Typii

I often have people look at me very confused when I am asked the question “what do you do for a living?” When my reply is “I sell stamps!”

I generally have to show a photo as my explanation of “you know? The type that have ink that you put on envelopes and stuff” leaves the person I am trying to explain it to even more confused!

Following their understanding of what I do, I am then usually asked “how did you come up with THAT and how did you manage to actually make it work?”

I generally shrug it off at this point with an “I don’t know, it just worked out, I guess” but in reality, that is far from the truth of how my pride and joy “Typii” came into existence!

My name is Lisa Crouch and as of the time I am writing these words, I am 28 years old and a “work at home mum” to 3 amazing children.

I am launching, in September 2019, the fruition of over 10 years of research, sleepless nights, failure after failure and my steadfast and often lonely dedication to never succumb to what society has always taught us which is “work so much you have no time to live”.

I knew from a very young age I never wanted to work a “normal job” so from about the age of 11, I started learning about business and started reading books and instead of having “friends” I followed and became obsessed with inspirational and successful people, making them my “friends”

It has been a very hard road with very few supporters and many, many people telling me to stop chasing my dream and “come back to reality”.

This is my reality! This is my passion, in fact, all of my passions which have collided and created what my business is today!

I have tried many many different ventures but I never felt I had found what was “right” for me

I wanted something that wouldn’t take over my entire life, causing me to miss important time with my family.

I wanted something that I could continue to grow and be free to express my creativity without having to create the same thing over and over (I am diagnosed as ADHD hehe)

I needed something that would keep my interest, that had lots of different aspects and was not repetitive or tedious (because I knew I wouldn’t be able to stick to it for very long)

I knew I wanted to sell a physical product but was restricted by that as I live in the tiny, but beautiful, country of New Zealand!

I didn’t want to disappoint my potential customers by having to add costs and delays if I was to, personally, create each item myself.

So, after many, many years of testing different ideas and learning and solving each issue thrown at me, I finally landed on my ‘dream”, after all of my struggles I finally had the answer to the question I had been asking since I was a little girl!

My goal has always been the same, I just was never clear on how I was going to reach it!

Now, I am sure!

I am truly proud to introduce my fourth “baby” “Typii” (derived from typography, I have dedicated so much time to really learning the art of typography and how to design a stamp that not only I can be proud of but my customers will love! There is actually a lot of work that goes into designing a nice stamp!!)

I came into the stamp business with a background in Photoshop, previously designing invitations, my thought process was “this will be a piece of cake!" I was absolutely, completely wrong!

I have been humbled and now have a new found respect and admiration for graphic designers who have done the hard yards and are truly talented in their trade, it is not easy!

Creating a business, especially one which involves creativity in anyway, which, if you’re on Etsy, obviously does, requires a huge amount drive, passion and dedication if you are going to succeed!

I hope each and every customer I have the privilege of sharing my creations with, receives my product and instantly appreciates and loves how much of my life and soul has gone into creating that for them

Nothing makes my day more than checking what work I have on for the day and seeing messages (and especially photos) of the product, I made, how they’re using it and how much they love it!

My stamps may seem “strange” or of not much importance to some people but they are the result of a lot of years of my life’s work and struggles and hopefully, a lot more years to come!

I used to like to control every aspect of my business but I have learnt over time to focus on my strengths and let others, who have their own strengths, help me grow my dream.

While I design each and every stamp that is sold in this store and I, personally, fulfill every order by customizing each stamp with the customers details, due to me living in New Zealand and my customer base primarily being in the USA and me not wanting to let my customers down with lengthy delays or added costs, I have worked closely with, and perfected, my product with an amazing team of stamp makers who are a small, family run business, residing in the USA.

This amazing team, handcraft, each and every stamp and ensure my customers receive their order faster than a lot of non custom, non handmade, items!

I am very happy I am able to achieve my goal without succumbing to the pressures of selling a subpar, mass produced, product because I couldn’t be happy in my success selling something I wasn’t confident in or a product created from unethical sourcing and creation.

Each and every stamp sold in this store is 100% designed in New Zealand and handmade in the USA!

I can even state, all materials are locally (USA) sourced!

If you have read this far, thank you for being apart of my journey, even if you don’t purchase from my store today, I hope you have enjoyed learning a little bit about me and my story!