Emily Franks is my on-air guest this week and she runs Ivory Ink Designs, a custom invitation, and stationery design studio, focusing on wedding branding.

She works full-time and has been building up your custom design business on the side, but it’s always been her goal to transition to this full time. On our call today, we talk about how to focus #alltheideas into practical to-do items since she has limited time to work on the business, and still wants to have a personal life.

She kills it on organic search traffic for wedding invitations in Cleveland, Ohio, where she’s based and she can close 100% of leads that come into her design studio in her home. Right now only 25% of her clients are not local.

We talk about:

  • how to tighten up her sales conversations in her design studio and how she walks clients through the consultation, and how to use those conversations to show up as the expert in her field and close the sale even if she’s not talking to them in person.
  • how to prioritize her client base so she’s not chasing too small of fish, and what she can do to stop attracting the price bargainers
  • how to treat her business like a business and take charge of her finances
  • how to visually see the tasks you need to accomplish each week as the CEO (see screenshot below for how I time block on Google Calendar with colors)

“It’s an evolution, not a revolution. It’s always going to be changing and I’m going to be adapting.” – Emily Franks

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
Layne Booth at The Project Booth for product-based business metrics so you start turning a profit

Connect with Emily

Facebook: facebook.com/ivoryinkdesignco/
Insta : @ivoryinkdesignco
Website: ivoryink.com

Emily owns Ivory Ink, ivoryink.com, a custom wedding invitation & stationery design studio that personalizes a couple’s wedding day as uniquely their own. She’s spent nearly a decade doing the wedding design business as a side hustle while she held numerous positions for a major greeting card organization.

She is mom of 2 sweet girls, Brookylnn and Lillian, and wife to my crazy supportive husband.  They love doing art together, boating and lake life any free second they get.