BUFFALO, N.Y. — For our Most Buffalo Story of the Day, 2 On Your Side is celebrating a Buffalo business owner who just won a pitch competition.
We visited Papercraft Miracles in Black Rock on Wednesday to find out how the prize money will impact this woman-owned shop.
"Papercraft Miracles is an eco-friendly handmade paper art company. We make magical things out of paper that make people happy," said Janna Willoughby-Lohr, founder of Papercraft Miracles.
Willoughby-Lohr launched Papercraft Miracles in 2004. Fast-forward two decades, and she has a thriving shop on Niagara Street in Black Rock.
"We do hand-bound books, book repairs, and we make lots and lots and lots of plantable seed bombs and seed paper that grow when you plant it in the ground," Willoughby-Lohr said.
Recently, Willoughby-Lohr entered the She Means Business Pitch Competition through the Enterprise Center at Pathstone, a national business competition, and won.
"It was pretty intense as far as the course load goes. It was a seven week long program and there were two classes every week, so we had to go from 5 to 7:30 every Tuesday and 5 to 6:30 on Thursdays every week for seven weeks in a row, and then also do all the homework and stuff like that and participate in things, build a pitch deck, do your pitch in front of all the people, it was all via Zoom, which made it easier, and then if you got through the first round of the semifinals, they picked the top ten pitch contestants, and then they got a little bit of extra coaching to get their pitches as best as they could be, and then they did the final competition, and then I won," Willoughby-Lohr said.
Willoughby-Lohr won $5,000.
So what does something like $5,000 do for you? How does that help you expand your business and keep things going?" 2 On Your Side's Kelly Dudzik asked.
"I'm actually planning to use most of it for improving the SEO on our website and PR because I know that nobody sells my business better than I do, and I have three small kids. I can't be going out to huge events and doing a lot of traveling and things like that, so I want to be able to get in more media outlets and things so more clients can hear about what we do," Willoughby-Lohr said.
Dudzik asked: "What advice do you have for somebody, because you're somebody who went through it, and you started from scratch, and created all of this, so if somebody's out there, and they have this dream, and they just haven't taken that step yet to do it, what advice do you have?"
Willoughby-Lohr replied: "Go for it. Go for it for sure, and ask for help as often as possible, and take it when people offer it because there are so many entrepreneurs who are accidental entrepreneurs. They have an idea, they create a product for themselves because they needed something that didn't exist, and they don't know anything about how to start a business, or how to run a business, and they just happen into it, so utilize all of those resources, and this pitch competition was free. It was free to be in it, and there are tons of those resources out there."
Willoughby-Lohr is starting up classes again at the shop where you can learn how to make paper flowers and more. Sign-ups are still open for classes this month.