The idea of owning a shop together goes WAY back…seriously, we remember sketching up our ideas in our middle school diaries… we don’t remember all the plans from those middle school days but we do vividly remember wanting our store to include invitations & a gift wrapping bar! It’s really hard to believe that after lengthy careers in corporate events & production (that’s a story for another time) and a leap of faith on signing our first lease we’d be living out our dream of owning a shop together.
Now let’s fast forward from a little idea that stuck with us for years to 2015 when we were sitting at The Dinner Party Project with eight strangers in an art gallery talking about future hopes & dreams. This is where we shared our plan to make Paper Goat Post a reality. Just days before the dinner party we had submitted a bid for a retail location… spoiler alert, that offer fell through but what happened next just seemed like fate!
As we were leaving dinner, on a high from the empowering & creative conversations we just had, we noticed a space for lease sign on the art gallery building. The next morning we made a phone call to the landlord to ‘just see’ what the rent would be. He asked us what type of business we had… we said “a stationery store” … he said, “come bring your business plan and see the space”. So overnight we put together a quick one sheet with our ‘business plan’ (which included a super amateur looking goat logo) and we went to see the space!
From that day on everything just seemed to fall into place… we followed our gut, added some passion & lots of hard work… our dream of owning a shop was happening… we officially signed a lease for the shop. With keys in hand we thought about who our customers would be (YOU!), the product & service mix that we would offer our customers, and every little design detail for the look & feel of our space.
We didn’t want to just create a shop, we knew we wanted to build a brand that told a story and shared our love for paper + party with our community so we created our PGP Philosophies:
A lot has evolved in the shop but our philosophies have not; they remain at the forefront of our everyday shop life. We hope that our shop inspires you to write a handwritten note, host a gathering, or gift something thoughtful for many years to come.
P.S. You may be still wondering… but where did the name come from? We fell in love with goats at an early age. I mean really, who doesn’t love them? They are playful, curious and love everything, well love to eat everything and we love to celebrate everything. Clearly, a perfect match. Our founding year, 2015 also happens to be the year of the goat. So, why not? William G. Wright is the name of our fictitious goat in our logo. His nickname “Billy” also inspired the name of our 3 foot oversized Billy balloons.
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