looking after your health and well-being, because traditionally it was just health and well-being and looking after your mental health for everybody, but there was never a focus on small business owners, so it was focused on small business. So I’m happy to share that link with you.
Ameeta
Yeah, absolutely. I’ll put it in the show notes because I think it’ll be really useful for everybody to have access to that. Yes. And you know, on that topic of health and well-being and business owners, you’re right, it’s not something that we often see, and it’s something that I’m really strongly passionate about as well, is your own health and well-being has to come above your business and above everything else, because as a business owner, if we’re not looking after ourselves, then how are we going to run our business effectively and efficiently and support the clients that we have? Absolutely.
Melissa
And that’s our philosophy at Graphika as well, is all of our staff are not all mums, but I’ll say that they have the option to work around their families. Family is our priority.
Melissa
And if that is, you know, if you need to work those hours around your family, then that’s what I believe in and I’ll
Melissa
back you. Yeah, absolutely.
Ameeta
And it’s, it’s still doable. You know, I think that there’s a very traditional way of looking at business and how it should operate, which doesn’t fit in today’s model where you’ve got, you know, both parents working and trying to still run a household and all of that.
Ameeta
You can do so much more with the time that you dedicate to work in a shorter amount of time. It doesn’t have to be that set nine to five. If you can work around your family and your kids and life in general, it’s amazing how much you can get done in shorter amounts of time.
Melissa
I believe that the, you know, the six hours or, you know, the nine to three that work are so efficient in that time because they know that they have to finish at three.
Melissa
So rather than around two five, which I remember being in that world and so often, you
Melissa
know, trying to fill your day with things that are probably irrelevant.
Ameeta
That’s it. I think we do tend to waste a lot of time in those situations. And so before we wrap up, I wanted to ask you, you know, in terms of your business, being out there helping businesses with their branding, What would your advice be to business owners in that space?
Melissa
In regards to brand. Yeah, so it’s funny because the word brand has been so loosely used recently and quite often misunderstood by a lot of business owners. And I could say that I get a phone call a week, people saying to me, oh, can you just create me a brand?
Melissa
But what they’re really asking is, can you create me a logo with some fonts and some colors and potentially a style guide? Which is not what branding is at all. So branding is, and I love this definition, it’s what people, the meaning that people put behind your, what you’re offering.
Melissa
So it’s the feelings and the emotion that people have towards your offering services. So which is quite scary for some business owners because if it’s the feelings in the emotions of our consumers, sometimes we don’t have control over that or we can’t control it because it’s what they’re feeling.
Melissa
So the business of branding, which is what I’m in, is managing those, managing the meaning of what we’re putting out there. So and that we do often hold workshops for our clients and to discover and how to work out how to manage that and how to tell those stories through your socials and how you speak to people and how you build your brand with a personality.
Melissa
Because that’s what it’s all about, is giving your brand a personality and treating it like a human. Sometimes I tell them and giving it that tone of voice. And the logo is just the icing on the cake, really.
Melissa
It’s that veneer that we are showing to the world. It’s the tip of the iceberg and above the water we see that tiny bit of the iceberg, which is the logo and the website and all the beautiful things.
Melissa
But underneath there are all the bits and pieces that your brand is made up of, your mission, your vision, your values, your personality and tone. So there’s a lot to branding.
Ameeta
Yeah, yeah. And it’s a good reminder to people, you know, that there is a major difference to just the superficial visual things that people see in terms of your logo, your colors, your fonts.
Ameeta
And what it really means when you’re talking about branding and coming back to those values, that vision that you have for your business, how you want to be perceived. And that you can have an influence on people from the story that you tell and how you tell that.
Ameeta
So again, coming back to the communication, right, is so important.
Melissa
Without a doubt. And we tell our clients that all the time, sometimes when you find yourself, because a lot of clients say to me, how do I put content out there that’s authentic to my business?
Melissa
And I always say to them, go back to the purpose, go back to that mission and the vision that you set in the beginning. And often business, small business owners have never gone through that process.
Melissa
They start a business and they’ve got their fancy logo or little logo, whatever they’ve created and they’re on their way. But it’s really important to run through that process. And our philosophy at Graphika is that all small businesses should have access to big brand thinking. So we do offer that to small business owners.
Ameeta
Fantastic. I will definitely pop your details into the show notes as well, because I’m sure that there’ll be a lot of business owners where their interest is going to be peaked now with, you know, knowing that it’s not just a little logo that’s going to get them to where they want with their business.
Ameeta
It’s a lot more. That’s important. So thank you so much, Melissa. Thank you for being here today and being open and honest and sharing, you know, your journey as a business owner over the last 14 years.
Ameeta
Congratulations again for all your wins and for overcoming those challenges through the years as well.
Melissa
Thank you for having me. It’s been a pleasure.
