[Peek Inside] How A Successful Designer Runs Her Business with the Ink+Volt Planner

Tell us who you are and what you do.

Rock Paper Sisters is a custom design studio operated by myself, Lindsay and my twin sister, Megan. Our business started back in 2012 as a small side hobby designing wedding invitations for ourselves, other family members and friends. What started as a passion for paper and a part-time hobby has since grown into a business that provides a variety of design services for both party and wedding invitations, a studio space for community events and workshops and a line of giftables.

How do you plan productive days in your Ink+Volt Planner?

The Ink+Volt planner was originally recommended to me by another stationer, Laura of Invited by LamaWorks who happens to also be a fellow work-from-home momma. After finding myself in the late night scroll constantly coming back to the Ink+Volt website, I just knew I needed to have it.

Our mom is always on the hunt for the best Christmas gifts, so I told her that this would be it. I couldn’t wait to open it on Christmas Day and fell in love with it immediately.

Starting the year off right with a theme (my first planners theme was “stay in your lane” and this year is “step out”, goals and action steps every week to get there is extremely beneficial in staying on track for a productive year. While I’m a work-from-home mother of two, I use my Ink+Volt mainly to document and steer our business, Rock Paper Sisters. I write down our goals each week, the tasks I need to check off and then time block them throughout the week to make sure that I pace myself and divide my time wisely for both my business and my family.

Leaving the planner open on the kitchen counter also allows me to “brain dump” lists and other things that I need to make sure are kept in a secure place. I will often times use empty blocks or pages as places for lists and that is an extremely helpful part of keeping my weeks productive.

What has been the proudest moment of your career? 

This is a tough one because there have been many important milestones in growing this small business. However, I think one of the proudest moments was the amount of friendor-ships that we formed last year.

We did things like a Dubsado takeover where we talked about how much we love their client-management software, we organized a styled shoot for our Rising Tide Society’s chapter of TuesdaysTogether which resulted in a national blog feature and recognition from the Rising Tide Society. Simply watching and helping other small businesses grow through those efforts was such a huge highlight for us.

Personally, we also stepped out of our comfort zone several times over the last year with our design efforts for clients, and that felt good. Designing and mailing our first acrylic invitations, letterpress printing, etc. were all fun things that just helped us to grow professionally in the things that we can now offer our clients.

What makes you feel confident or successful?

Oddly enough, helping other people feel confident and successful. It is such a fun thing to share knowledge and insight and tips and tricks – which is one of the reasons we love adding to our blog regularly! We love being able to answer questions or share tried and true resources. We may not always be the expert or have the best insight, but we are always willing to point someone in the right direction if we can!

What career advice would you give to your younger self?

“Rome wasn’t built in a day” – While it is a piece of advice that we have probably all heard since childhood, I would go back and remind myself daily that slow growth is growth and that success won’t happen overnight. In a lot of ways it probably still hasn’t happened yet, but my older self knows now to trust the process and wait for the right timing rather than trying to force success.

What’s one of your favorite techniques for getting things done? 

Writing it down. It is one of the biggest reasons my sister and I love the stationery industry – because we have always had a passion for paper. We love the smell of a new book, a fresh set of pens, or a shiny new planner! There is something so fulfilling about writing down your tasks and physically checking them off the list.

We are actually both guilty of adding something that we’ve already done to the list just so we can physically check it off. While we do a lot of things with our business remotely because we are both in two different places a lot, we love writing in our planners, too. So that might look like a shared iCal for our business with a side of pencil and Ink+Volt on the side for dictating all of those things that are stored electronically!

What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received? 

“Stay in your lane”. I’m not sure where I heard it first, but it has been a piece of advice that has always stuck out in my mind. Staying in your lane doesn’t mean doing what you’ve always done or not stepping out to try new things, but it means don’t worry about what the business next to you is doing. It means focus on where you are as an entrepreneur and do what is best for you, your family and your business in the season that you’re in.

Keeping your eye on your own prize rather than someone else’s will result in so much more success and satisfaction in the end that if you’re chasing someone else’s dream.