Exploring Life & Business with Monica Womack of The Sign & Design Shop

Today we’d like to introduce you to Monica Womack.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I grew up in New Jersey (and three other states). I ended up out here for college and loved it so much that I stayed here. My husband Paul grew up in the Kansas City area.

I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Kansas City Art Institute, majoring in illustration and design… My passion is painting. After college, I got married and had kids. I stayed at home with my four kids for ten years and then got a divorce from my first husband, so I had to go back to work. Since I hadn’t worked in 10 years, I had to work a few minimum wage jobs and work my way up to where I am today. One of the jobs, I was hired as a graphic designer, where I met my husband Paul. He has been a screen printer for approximately 25-30 years working for other people. Paul is very creative as well. He is great making stained glass art and making anything out of nothing. He has been getting into photography as well, which he displays at the shop.

We had the opportunity to work together at a print shop in 2016 and manage it for two years. They took advantage of us and we decided to quit. Paul went back to his old job, and I wasn’t about to work for someone else again, making close to nothing. I decided to start this shop. Paul and my dad thought I was crazy… actually my dad told me after it was up and running that he was “dumbfounded” how I’ve managed to start my own business. Haha

At first, we rented a small room where he worked. That way, on his breaks he could help me with production. After a year of that small space (342 sqft) and bumping into myself every time I turned around, we relocated to a retail spot of our own instead of inside someone else’s business.

Paul continued to work at his job and gave notice he would work there another month or so. Our first year, we focused on getting our name out there and getting customers. We had quite a few follow us from previous places we worked. Our second year, we were doing GREAT until the pandemic hit, it was our best month March 2020 and then sales nose dived. That was scary, but we survived somehow.

I have many struggles that make things more challenging for me on a daily basis. For one, I have severe ADHD, so being the boss of myself…. squirrel… shiny object… I am also dyslexic so I have to be extra careful with spelling on my designs. I just recently found out that I have bipolar, which comes with its own struggles. Paul and I both have extreme anxiety. I want to create a “Mental Health” display in my shop to help stop the stigma it has. I am very open with my customers and I think that they appreciate it. We have customers that come in just to say hi and chat a bit.

The past several months, I have been transforming our shop into a Retro 1970’s look. We have brought in several of our personal items that we have had since kids or collected over the years. People really seem to enjoy our quirkiness and even bring their kids to come look. I am also a professional face painter, but I don’t have time for it with the shop, but occasionally I will paint a kid at the shop for fun.

We love what we do and working together. We want to help other small businesses look professional while keeping on a budget. We really do care about our customers. 

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Definitely not a smooth road. We know what we are doing when it comes to our products and our designs, but learning how to run a business was a whole new ballpark. It has been a learning curve for sure. QUICKBOOKS, I have a love/hate relationship with it. All the business stuff like getting a license and that sort of stuff I had to power through my anxiety, with help from friends to point me in the right direction.

Plus I have a lot of mental issues (ADHD, anxiety, dyslexia, bipolar) that make life in general a struggle let alone running a business. With ADHD & Anxiety especially:

Staying on task of orders, trying not to lose things, staying focused, not focusing too long on something that doesn’t need to be done right now, not getting distracted with phone calls, emails, texts, anything else. I allow people to text me to help with my anxiety. For whatever reason, phone calls give me anxiety.

But we are finding ways that work for my brain to stay on top of things and it’s been great!

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about The Sign & Design Shop?
We started out mostly printing banners, yard signs, etc. for community events & school events. But with the pandemic, that all came to an end. A lot of people who lost their jobs have started up their own businesses, so we have been doing what I love most, Branding and Marketing. We specialize in graphic design for logos, advertisement layouts. We try to get a feel for the look that fits our customer’s businesses. We are known for our great designs as well as our customer service. We get to know our customers and truly care about their business and their personal lives as well.

We are most proud of the fact that we had the guts to start this shop, and people seem to like us. We appreciate all that we have learned along the way too.
Also, during our first 6 months in business, we won “Best of the Northland” in the print shop category.

What sets us apart from others is probably our quirkiness, our retro look in the making and our great graphics. We go the extra mile for our customers, and we actually end up friends with a lot of them. Since we have the ability to do many types of things, some consider us a one stop shop. We can print signs & banners, shirts, marketing materials such as business cards and brochures… as well as design and develop websites and custom canvas paintings. (I used to work as a website designer/developer before I had kids and my passion is painting) I don’t necessarily advertise some of the things that we can do, but people know to ask when they need something creative produced.

The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
We’ve learned to be thankful for what we have. A lot of people lost their jobs and it was really cool to see how everyone has been taking the initiative to start up their own businesses and watch them grow. We enjoy helping them build their brands.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: SignDesignShop.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/signdesignshop
• Facebook: Facebook.com/signdesignshopkc