Athens Business Profile: Natty Michelle Paperie

1.     Name of business -- Natty Michelle Paperie

2.     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.) Natty Michelle Paperie is a boutique stationery brand and shop based in Athens, Georgia. Natalie’s work includes pen and ink home portraits and pet portraits, but her true love is illustration. She paints everything from pink elephants to cupcakes, and then prints her illustrations on notecards, journals, magnets, pins, gift tags and more. Natalie also paints maps of towns and cities as art prints. Her first map was created for her own wedding in May 2010 to show guests what landmarks, shops and restaurants Athens had to offer them the weekend of her nuptials. Since then she has painted custom maps for hundreds of brides and other clients throughout the United States and as far away as Australia. 

3.     How long have you been doing this? Since 2010.

4.     Why are you doing this in Athens? I live in Athens. This town is a wonderful place to have a creative business; local residents are so supportive of artists here.

5.     What are the advantages of owning a small business? Making your own hours and working for yourself has its perks. However, I’ve found that since I started my own business, I definitely work longer hours and harder than ever before because I want my ventures to be as successful as they can be. I feel passionate about my craft and want to create the best product possible for my customers, and I work hard to make that happen!

6.     If you could change one thing about owning a small business, what would that be?  I can’t think of anything I would change. Whether easy or hard, every aspect of owning a small business seems worth it to me.

7.     Do you have employees? Are they temporary, part-time, full-time, new or long term? I’m a one-woman band!

8.     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)? Right now I work out of the spare bedroom in our home.

9.     Is anyone else in town doing what you do? A lot of people in Athens make stationery and other paper products, but I don’t believe anyone shares my artistic style.

10. Do you like what you do? I LOVE what I do, and I wouldn’t change it for the world. When I worked in marketing and advertising for several years out of college, I never thought I would one day own my own business! I feel incredibly lucky to have a job I feel so passionately about.

11. 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 had always dreamed of owning my own business, but I didn’t consider it very seriously until I lost my advertising job before the holidays in 2009. Losing a steady paycheck was the push I needed to try and make a business of my own happen. I started out very slowly at first, not taking too many financial risks. I worked out of my home, opened an Etsy account, and started selling a few of my notecard sets online. My business really started to pick up when I added custom artwork to my Etsy site, like house portraits, pet portraits and my custom maps. Thankfully, as orders started coming in more steadily, I didn’t need to continue looking for a 9-5 day job anymore. As time went on and I made more money, I slowly started investing into my business and bought new equipment, new printers and better art supplies.

12. What are you plans for the future (regarding your business), the future being the next five years? In the next five years, I want to grow. I’d love to be a vendor in the National Stationery Show in New York City in the next couple of years, and begin selling my cards wholesale on a national level. It would also be a dream come true to have my work featured in major publications, like “Martha Stewart Living,” “Southern Living” or “Country Living Magazine.” I regularly write all of my goals and dreams out in a journal I have -- I figure some of them may seem pretty crazy, but putting them out there in black and white makes them seem more tangible somehow.  When you work hard and put yourself out there, you never know what might happen!