➠ Get inspired

Father-daughter starters | Credit

1. A floral family biz. The handmade floral phone grips from Untouched Blooms are super fun – but what’s even more fun is how founder Max is building a small business with her 78 year-old father as co-star. Max started her biz journey with $300 and 3 jobs – one of which was riding around Miami Beach on weekends selling flowers on a tricycle her father built for her. Now, the duo are growing a flower-based phone grip company together. Last year they handmade, packed and shipped 10,000+ (!) grips. 🌸🌺💐

→ I just love their wholesome IG and TikTok. This is how you do authentic small biz content that sticks.

2. Live that multi-hyphen life. Have two things you love doing? Follow the path of novelist and olive oil maker Robin Sloan. You don’t have to be just this or just that. You can be both. ✍🫒

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“My work life has two great lobes. One is writing and publishing, and the other is Fat Gold, now rounding out its eighth year. We started the company with a tiny leased olive grove; today, we make California extra virgin olive oil in small batches on a state-of-the-art mill that gleams like something out of Star Trek. I feel lucky to work on two different things that are just so clearly and simply … good! With like, zero tradeoffs! Books: very good. Extra virgin olive oil: very, very good. The more you have of each, the better you are doing.”

→ Btw, that quote’s from Robin’s very good holiday gift guide featuring some real small biz gems.

3. Coooookies. In San Francisco, Nicole Balsamo runs her bakery No Crumbs Cookies out of her one-bedroom apartment — on top of her full-time gig as head of marketing at an AI startup. She launched six months ago, and now her cookie boxes sell out within seconds. Loved reading this profile of her in SFGate… 🍪

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“On Saturday morning, a line was already forming outside Balsamo’s apartment before she’d even set up her folding table on the sidewalk. All of the customers had preordered their boxes the week before on Hotplate (the Ticketmaster of hyped food drops). With only 60 pastel pink boxes up for grabs, competition was fierce.”

4. Music to their ears. London-based software engineer Alastair Roberts built a 3D-printed synthesizer for his daughter’s third birthday and wrote about the process here. After a positive reaction (from kids and adults alike), he’s thinking of turning it into an actual product — and he’s asking for help. “If anyone reading this has experience bringing small-run hardware to market,” Alastair writes, “I’d love to hear from you.” 🎶

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