Introducing Amy Turn Sharp of Little Alouette, Handmade Wooden Toy Company

Many of you might remember Amy Turn Sharp’s clever video for Little Alouette that made the finals for the Startup Princess Video Marketing Competition. She caught my attention (and the judges’!) because of her passion and story behind her beautiful wooden toys. While Amy wasn’t able to join us in SLC for Touchpoint she won great prizes including being a part of my Startup Princess Group Coaching seminar and it’s been a pleasure to get to know her better. Amy’s initial vision for starting the company was for supplementary income for her family and now that her products are in high demand all over the world she’s currently expanding her view of what is possible and making a plan to keep up with the growth but she’s very clever to keep perspective of her strong brand and what it represents. I love that her products are either unfinished or finished only with certified organic flax seed oil. And this is so sweet from her website, “Each product is made by hand and usually all the wood is surrounded by cups of tea, laughing children, and disco music, so each product will come to you infused with love and bliss!” I’m sure you’ll love connecting with Amy on Twitter and reading her interview here.

Enjoy getting to know Amy!

Hometown: Logan, Ohio

Current Residence (City, State): Columbus, Ohio

Education: Education and Creative Writing

Professional Background: Worked for local Arts council and then in City Government and education.

What you wanted to be when you grew up: Professional roller skater and writer.

What you are: Toymaker

Brief Summary of your Startup: Bio Over a decade ago a handsome British boy and an Ohio lass met and fell madly in love at first site in a sleepy university town. The boy was a classically trained master carpenter and the girl a writer with a bit of wanderlust. They worked together creatively through the years on many projects involving woodworking as they restored and remodeled homes together. The boy taught his love about trees on their land in the country and how to use power tools and the girl read poems to him while they worked. They started a journey of following their bliss and eventually brought two wee ones into the world and began creating wooden toys for them. They decided to share these wee wooden toys with the world and Little Alouette, LLC was born over hot steaming mugs of cocoa in the winter of 2007.

Company Website: Check out the Little Alouette Etsy Store and Little Alouette website.

What inspired you? Our children and the natural world.

How long have you been in business? Under 2 years

How did you fund it? We are still funding it with prayers and hard work and credit.

Do you have a Fairy Godmother (or Mentor)? I need one.

Do you belong to any Business Organization or Networking Groups? Yes- local mom blogging meetups, and small biz local meetings. I’m doing the Startup Princess group coaching program right now.

Current Business Challenge? Growing the right way. Slowly and with purpose. I want to make the right choices.

What are you doing about it? Saying no when I have to. Trying to let go of the stress. Letting go. Not fearing the competitive nature of the business- the negative. Just rising above yucky stuff!

Favorite motivational quote: “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined.” –Thoreau

Family? Joe and I have Finnian and Blaise (ages 5 and 2)

How do you balance family and business? I wrote a blog post about it. Check it out here.

Favorite book? This year I loved No One Belongs Here More Than You.

What do you do to relax? I like to watch old movies with Joe- shop online without buying a thing- walk the neighborhood with my boys.

What do you want to change most about your world? I want people to hold hands and write love letters. I want people to look at each other. We need to know the color of our neighbor’s eyes.

What are you most proud of? My relationship with my 90 year old grandmother. We speak each day and have done so my whole life. We are friends. It’s something I have done well in my life. My children are kind and I am working hard to keep them that way. I am also proud of my husband and his amazing work ethic. He teaches me so much.

What advice would you like to offer other Startup Princesses?

• Believe in yourself.
• Know that you are amazing and groovy and smashing!
• Be able to talk about your business freely and with anyone.
• We like to offer our customers free shipping and codes and deals.
• Favorite Magic Wand (tool/resource)?

I think Twitter is excellent for this type of promotion, but just try and remember that Twitter is a give and take and it is a great place to interact and get to know your customers — not just a place to hawk your wares.

If you could design a tiara, what precious stones would you use? Rubies! Red! Passion!