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When we heard how Kate had turned her biggest flaw — lateness — into a thriving business, we just had to know more.
Here she chats with us about the importance of customer feedback and (spoiler alert!) why she keeps her prices high, even in a competitive market like Etsy.
Business: Be There in Five
Started: February 2014
How did you create your awesome job?
It all started as a way to stop my apartment from burning down!
Every morning on the train, I’d start panicking that I’d left something on. To ease my own worries, I painted "turn off your curling iron" onto my doormat so I’d see every day as I left. It worked like a charm!
I noticed the doormat industry was dominated by dated designs focused on welcoming guests into your home, so I decided to turn it upside-down with messages for people leaving the house instead. I started out by creating an Etsy shop and called it "Be There in Five" as a tribute to my forgetfulness when I’m running behind.
Over the past year, I’ve developed a range of "remindoor" mats to make the day a bit less stressful and the home a little safer. My mom and I painted the first 1,000 mats in our living rooms. A year later, I quit my corporate job to run Be There in Five full time. Since February 2014, we’ve sold almost 4,000 mats! I have a studio now in downtown Chicago and we have four local artists and students that help with production — and we’re still growing.
When did you know your business was going to work?
In the first few weeks after going live on Etsy, I sold one or two and I was ecstatic.
Then, about a month in, I woke up to find that I’d completely sold out and my Etsy inbox was flooded with inquiries. A friend from Australia messaged me to say that a radio station there had found one of my mats on Pinterest and posted it on Facebook. It got more than 100,000 likes in a day!
I only had 10 in stock and didn’t ship internationally at the time, so I wasn’t able to meet the demand. Some might see this as a lost opportunity, but the validation was invaluable — it pushed me to take the business seriously and shift from a one-off craft shop to a viable business model.
How do you price your products?
When I started out, I priced the mats high just to survive. I put a lot of effort into streamlining processes to bring my prices down, but my customers’ feedback indicated that I was cutting some of the things they liked best: one-to-one customer service, the hand-painted product and the notes I’d write to each customer.
I realized then that people are paying for an experience as much as a product — it was such a light bulb moment.
Now I ground all my decisions in customer feedback. I learned to diversify my products to address one common problem: processing time. I heard loud and clear from my customers that I was losing business because people needed last-minute gifts, but hand-painted mats take time.
So, during the holiday season I started offering screen-printed versions of my popular styles at a lower price point. Still, almost 70% of my orders are for the hand-painted mats.
What does a typical day look like for you?
Every day is different — that’s why I love my job!
I usually wake up around 7am, shower and get dressed in all black because whatever I wear will only end up covered in paint. I check the news, spend 10 minutes watching videos of my adorable nephews and leave the house.
Then I walk the mile to my studio at 8am, Grande Splenda Latte in hand, and spend two hours answering emails and designing custom orders. Between 11 and 12 I do some admin — my least favorite part of the day.
In the early afternoon, I work with my team on product creation, I paint custom rugs and perform quality control on products going out that day or the next. I prep shipments, hand-write notes to buyers, process shipping labels, assemble boxes, gift wrap mats, order new supplies and more — there’s a lot going on behind the scenes!
I just moved studios, so for about an hour each day I’ll run around and try to get cheap office furniture off Craigslist and haul it back in an Uber. I got two pink filing cabinets this week, to change up my monochromatic tendencies.
Toward the end of the day, I spend time on new and upcoming things like design, painting new phrases, product shoots and creating new lines. I love doing this part and can get very distracted, so I force myself to do it outside of normal business hours.
I leave the studio at about 7pm and I usually try to make something for dinner, but I’m a horrible cook. Then I spend time with my fiancé and do a little wedding planning, watch Bravo or do some reading before bed at midnight.
If you could go back in time, what’s the one thing you’d do differently in starting your business?
I was so nervous about what could go wrong that I wasn’t prepared for it going right. Without a reliable supply chain or enough help, I had to let the mats sell out on a weekly basis just to keep my head above water for the first six months that I was in business.
I wish I’d branded my products early on, too. When I first started, I shared an unbranded photo of my doormats on my personal social media pages. I was trying to get some initial feedback and assumed I could get good photographs later.
That photo was quickly re-pinned by several people and, within a few weeks, it had spread across thousands of Pinterest users. To this day, I see it floating around the internet with people asking where to get it. If only the photo had branding on it — then they’d know!
What would you like to learn today from a network of other small business owners and self-employed professionals?
I’d love to learn how other small business owners keep themselves organized — especially creative types who’d rather be making things, like me.
How do other members here exercise self-discipline and only spend time on value-add activities for their business? And how do you determine when you need to relinquish control and delegate?
Too often I’ll default to the day-to-day things I feel confident doing, when I need to focus more on leadership and company growth.
How have other entrepreneurs here made that transition?
Do you have tips to share with Kate on how to focus your energy on the *most* valuable aspects of your business when you're growing?
If you, like Kate, have a creative business and you've been through the growing pains of taking a new business to the next level, share your own experiences right here!
We can't wait to hear your tips. :-)
