Day 56 & 57
Posted on: June 23, 20041 comment so far
 Lisa Dramin says that to truly get an idea of what her business, Scrapbook Wonderland, is all about, we need to visit the basement of her Jacksonville home which once belonged to her husband Bob’s grandmother. The stairways that lead you into the basement lets the roof hang low. Low enough for me to have to tilt my head sideways like Shaq in the old Taco Bell double decker commercials. The basement has since been converted into a kids playroom-slash-storage room. A desk sits humbly next to the laundry machine, neatly organized yet well used. “This is where it all began,” proudly declares Lisa, pointing to the treadmill on her right and the pile of boxes on her left.  Lisa developed a passion for scrapbooking when she first visited a small scrapbook shop in Seattle six years ago. She came back with many ideas to start her own scrapbook because she “felt that it was important to preserve memories so that [her] kids can go back and have things to remember.” A project turned into a hobby, and a hobby turned into a passion. Frustrated because the nearest scrapbook store where she could get all kinds of equipment and supplies was a 45 minute drive, Lisa found that keeping up-to-date with fresh ideas and trendy decorations for the scrapbook was hard. So Lisa decided to take matters into her own hands. Sending out flyers as well as spreading the word among her friends, Lisa soon began teaching scrapbooking classes in her basement. Before long, she had applied for a small-business permit with the city of Jacksonville as well as received permission to rezone her residential area to accept a small home-run business. She sold supplies to her students who came for her class and often had more than 12 students per class crowded in her basement.After a year, Lisa began to feel the need to expand outside of her home. While her ultimate goal is to have a shop in downtown Jacksonville, her business was not yet ready to  expand that big. She began to shop around for different methods to expand her business and finally found a mom and pop antique mall which had just opened. There, she could have a permanent storefront with the workers of the antique mall supervising and selling her things. She could continue to work her full time job at the Illinois School for the Deaf and her husband could continue his full time graduate studies in addition to taking her business to the next level. She rented as many as four vendor booths at one time, using two as a full time store and the other two as classroom to teach. Lisa is often invited to attend scrapbook conventions as a vendor or a guest speaker, giving tips and advice to throngs of hearing enthusiasts. Lisa says that one of the reasons why Scrapbook Wonderland has had success is that hers is still the only scrapbook store within 45 miles. While retail giants like Wal-Mart still sell similar supplies, theirs can only be found in bulk whereas her supplies, down to the last sheet of paper can be bought individually. She has also utilized a scrapbook supply sharing website, Scrapbook Connection. There, she sells her left over supplies from ordering in bulk to other shop owners or member of Scrapbook Connection. Scrapbooking is a one billion dollar industry that Lisa has managed to tap into simply by using her degree from Gallaudet University in entrepreneurial studies. While she has since stopped teaching classes due to the lack of time, her business has been steadily improving and she is eyeing a storefront opening in Jacksonville. Oh, and did I mention? Lisa has been Deaf since birth.
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December 29th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
Hi Lisa
Wow i read ur website about scrapbooking and u have own business and etc so i want that too and how i do manager and how the starting and etc cuz i wanna do small business here in North carolina so i just moved here from calfornia .. Aww i wld love to talk to u and get the ideas so im trying to learn soo many scrapbook and etc and hopefully hear from you soon
Smile
Thanks again
Sincerely
Vanessa Pepin