Today we’d like to introduce you to Amy Norwood and Ewa Miller.
Amy and Ewa, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
First off, a little back story, we have always loved to give gifts. We were the go-to friends for group gifts, we both enjoyed thinking about the individual and searching for items they would love to receive. In the world we live in today, everyone is overbooked, overworked, too much tech & not enough time. That translates into people being less personal, hence the gift card world we live in. So, fast forward to 2015, we were standing in Ewa’s kitchen talking about starting a personalized, gifting business that would provide convenience to the customer but also have a really personal and sincere touch for the recipient. I think on this particular day our husbands had heard enough of our “big plans” and said just do it! Soooo, we did and Perfectly Gifted Frisco was born. We left the kitchen and headed to the couch to create a FB business page and we didn’t even have one product to sell. Here is the thing, the gift ideas were already in our heads so we knew that would be the easy part. Our business isn’t just two girls adding names on products, it is listening to who the customer is buying for and tailoring the gift to that individual. We, of course, have curated boxes you can select from, but we also have a concierge request form on our website, if you want us to build a box from scratch. Our mission at Perfectly Gifted Frisco is to support the community we live in, we are constantly working to partner with local artisans and include their items in our boxes. We are very proud to live in such a wonderful community but a very busy community and if we can provide a service that makes things a little easier for people, that truly lights our fire.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Hmmmmmm no! Owning a small business is really hard. We were really good at the creative part, selling our brand, making connections and marketing our business but operational stuff was a challenge. When you start a business, you don’t know all the things you need to know until you need to know them. Through the years, we have learned that if we aren’t good at something to find someone who is and ask for help or hire them. Also, finding balance and walking away to live is super important. A small business can be all consuming and you can find yourself working 24/7. Ewa and I both are guilty of this and we have learned it is good to walk away and enjoy your life, it can give you perspective.
Another challenge we have encountered along the way is finding the right people to partner with on the business side. Marketing, social media, communicating with customers, website and being highly visible is really important to a growing business. We have partnered with companies that didn’t get our vision or needs and spent a ton of money without results. Out of those experiences, we have learned what to ask, how to articulate our needs and vet our partners better. These are challenges you just have to live through in order to learn if you don’t have that knowledge on your side.
Perfectly Gifted Frisco – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Perfectly Gifted Frisco is an online boutique that is designed to deliver quality, personalized gift boxes with convenience for any occasion. We take all the guessing and hunting out of gift giving. We strive to curate boxes for any occasion; birthdays, baby, co-workers, best friends, holiday, promotion, client, inspirational and corporate gifts.
We specialize in people. We don’t just add a monogram to an item, we strive to tailor the gift to the individual. For example: Jan ordered a box for her best friend Mary who just had her first baby. She tells us Mary’s favorite color is pink, her monogram is mHr, she loves wine and her budget is $100. We then craft a box based around the fact that Mary is a new mom, is probably tired and doesn’t get much time to think about herself these days. Her box will include a monogrammed robe, locally crafted soap and sugar scrub, and a personalized stainless wineglass. A box truly about pampering Mary.
Of course, we understand that not all customers will know all these personal details so we have pre curated boxes that you can choose from that are specific to many occasions. Plus, you still get the personal touch by adding a name/monogram to the items.
Another service we offer is corporate gifting. Whether it’s sending out 150 tumblers with the company logo on them, creating personalized gifts for company retreats or holidays, gifts for client birthdays or any other business needs we are here to help.
We are most proud of customer referrals, people who receive boxes and then order a box for someone else, working with other woman entrepreneurs and our commitment to giving back to causes we believe in.
What sets us apart from others is our authenticity. If you follow any of our pages, you know we are truly those crazy girls in the videos. We love what we do and we sure hope it comes through in all we do. We have fun, make fun of ourselves and truly love the customers that allow us to serve them.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
We define success by the feedback we receive from our customers and recipients about how the gift box made them feel. There is no better feeling for us then when we receive messages about how much people love their box and how perfect the items were for them. Referrals are a huge lever for success as well when someone shares us either by gifting a box or sharing our website that means we get another chance to add a new customer to our gifting world.
Our ability to continue to grow year over year is also a part of being successful. Our goal is to expand our online business all over the USA and be able to help many more people with their gifting needs. We look on a month to month basis to see where our new customers are coming from, what states and how did they become customers. We hope to add many more pins to the map in 2019.
Pricing:
- Our curated boxes start at $50
- Voyager reader discount code voyager10 to snag 10% off your order
Contact Info:
- Website: perfectlygiftedfrisco.com
- Email: gifts@perfectlygiftedfrisco.com
- Instagram: perfectlygiftedfrisco
- Facebook: perfectlygiftedfrisco
Image Credit:
Audrie Dollins Photography
Getting in touch: VoyageDallas is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
