Episode 81 - How to manage your time while building a business with Poy T. Granati

02/11/21 • 37 min

1 Listener

Learn from our guest Poy T. Granati and how she has made the most of her time while building her paper flower business.

Building a small business means wearing many different hats. How do you find time to advertise, bookkeep, communicate, network, and create?

With time management.

This isn’t just a catchphrase. We’re all busy. We have to make the most of the time that we do have so that our businesses can thrive. But we know that it’s easier said than done.

Read more about Poy on our website: www.papertalkpodcast.com

Learn from our guest Poy T. Granati and how she has made the most of her time while building her paper flower business.

Building a small business means wearing many different hats. How do you find time to advertise, bookkeep, communicate, network, and create?

With time management.

This isn’t just a catchphrase. We’re all busy. We have to make the most of the time that we do have so that our businesses can thrive. But we know that it’s easier said than done.

Read more about Poy on our website: www.papertalkpodcast.com

Previous Episode

Episode 81 - How to Manage Your Time While Building a Business with Poy T. Granati

Learn from our guest Poy T. Granati and how she has made the most of her time while building her paper flower business.

Building a small business means wearing many different hats. How do you find time to advertise, bookkeep, communicate, network, and create?

With time management.

This isn’t just a catchphrase. We’re all busy. We have to make the most of the time that we do have so that our businesses can thrive. But we know that it’s easier said than done.

In our latest episode of Paper Talk, we talked with Poy T. Granati of Summer Space Studio about how she has built up her paper flower business in a relatively short period of time. When starting out, she was working a full-time job while teaching workshops and creating flowers at night. How did she manage it all? By making the most of her time.

Our conversation covered a wide array of topics, ranging from how she uses her advertising background to appeal to customers, to how she goes about partnering with shops to promote her work. You’ll want to listen to everything she had to say, but here’s some of the tips we discussed about managing time that will help you get more done for your paper flower business.

Break Tasks Down

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by something you had to do? Maybe it was a series of blog posts, or a tutorial that needed to be written. Maybe you just don’t know how you’ll ever figure out that new flower for a commission.

Break it down!

Poy’s educational background in design has helped her learn how to break down processes and take things one step at a time, but you can do it, too!

Work out what steps you need to take to complete your task, then do just the first part. Write that first blog post. Jot down just the supplies needed for that tutorial. Look up pictures of that new flower. Don’t worry about what comes next. Complete the first step before you think about the next, and before you know it, you’ll be halfway through.

Block Off Time

In order to get things done, you need to block off time. Dedicate time just for paper flowers, and make it a realistic period of time that you can repeat every day.

Poy told us about a course in her graduate program that encouraged students to dedicate a small amount of time to work on one skill for one hundred days. The idea was that we can’t always block out eight hours to work on something new, but by giving yourself a little bit of time each day, you are continually practicing and growing. By the end, you’ve got a habit.

That class was actually the beginning of Poy’s paper flower journey, which you can hear more about in the episode. The details about the class and how it changed Poy’s life are very interesting, and you won’t want to miss them.

Give Yourself Deadlines

Without a deadline, you can push off tasks and goals for ages. No judgement here—we all do it. But in order to grow as a business, you do need to buckle down and get your work done at some point. Nothing motivates more than a deadline.

Currently, Poy is giving herself a six month deadline for focusing solely on her paper flower business. She has milestones to reach, goals to achieve, and an end date to keep in mind so that she doesn’t lose sight of what she should be doing.

Of course, simply setting a deadline doesn’t matter if you don’t stick to it. If you’ve done commission work, you’ve probably noticed that you will stick to other people’s deadlines more than your own personally imposed deadlines. It’s hard to self-motivate! In the episode you can hear more about ways that we keep ourselves on track and hold ourselves to the deadlines we set.

Here’s what you’ll hear when you listen to our conversation:

More ways you can make the most of your time.
How Poy first started making paper flowers.
Why you should let go of perfectionism to become a better artist.
How to choose collaborators, like stores that will host workshops or feature your work.
How to target your ideal customer.

Listen to our latest episode of Paper Talk to learn all of this and more. Remember to join our Facebook group, and please consider supporting us on Patreon for even more great content like this!

Next Episode

Episode 82 - Why We Love Cartotecnica Rossi Italian Crepe Paper

We chat with Martina Polelli about the history of the Italian crepe paper company, their products, and where to buy around the world.

Italian crepe paper is beloved by paper florists for good reason. We love the consistency, the quality, and the wide-range of options available for our artistry.

In past episodes of Paper Talk we’ve chatted with the U.S. distributor of Italian crepe, Carte Fini, but we wanted to take things even closer to the source of Italian crepe paper goodness. In our latest episode, we talked with Martina Polelli of Cartotecnica Rossi, the actual manufacturer in Italy of one of our favorite crepe paper.

Martina discussed the company’s history, their product offerings, their process for choosing new products, and much more. You’ll love this little peek into the world behind the medium that makes our industry possible.

If you can’t listen to the episode right away, here is a little taste of some of our favorite things about Cartotecnica Rossi.

Established History

The company Cartiera Rossi (which would eventually lead to the Cartotecnica Rossi we know today) was founded in 1878, and soon became one of the largest paper factories in Europe. Even over a hundred years ago customers turned their crepe and tissue paper into beautiful creations ranging from jewelry to hairpieces to flowers. Yes—while our modern industry is still growing and feels very young, crafters have been making paper flowers for a long time.

Being a new company isn’t a bad thing. That said, wisdom does come with time. Cartotecnica Rossi has had over one hundred years to continually improve their paper, and it shows. Paper florists all over the world know that they can trust Italian crepe to be consistent and versatile.

Paper Talk Patrons can see a photo of the factory by watching the episode on Patreon. You’ll also get a look at all of the papers Martina shared, as well as a fun demonstration of how much the 90g can stretch compared to the 60g. Not a Patron yet? Find more information here.

New Products

To the delight of many paper florists, Cartotecnica Rossi released their 90 gram crepe paper last year. If you haven’t used it yourself, you have probably seen it used by another artist. Let us tell you: we are big fans. As Martina showed us, the 90g has five times more stretch than the 60g, but maintains that delicacy that makes for gorgeous and realistic petals.

Martina also shared with us that there will be new colors released in the 90g lineup. While she couldn’t share specifics about these colors yet, she did tell us that they surveyed artists to learn which colors they most wanted. As Martina said, “We always start by listening to our audience. As I always say, it makes no sense to offer chocolate cake to someone when they ask for apple.”

We love Cartotecnica Rossi’s dedication to innovation and to listening to customers. We’re always excited to see what they come out with next.

Listen to the episode for more information about how they choose new products, why they decided to make the 90g, and how you can get your hands on a color catalogue to help you navigate all of the options.

Environmentally Friendly and Safe

Not all crepe paper is manufactured by the same standards. Cartotecnica Rossi is ISO 14001 certified (meaning that they meet international standards for environmental performance), and they guarantee that their dyes are non-toxic.

Since we are constantly manipulating crepe paper with our bare hands, it’s comforting to know that our medium is not going to cause damage in the long term. If you have children or pets, it’s also nice to know that if they get into your paper stash—heaven forbid!—that they won’t be harmed.

Our conversation with Martina covered many other topics that you won’t want to miss. You can hear all of it by listening to our latest episode of Paper Talk.

Our Questions, Answered by Cartotecnica Rossi

We gathered some questions from the members of our Paper Talk Podcast Facebook group and sent them off to Cartotecnica Rossi for answers:

Why do some of the crepe paper respond to bleaching and others do not? Because different pigments are needed to create different colors. The pigment allows the refraction of certain frequencies of light. There are pigments that more than others are consumed with light
Do you offer for sale any untreated crepe paper that is unbleached and has not been dyed? All the papers to be creped are treated in some way, the paper itself for its formation requires treatment...