Small Shop Wednesday: Reflecting Grace

By Lexi - January 24, 2018

Happy Wednesday!

It's a new year and I'm so excited to start up these small shop features again! This week’s feature is about a cute Etsy shop called Reflecting Grace and the designer Tami. She is so talented and easy to work with!

Meet Tami!

What is your job // career // momlife?

I'm a happily married mom of 3! Landon (17), Chloe (13) and Lola (11). I'm a full-time Etsy shop owner but formerly a national account executive in corporate America for 10+ years! I'm a lover of Jesus, family, selfless friends, essential oils and (newly)yoga!

What is your business name?

Reflecting Grace

What is your website?

www.reflectinggrace.etsy.com

What is your business all about?

Creating unique and personalized gift items that make people feel good! We love spreading positive and encouraging messages with our personalized items!

Why did you start your business?

I LOVE working- always have and always will! And I love, love, love anything that gets my creative juices flowing and love creating items that make people HAPPY! All of these reasons are why I started Reflecting Grace.

What motivates you and gets you out of bed each day?

I am someone who really desires and works hard to be my best self...most importantly for Jesus and then secondly for my family. I am definitely not anywhere close to being where I want to be (I think that will only come when I enter the gates of heaven) but that desire is what gets me out of bed every single day.

How do you balance home and work life?

It's CHALLENGING! And a work in progress! This is literally on the TOP of my prayer list every single day! My type-A, perfectionist personality really makes balance a challenging part of my world. And with owning my own business and working out of my home, I could literally justify working 12-15 hours a day...every single day. I've learned over the years that you have to set boundaries. I try to set specific work hours and limit the amount of "work" activity I have in the evenings when my family is home. When working, I try to be "present" working and not distracted with laundry, kid stuff, etc. When spending time with my family, I try to be "present" spending time with them and not getting distracted with work stuff. It's really something I have to continue to work at every single day because I can easily get off balance.

What is your Instagram handle?

@reflectinggrace

What’s a goal you have for 2018?

My goals are constantly changing from one week to the next. But one thing I do want to make a priority for 2018 is that I would like to incorporate more Jesus-driven products that include scripture, encouraging words, etc. as gift items for women! We live in such a demanding and stressful world, I'd love to create more products that share the love of Jesus Christ....truly the only thing that will set us free.

Any advice for other small shop owners?

Don't wait for the perfect plan, perfect product, most original idea to get started. Just start with something. You can perfect it later. With so many ideas in my life, I never actually did anything with them because I spent so much time "thinking" about them and wanting to make the idea/plan PERFECT before I actually did anything with it. Perfection is not attainable so I never ended up doing anything with those ideas! But for the first time in 35 years....I had an idea of a product for my Etsy shop and instead of waiting until that product plan was perfect...I just prayed about it, created it and then listed it as my very first product in my Etsy shop! I had a million fears and reasons as to why I wouldn't be successful on Etsy. But thank goodness the good Lord helped give me the courage to just start! Now, 16 months later....I have sold thousands of that item that I "almost" didn't post because I didn't think I could make it perfect.

Tami sent me this adorable customized tumbler from her shop and I love it! It's a stainless steel, double wall construction, twist lid 16 oz tumbler with a reusable stainless steel straw. It's difficult to see in the pictures, but it's a gorgeous copper color and my name is in glittery black.

She has tons of colors and style options to make your tumbler exactly what you want! I can't wait to use mine for some delicious smoothies! Be sure to check out her water bottles, letter boards, and cute bags too!