Windsor’s Persephone’s Picks gets crafty with digital presence
Through Digital Main Street she was able to take a deeper dive into branding elements and figure out how to present the brand over social media. “It re-inspired me.”
In the midst of her pregnancy, Aimee Banner was grappling with sleepless nights. “I had insomnia and needed something to do at four o'clock in the morning… so my husband bought me a Cricut®,” says Banner, the owner of Persephone’s Picks, a crafting supply store in Windsor. She quickly became obsessed with her new smart cutting DIY machine, using it to cut vinyl designs to make crafts. “To be totally honest with you, if I tried to draw something or be creative without using (this) technology, it would be trash,” she says with a laugh.
The Cricut®, gave her an outlet to express herself creatively, but it also had its pain points. Materials from big box stores were expensive and ordering online was time-consuming. Banner realized other people were likely experiencing the same thing. She started amassing crafting supplies. With the materials accumulated, Banner launched a crafting supply business out of her basement with just a Facebook page, naming Persephone’s Picks after her daughter. Within a few months, she had teamed up with another Windsor business to sell crafting supplies.
“Pretty much everything starts off with your Cricut®, machine or any type of vinyl plotter (and) once you dive into that, there are so many different types of crafting,” says Banner. “I also sell sublimation supplies and epoxy and glitter and clothes to put (what they create) on.”
Banner has now expanded Persephone’s Picks into a two-unit space in a Windsor industrial park. “I have a storefront downstairs and then I just opened up a crafting event space upstairs.” However, Banner admits that with the near-overnight success, she’s learning to be an entrepreneur in the process. “I started my business in the middle of COVID-19 while I was on my maternity leave,” she says.
To continue to strengthen her small business, Banner connected with Digital Main Street, a program which combines grants and one-to-one support from the Province of Ontario, alongside corporate partners, to help main street businesses strengthen their online capabilities and plan for the digital future. She applied for the $2,500 Digital Transformation Grant and received it. “I had never looked at anything like that for my business before coming across Digital Main Street,” she says.
Crafting tends to create a sense of community, people like to share what they create and digital communities are a perfect place to do so. For Banner, the Digital Main Street training series changed the way she thought about her customers, how to advertise to them and how to grow that community by building a stronger brand.
“One thing that really stuck out to me was the whole piece about trying to create a brand,” she says. “There were a lot of aspects that I never really gave a thought to… I have a name and a logo and that’s pretty much what I was running with.” Through Digital Main Street she was able to take a deeper dive into branding elements and figure out how to present the brand over social media. “It re-inspired me.”
Interested in your own crafting materials or participating in a crafting workshop? Check out Persephone’s Picks here.
To learn more about the Digital Transformation Grant, and how it can help your business visit here.
Digital Main Street was created by the Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas (TABIA) with direct support from the City of Toronto. DMS is also supported by a group of strategic business partners, including Google, Mastercard, Shopify, Meta, Intuit QuickBooks, Square, Lightspeed, Ebay and Canada Post.
Continued investment from the Province of Ontario, through the Ministry of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade (MEDJCT) has allowed the ongoing expansion the Digital Main Street Platform in order to support more businesses going digital across Ontario.
