Those of you that follow me on social media know that Travis and I have launched a new business venture. If you’re hearing about it for the first time, head on over to our website to check it out, or just keep reading.
This is the first of a series of blog posts that we are going to publish over the next month to introduce to you to EAT, and show you some behind the scenes of how we got to opening day.
From almost the beginning, we knew we wanted to send out samples of our product to family, friends, and nutrition colleagues of mine. When we got close enough, we set a date to go public: Friday. We sent out the samples a couple days before we went public, and on Thursday people already started receiving their samples and started sharing it over social media. We were thrilled. You mean people actually like OUR product?
All the while, I was in my first week of classes frantically finishing up my 50+ page, 12,000+ word case study that was due Friday (launch day). I am usually not a procrastinator about things, but still ended up being up until the early hours of the morning working away to make sure my case study was perfect.
We were on cloud nine over the love and support we were already starting to see surrounding OUR products. It reached 4am, and while I wasn’t tired (caffeine wasn’t involved), I knew I needed to get some sleep. I laid in bed wide awake off of the adrenaline rush I received from people loving our products. I somehow managed to get a couple hours of sleep before I had to wake up around 8am. I woke right up and checked my email and already had a few orders coming in. What was this?! You mean people actually like OUR product and want to exchange money for OUR product?! It was the best feeling.
Announcing our new business to the public had my anxiety going strong. “What if they don’t like it?” “What if we don’t sell anything?” I can safely say, the response we got over the weekend crushed all those thoughts and anxiety and quickly replaced it with extreme excitement.
As with any business, EAT started as an idea. I (Elise) have been toying with the idea of incorporating nutrition education into every day items for about a year now. If I had a dollar for every time a person that told me “I would buy that from you” or “you need to utilize your creative energy” after showing them some of my creative work, I wouldn’t be here opening up a business. Well I probably would because I have been pumped about this from day one, but you get the idea.
Speaking of day one, our unofficial, official first business meeting happened upon on one of our study breaks during the beginning of June. Side bar: I have my BS from San Diego State University in Food Science and Nutrition, and I am attending Loma Linda University for my graduate degree in Nutrition and Dietetics, and Travis is almost done with his BA in Economics from Cal Poly Pomona (WOO!). Back on track, I was telling him about one of my many ideas and he said lets roll with it; you do the designing and I’ll handle the business. There were squeals and high fives all around. We were ready to roll.
Right then and there, we started figuring out what we needed to do to open a business. Of course, we could produce some products and open an etsy shop within a week or so; but we wanted to have all of our ducks in a row, create a legitimate business with an appealing website and have all the nitty gritty business details ironed out before we went public. Originally, we had planned to go public beginning of August. Yet, here we are at the end of September/begining of October just going public. Yes, there were set backs to over come (we’re looking at you printing errors and backordered pencils), and yes there were fees we didn’t prepare for (we have to get ANOTHER form?!).
If there is one thing I have learned thus far it is that you can plan and organize all you want, and it still won’t go according to plan. You NEED to be flexible, you NEED to be open to alternative ideas, and most importantly: you NEED patience. Needless to say this has been the learning curve of a lifetime and we are only getting started.
Another side bar: If anyone is interested I can do a blog post or two on everything you need to know (and everything you didn’t know you needed to know) about opening up a business. While I’m not an expert, I am willing to share our experiences so it’s not so daunting to others.
WHO WE ARE
EAT: healthy designs. I think I (Elise) came up with the name, and Travis added onto it because surprise surprise EAT was already taken, but it fits and we are happy with it. The name was something we struggled over for awhile. Isn’t that how it always goes? The idea comes first and the name comes last. I mean, it took me quite a while to settle on a name for this here blog.
The whole premise behind EAT: healthy designs (EAT for short) is to bring a nutritious twist to stationery (and other products in the future) in a well designed and unconventional way.
I wanted to fuse my passion for food and nutrition together with my creative energy. I wanted to create well designed products that spread the word of nutrition. I wanted to develop products that can be utilized by everyone, yet specific in it’s theme. Nutrition is such a tricky and confusing subject; always has and always will be. I wanted a way to be able to spread the correct word of good nutrition in well designed products and through unconventional ways to make it a little less confusing and tricky.
By adding nutrition information on products anyone could pick up, receive, or use, our thinking was that when someone reads that tidbit of information it will stick. Nutrition is something that affects each and every one of us, whether we choose to acknowledge it or not. By reading nutrition information in a place someone wouldn’t normally see it, we hope it will stay with them next time they go to make food choices, consciously or subconsciously. While not all of our products have, or will have, the written nutrition information attached to them, we hope we can inspire others to choose whole, natural foods.
WHAT WE DO (RIGHT NOW)
My original idea is something that we have put on the back burner until we have the funds and equipment to make it happen, but what we have now is something that I am super excited about. As a nutrition student with an obsessive amount of love for good stationery, I was constantly looking for well designed cards that I could send out to professors, preceptors, and other people that have helped me get to where I am today. I wanted something that incorporated the idea of good food and nutrition, something witty that could be an extension of what I was. Light bulb moment went off-what if we produced cards with a food and nutrition theme, the backs would have the nutrition facts and the front would be something fun, appealing and clever. It fits the premise of EAT, and that was how the idea for our initial products developed.
Stay tuned: next post is all about how we went from an idea to actual physical product in our hands.
While our shop isn’t bursting with variety right now; don’t worry we have variety on the way. We are so ambitious. We have so many goals for our little business and so many more product ideas just waiting to be implemented! We are so pumped about the excitement that has already been shared with us about EAT.
After a couple weeks or so I’m going to keep my personal instagram and facebook private and free of the business, so if you follow my personal accounts make sure to add us on our business social media to keep up with new product reveals and specials!
Instagram // Facebook // Twitter
Email: hello@eathealthydesigns.com
Shop: eathealthydesigns.com
PS: Thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts to everyone that made our launch so successful. We didn’t ask anyone to ‘share’ our website or spread the word, so we were overwhelmed with the love and support we got even before our official launch on Friday. To share our appreciation for everyone’s support, whether you helped spread the word or have hopped on board we want to say thank you by offering a 10% discount off of our Thank You note sets until the end of TODAY!! when you use the code YOUARERAD
Again, thank you, thank you, thank you.
With much love,
Elise And Travis
#getit?
I am in love with these! Definitely putting in an order. I love how you are using your nutrition passion so creatively.