- Name of business IKE & CO
- What does your business do? (For example, cut hair, paint houses, cook food, cut grass, write grants, help people get in good physical shape, etc.) I make handmade jewelry.
- How long have you been doing this? I opened IKE & CO in December of 2009.
- Why are you doing this in Athens? My heart is in Athens! I'm an elementary school librarian and I love that Avid Bookshop carries a line of my necklaces!
- What are the advantages of owning a small business? IKE & CO is a way for me to get my creative juices flowing and to be part of the amazing handmade community.
- If you could change one thing about owning a small business, what would that be? Finding enough hours in the day and finding a balance between running IKE & CO in my home and having it not take over my home!
- Do you have employees? Are they temporary, part-time, full-time, new or long term? I don't have any employees...unless you count my three children who help label boxes for me and my husband who makes post office runs for me.
- Do you own the place where you do business, or do you move around (like maybe a dog trainer would do) or rent space (to store your equipment)? IKE & CO started at my kitchen table and then took over my dining room which no longer even looks like a dining room.
- Is anyone else in town doing what you do? Not that I know of – resin necklaces with a focus on I HEART school names, I HEART ATH, ETC.
- Do you like what you do? I love this little business of mine! I love that it has grown organically and that it gives me the ability to make something with my own hands, to create.
- Do you have a story to share about how your started your business. (“I realized one day that, yes, I could actually design websites myself. So I started doing this and never looked back.”) I was always making something, creating something, but between having kids and being in grad school I found that I just didn't have the time. As soon as I finished grad school I started IKE & CO. The first year, I had 100 sales on etsy. The second year, I was featured on The Pioneer Woman's blog and hit 1,000 sales!
- What are you plans for the future (regarding your business), the future being the next five years? In the next five years I would love to continue to grow IKE & CO and to branch out into wholesale orders and to be carried in other shops.
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