Vista Notes by Rochelle making a bid for holiday sales
Rochelle Fischer had been taking photographs for years and
dreaming of her own note card business to sell her wares. When her
family settled in Hollister a few years back the idea really
started to come together.
”
I had the idea five years ago,
”
she said.
”
Friends would tell me to do something with my photos. I was
always searching for note cards and could never find things I
wanted.
”
Vista Notes by Rochelle making a bid for holiday sales
Rochelle Fischer had been taking photographs for years and dreaming of her own note card business to sell her wares. When her family settled in Hollister a few years back the idea really started to come together.
“I had the idea five years ago,” she said. “Friends would tell me to do something with my photos. I was always searching for note cards and could never find things I wanted.”
Hollister and San Benito County seemed like the perfect place to start her small venture, she said.
“Here in Hollister, we have a strong buy-local atmosphere,” she said. “I thought it would be easier to launch a card line here rather than somewhere else in a bigger city.”
Last year Fischer took the leap and transformed some of the favorite photographs she had taken in her backyard garden into note cards to sell online and in local stores. She named her company Vista Notes by Rochelle.
Since then her collection as grown and she has chosen many subjects that tie in with the local agricultural atmosphere in San Benito. Bright-feathered roosters adorn one set of cards that can be purchased at the Running Rooster in downtown Hollister. A series of apricot photos has sold well at B&R farms. Other images include a local snowscape shot last winter at Fremont Peak, cows grazing in local fields and close up textured photographs of local produce.
With bright images on the outside, her cards are blank on the inside.
Though her business is still small, she has cards for sale in nearly a dozen locations throughout San Benito, as well as through her Web site.
The experience of starting her small business has been a journey. Fischer has a strong background in marketing, but hadn’t thought about some of the technical points of her enterprise. She hadn’t considered the transition from a digital image to one on note card paper – and how the colors can change along the way.
“Ben Caputo helped me decide on what kind of coating to use and some of the technical aspects,” she said. “It’s just been a learning process – printing on cards versus photo paper.”
Fischer printed several batches of cards through the year and recently published a 2007 calendar that features local produce for every month. Fischer took the photos throughout the year to get fruits and vegetables in the fields at their freshest.
In her first year other local business owners have been helpful. Last spring, after she had low sales after a weekend at local arts and crafts shows, she considered giving up.
“Frank Leal encouraged me to keep plugging away,” Fischer said. “He mentioned that he had similar experiences when starting out. He said getting in front of people with my product and company name was the right thing to do and that it eventually paid off for him.”
Fischer is still getting her product and name out to people in whatever ways she can. She plans to add a barcode to get her entire collection in a bigger retail store, but for now she is still attending plenty of local arts and crafts shows. With the holiday season on the way, she has a full schedule of holiday shows to attend and she hopes to sell out of her unique calendar along the way. The calendar is $20 and is a limited edition.
“This is the only time of year to sell calendars,” she said. “I’d like to see them purchased by local businesses as parts of gift baskets for customers.”
For locally photographed note cards the prices are comparable to other cards sold in specialty stores – $2.50 for individual cards, or $16 for boxes of eight and $20 for boxes of 10. The cards will be available for purchase Nov. 18 at the Rancho Maze Band Holiday Craft Fair and Marketplace.
“At times it’s stressful, but it’s not unmanageable,” Fischer said. “I work part-time with extremely flexible hours. I couldn’t ask for more than that as a stay-at-home mom with a business degree and a business background.”
To view note cards, calendars and other items for purchase from Vista Notes by Rochelle and for upcoming events visit, www.vistanotes.net.
Melissa Flores can be reached at mf*****@pi**********.com.
