As my business has molded and shaped itself over the years, so too has our name. It is not an easy thing to name a business at the beginning without knowing exactly where you will wind up. So the progression of our name has been an interesting, not to mention confusing, journey.
Since we started out as a business that took old furniture and made it look new again, I thought that Before & After, LLC made a lot of sense. Soon, however, that was not all that we were selling…in addition to adding our word stones, we began to carve out a niche of selling beach themed accessories, taking advantage of our location in Annapolis and its waterfront location. So when we went online, it made sense to add BeachDecor.net to our letterhead…making it simple for folks to remember our web address.
Then along came the stones and tokens and the beach decor slowly made its exit. Selling word stones and pocket tokens under a name like BeachDecor.net just did not make sense…so here we are at CourageInStone.com. I feel we’ve finally nailed it…mainly because we don’t have room for a 4th name on our marketing materials.
I have probably spent way more time worrying about our name then is warranted. The great thing about having an online business is that it’s all about the search engines and the content of your website. It’s very rare that people find us directly by our website address. But when the name of my business does not match the product, I feel that the universe is a bit off kilter.
Have you ever named a website? It is not as easy as it looks. There are several main factors that you need to consider. Length, in combination with ease of typing is a big one. WordStones.com is great… WeSellAwesomeWordStonesandPocketTokens.com is not. Another huge factor is whether the website address is for sale. Just like everything else in the world, website addresses need to be purchased. Someone may already have a website at the exact address you need. Or, someone might own a website address without it even being live, sorta like owning real estate without building a house. The property might be for sale, but at a marked up price. A third factor that was necessary for me was that the name conveyed what we were about. Limiting that to a simple, easy to type, available website address was tough.
Here in the office we brainstormed for several days and threw out a ton of names. We narrowed down the field to what we thought was a fabulous address. ScatterHope.com. But when we surveyed about 10 friends independent of each other, they all shot it down immediately. Disappointed, we went back to the drawing board – although we were very glad to have taken a survey because we obviously stunk at choosing names! Sitting at dinner one night, I was lamenting to my husband how difficult this task was. “Well, what do the stones do? What’s the biggest reason people by stones and tokens?” he asked. “I think mainly they give people courage – for whatever it is they are going through, good or bad.” I said.
Hmmm….courage in stones. CourageInStone.com
So here we are. And hopefully over the years our products have given plenty of courage, hope, strength and healing. And while I know the stones and tokens aren’t any of these things intrinsically, I do think that if you believe, they can create power and energy.
Made in the USA ceramic stones are so, so sweet. With a thumb indentation perfect for ‘worrying’, these stones make great gifts, party favors, and giveaways.
We sell the word ‘Hugs’ in our glass engraved spirit stone line. The word has been offered for a while now, and when we first carried it we sold them with pink ink instead of our standard black or gold. It was the only stone we sold in pink ink – the color just seemed to fit the sentiment and the stones were very popular. Ultimately, however, we decided to switch the ‘Hugs’ back to the standard ink colors to give the whole line a more uniform feel.
Recently a customer called and asked if we had any ‘Hugs’ left with pink ink. She needed 5, but specifically only in clear glass with pink ink. We had just gotten in a new shipment of stones, but I was pretty sure we had a few pink ones left on the very bottom of the bin. I told the customer I would…
We sell the word ‘Hugs’ in our glass engraved spirit stone line. The word has been offered for a while now, and when we first carried it we sold them with pink ink instead of our standard black or gold. It was the only stone we sold in pink ink – the color just seemed to fit the sentiment and the stones were very popular. Ultimately, however, we decided to switch the ‘Hugs’ back to the standard ink colors to give the whole line a more uniform feel.
Recently a customer called and asked if we had any ‘Hugs’ left with pink ink. She needed 5, but specifically only in clear glass with pink ink. We had just gotten in a new shipment of stones, but I was pretty sure we had a few pink ones left on the very bottom of the bin. I told the customer I would look for the stones, but couldn’t make any promises.
Trust me, unloading and sorting through 2000+ stones is not a daily occurrence around here, but I was sure there were some pink ones, and for whatever reason felt compelled to dig.
After pulling out all the stones, out came 7 clear stones with pink ink! I called the customer and told her what I had found. She was thrilled and said she’d take all 7. Woo hoo…what a salesperson I am! And while the sale wasn’t huge, she sounded so happy it was definitely worth the effort.
She then went on to explain to me why the stones were so important. Having just lost her husband to cancer, she attended a meeting at the hospice for grieving spouses. At the end of the meeting, the counselor had set out a bowl of our glass engraved spirit stones, so that each attendee could pick a stone to take with them. Most of the stones were dark in color and as she looked through the bowl, none of the words seemed right for her. She initially chose a blue stone with the word ‘Remember’ on it, and was getting ready to walk away when she swirled the bowl of stones one last time. This time she saw some pink ink peeking out from the bottom of the bowl. She pulled it out to reveal the ‘Hugs’ stone and started to cry. She explained that she had gotten in the habit of talking out loud to her husband, knowing he could hear her wherever he was. Just the day before the meeting, she had said to him “I wish I could have just one more hug from you.” Finding the ‘Hugs’ stone made her feel that he was watching over her. She immediately felt compelled to figure out where the counselor had gotten the stones and to buy some for her children as a remembrance of their father.
Hearing her story gave me chills and everyone I’ve told feels the same way. I am so glad I took the time and little bit of extra effort to look through the stones and find those hugs for her. I interact with our products everyday and continue to be astonished by all the different ways each item can touch someone’s life.
Inexpensive frame from Dollar Store or craft store
Scrapbook Paper
A photo of someone of love
Craft Glue
I spruced up a plain black frame by gluing hearts on each of the corners. I found a frame with a cut-out of a heart in the center which I glued a sheet of black and white scrapbook paper to. I then glued on a few hearts creating a perfect Valentine’s Day gift!
CourageInStone 