WOMEN & BUSINESS — Now East and West Coast residents, pair continue to run their stationary design business
By: Lauren Otis, Business Editor
Just about everything in Melissa Hall Klepacki’s and Amy Turner Senftleben’s life has changed since they were single women in New York City. They are now both married, have children and are living in the suburbs, Ms. Klepacki in Montgomery, Ms. Senftleben in Dupont, Wash. outside of Seattle.
The one thing that hasn’t changed is their stationary design business — Toccare Design — they both founded together and continue to operate. In fact, despite the different directions each of their lives has taken, one on the West Coast one on the East, their business venture has been successful and rewarding enough that both women have started a second business, Hip Kid Art, which markets custom art for children’s rooms.
"We can only do it because of the Internet," said Ms. Klepacki, 36. "Without the Internet this partnership would have died," she said, noting that she and Ms. Senftleben send between 10 and 20 emails back and forth daily.
With equal, 50 percent, ownership in the two ventures "we continue to make it work," said Ms. Klepacki. "It is just like a marriage — a business partnership — you bicker, you back each other up. Just like any good relationship it is about communication," she said.
As wives and mothers of young children — Ms. Klepacki has a 16 month old son Henry and another baby due in September, Ms. Senftleben a three year old — the business partners know that family comes first, and out of this understanding have forged a collaboration that makes the businesses work, Ms. Klepacki said.
But that doesn’t mean things always work smoothly, she admits, recalling times when "you are faced with a deadline, have a crying baby and three loads of laundry and no food in the refrigerator."
The pair met in college, at Boston University, where both were rowers, Ms. Klepacki said. As "single girls" out and about in New York City Melissa Hall and Amy Turner reconnected, and decided to go into business together founding Toccare Design in 2002, she said.
With their busy lives they thought there was an untapped niche for well-designed stationary sets which would include everything busy singles needed for entertaining and hosting dinner parties. Their "Soiree Sets" and "Entertaining Kits" would include invitations, place cards, thank you cards and more, all in one design package.
"Toccare" means "to touch" in Italian, Ms. Klepacki said, an intentional dual reference to both the literal feel of the quality papers they used in their stationary and the figurative notion that the cards would "touch" those who received them.
The business took advantage of Ms. Senftleben’s graphic design and Ms. Klepacki’s retail marketing and sales experience — she had worked marketing Red Bull energy drink in Boston and for dot coms in New York before the dot com bust. "I just loved the idea of taking a product and figuring out ways to make it interesting and exciting," she said.
"I think both of us are women who want to have it all, but not work too hard," Ms. Klepacki said. With Toccare, they outsourced everything they could — accounting, printing, warehousing, packing and shipping — giving up some profit for greater ease in running the business.
Since, the partners have taken responsibility back for some previously outsourced functions, like accounting, and with Hip Kid Art they are also more hands on, Ms. Klepacki said. They are proud that "all of our paper and all of our wall art is completely U.S. produced," as well as the fact that even for the outsourced functions "we are completely women-owned," Ms. Klepacki said. Women own and operate their warehousing, their accountant is a woman, as are any other outsourced functions, she said.
The key is to "do what you do best and let others take care of the things you don’t do best," said Ms. Klepacki.
"With both companies our choice was to grow them slowly, make small mistakes on a small scale rather than make big mistakes on a big scale," she said. With some breaks — including being featured in Oprah Winfrey’s "O" magazine — their stationary business is thriving, with products offered in about 250 stores nationally as well as on stationary Web sites, Ms. Klepacki said.
For Hip Kids Art the partners have considered branching out, putting custom designs on other items like children’s plates, but for now they are content just to offer custom wall art, a niche they think still has plenty of room for growth, Ms. Klepacki said.
But just as her and Ms. Sentfleben’s lives continue to progress and change, Ms. Klepacki says they look forward to what will come next for their business ventures. "I am always asking myself what is next. I am always looking for needs in the marketplace and what is next," she said.
Toccare Design’s Web site is www.toccaredesign.com. Hip Kid Art’s Web site is www.hipkidart.com. Ms. Klepacki and Ms. Sentfleben also have a blog at hipkidblog.blogspot.com.