Meg Ragland, owner of Plum Print in Asheville, sheds light on how her business came to be, her best advice for building a team, and the importance of having fun with your small business.
You’re probably not going to hire people who are as passionate about your business as you are, 'cause you know this is your baby but you can find some people who are close to that.
Hello, my name is Meg Ragland, and I am the Co-founder, President/CEO of Plum Print. We began by taking the overwhelming piles of artwork that your children create and digitizing those and designing them into custom coffee table books. So you can get rid of your messy piles and turn them into books with style. We had send them an empty box, they throw all their kids' artwork in the box and send it to us here in Asheville, North Carolina, where we digitize it and turn it into custom coffee table books. As Plum Print was growing here in the small incubator I think as a person is, and as an entrepreneur myself just the resources around me helped me grow immensely as a person, as a business owner but probably more in terms of managing people and bringing in both part-time and full-time and other remote workers. I just was able to learn so much from the other small business owners around me, as well as some other graduates of the small business incubator. And I'll give a shout out to Jim Oliver. He's always been a great resource for me. And he started out here and always just asked me, Meg are you still having fun? And yes, I'm still having fun and I think that's, what's been so great. And as a person I've found new ways to have fun with Plum Print and challenge myself. And it's really been a great ride. I think when you're building a team, just keep it fun. When you find somebody who's a rock star and you love them, then obviously do your best to keep them happy and promote them to the next level. But also don't be scared. I remember hearing someone saying you don't, "Oh, you're good people. "You're gonna lose them "'cause they're gonna go to the next best thing." Well, that's, what you can hope for them, right? You want them to be amazing and help you take your business to the next level. And if that means that then they're gonna move on then that's part of the life cycle of employees. So I'm always about encouraging your employees make them excited and happy to come to work every day. And as thankful for you as you are for them.
