Growing beards and a brand with Texas Beard Co. 

- __About Texas Beard Co.:__ Started in February 2014, Texas Beard Company makes high quality, all natural, man-made beard products.
- __How they use stickers:__ With just two types of stickers, they have been able to label their entire product line including beard oil, balm, and wax products. Promotional logo stickers have also been a great tool to spread brand awareness. 
- __Results:__ What started as an experiment is now a busy company adding new products and fulfilling hundreds of orders a day for their happy and bearded customers. 

> I saw an opportunity, did my research, and started creating what became our first two products."

Great entrepreneurs look for opportunity and try to get ahead of the next big thing. And yet, at times, the best ideas are staring you right in the face...or, in this case, on your face. That's how Ryan Olson, a bearded software developer, started and founded Texas Beard Company.

![Texas Beard Co Stickers](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/82e4ca79ccb9972fbc38cb2f547dd744ab083809)

"I saw an opportunity, did my research, and started creating what became our first two products."

Together, owners Ryan, Aaron, Adam, and Shayne (all coworkers and friends) formed Texas Beard Company. Since then, handmade beard care products have become a full-fledged business with thousands of happy customers. As happy Sticker Mule users, we chatted with Ryan about the experience and the company. Here are the lessons he has to share:

Here are his three lessons:

1. Shape your business out of your own needs and expertise 
2. Launch fast and make it yourself
3. Delight & Surprise for Brand Awareness

## Shape your business out of your own needs and expertise 

Except Adam (the "token beardless guy" on the team), Ryan, Aaron and Shayne are their own best customers. They researched different ingredients and their benefits. Next, they tested the formulas on themselves and made changes to what became beard oil and beard balm.

They created the product and formula that Ryan had been looking for on Day 1. Next, they reached out to friends and other coworkers to get their feedback. They gathered comments and feedback on the products' scent and use, and then launched the product line officially.

> It was a bit of an experiment to see if we could move product.

As software developers, Ryan and the guys work by day at an e-commerce software company developing tools and resources that allow other small businesses to launch stores. That experience gave them a huge jumpstart out of the gate and helped them build the store overnight.

"It was a bit of an experiment to see if we could move product. We had the experience building online stores but not running one."

![NightCapBalm](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/db2806de2f55130f078553d94be99d4fe278bd92)

## Launch fast and make it yourself

It can be tempting for new, small businesses to get stuck on the "startup checklist" and delay building the actual business. It’s easy to spend too many hours building a website, creating a logo, branding, finding the best suppliers, and best prices. All are important, but they can drain a business of its momentum if done slowly. Texas Beard Company is a great example of why it’s important to work out of your expertise so that you can move fast and start selling.

Aaron, the artistic one of the bunch, designed a logo that perfectly captured the brand, its products, and its target customers. Next, the team ordered glass droppers and tins. To bring the branding and the product together, they used Sticker Mule to create custom [beard oil stickers](https://www.stickermule.com/uses/beard-oil-stickers "Custom beard oil stickers") to label their beard care products.

Ordering custom stickers and using them as labels gave them the ability to order as needed at the start. From the beginning, the logo and stickers have become a prominent part of the entire production process.
All of the products use the same sticker for labeling. This single use has made it easy to keep branding consistent. Best of all, it has allowed them to save thousands by placing bulk orders for a single design and making reorders quickly.

> It was a creative solution for packaging. We used one sticker for all four uses."

Texas Beard Company has taken "do it yourself" to the extreme. All of the products are handmade by family members out of a home garage and has completely overtaken two rooms of the house. Although it started as a weekend project, making the oils and balms is now a full time job for two people.

At the start, Ryan recalls visiting Farmer's Markets to generate sales and awareness before online sales took over. "It was time consuming, but it was important. Customers were able to smell the scents and try it out. It's a lot easier online though to make sales."

## Delight & surprise for brand awareness

With nearly all sales coming through the online store, Texas Beard Company has found a way to still engage with customers and spread the brand without the in-person connection at a Farmer's Market. "We put promotional logo stickers in with every order. It's a nice surprise for customers when they open up the box."

> Stickers are a nice surprise for customers when they open up the box."

The stickers have helped with brand awareness too. While many customers will naturally tell their friends, some will need your help through stickers, referral credits, or other creative ways. If your product meets a need and creates happy customers — like Texas Beard Company — it's important to make it as easy as possible for them to share their experience. "People put the logo on their [cars](https://www.stickermule.com/uses/car-stickers), [coffee mugs](https://www.stickermule.com/uses/waterproof-stickers), [hard hats](https://www.stickermule.com/uses/hard-hat-stickers), or [laptops](https://www.stickermule.com/uses/laptop-stickers)." The business has expanded beyond Texas and sells in every state and more than 26 countries.

![Beard Oil Stickers](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/e31f92a0425326592137ccedb0b3f72eb5d1d701)

## What's next 

In the past year, the team has created new scents (including a seasonal scent), added mustache wax and other grooming products. As Texas Beard Company grows, so does its customer’s love for the brand. The team is now making t-shirts, trucker hats, and more. While the business continues to grow naturally, Ryan, Adam, Aaron, and Shayne plan to delight customers in new ways and with new products.

There are countless ways to delight _your_ customers and grow your brand using stickers and other custom printed products. Check out more ways Sticker Mule can help your business grow.

<ButtonCta text="100+ ways to use Sticker Mule" href="https://www.stickermule.com/uses?ref=blog" />

Texas Beard Company uses custom stickers to label their entire product line including beard oil, balm, and wax products. 

Announcing custom sticker ideas 

Since the early days of Sticker Mule, we have always been surprised by the creative designs, uses and applications from our customers. Today, we're announcing an effort to capture and display those ideas: [custom sticker ideas](https://www.stickermule.com/uses).

## Why we're excited
From handmade goods to school fundraisers to weddings to building a great company culture, there are endless ways to use custom stickers, magnets, buttons and more.

[![Custom die cut sticker business cards](https://cl.ly/2V2D0p2G0s2V/chop-shop-barber-business-card-stickers-main.jpg "Not so standard business cards")](https://www.stickermule.com/uses)

Over the years we've posted and reposted many customer ideas and photos on [Twitter](http://www.twitter.com/stickermule/) and [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/stickermule/). However, these images and ideas are lost to the noise on social channels.

So we've collected 100+ of the most popular ways to use custom stickers, magnets, buttons and more to inspire you to make your own custom printed products.

[Check out the ideas here](https://www.stickermule.com/uses).

## Share your idea
We also want to provide an opportunity for the best ideas to come forward and inspire others.

We've published stories on our blog that explore how customers in different industries are using their [stickers to market a business](https://www.stickermule.com/uses), [label products](https://www.stickermule.com/uses), [drive traffic to a site](https://www.stickermule.com/uses), or [raise money for a Kickstarter project](https://www.stickermule.com/uses). In the coming months, we'll be featuring more stories from customers.

[![Texas Beard Co Story](https://cl.ly/0F2S0g3s0K1n/BeardOil4x.jpg "Growing beards and a brand with Texas Beard Co.")](https://www.stickermule.com/uses)

So if you've used your Sticker Mule products in a unique way, let us know and we'll share them with the community. 

Take a look at [the 100+ ideas featured here](https://www.stickermule.com/uses) and then [share your own idea](https://stickermule.canny.io/products) with us.

[![](https://cl.ly/3I06350X0z31/ideas-blog-gallery.png)](https://www.stickermule.com/uses)

<ButtonCta text="Share your idea with us" href="https://www.stickermule.com/support/contact?ref=blog" />


See 100+ ways to use custom stickers, magnets, buttons and more.

Introducing automatic discounts 

Sticker Mule aims to be the fastest and easiest way to buy custom stickers. That's why we're announcing a new feature that we quietly released six months ago: [automatic discounts](https://www.stickermule.com/automatic-discounts).

It's common to not know your exact sticker size when ordering. Automatic discounts saves you time and money by automatically determining your correct size during proofing.

Now you can quickly choose an approximate size, upload artwork and always get the right price based on your exact size.

<WistiaVideo videoKey="automatic_discounts" />


### Save money
Since launching automatic discounts, more than 80% of [die cut sticker](https://www.stickermule.com/products/die-cut-stickers) customers have saved on their orders. Often the difference is minor, but sometimes it's substantial.

For example, you might order a 3" x 3" sticker that is really 3" x 2.3". We automatically identify the difference and lower your price. Since we don't charge you until proof approval, the price you pay is based on the final size identified during proofing.

### Save time
Don't waste time determining your exact size. Order the closest size you can guess and we'll figure it out. This is especially helpful when ordering large stickers like [floor](https://www.stickermule.com/products/floor-graphics) and [wall graphics](https://www.stickermule.com/products/wall-graphics) where you might have a desired width but not the height of your design.

You can simply order the largest square your design fits within and we'll determine both dimensions. For example, if you want a 48" wide wall graphic, you can order 48" x 48" and we'll determine the correct height and update your price. This works well to help you order smaller stickers faster too.

### Try automatic discounts
Don't waste time figuring out your exact size ever again. [Automatic discounts](https://www.stickermule.com/automatic-discounts) is a Sticker Mule exclusive that we're incredibly excited about. 

Try it by [ordering an approximate size](https://www.stickermule.com/custom-stickers) and let us know what you think.

Automatic discounts saves you time and money by automatically determining your correct size during proofing. 

Dribbble global meetup sponsor 

With hundreds of meetups happening around the world in 2016, Dribbble's online community of designers is fast becoming one of the best offline communities for designers too. [Dribbble](https://dribbble.com/) is a place to show and tell, promote, discover, and explore design. It's a community that [Sticker Mule](https://www.stickermule.com) has been a part of for years.

Sticker Mule and Dribbble both started in 2010. We've had a great relationship with the team, located in Salem, MA, from the start. Dribbble has become more than just a social network to us—it's become our favorite community to engage with and be a part of. Here's what Dave, our lead designer, said,

> Dribbble is the single most important social network for anyone that cares about design. It’s done more to help us build our team and brand than Facebook, Twitter and Instagram combined.

## 2016 Global meetup sponsor

This year we decided to make our "relationship" with Dribbble official by sponsoring [hundreds of meetups](https://dribbble.com/meetups) in cities like Toronto, New Delhi, Los Angeles, London, Mexico City and more.

As an official partner along with [InVision](https://www.invisionapp.com), we're sending meetup kits to cities around the world. The kits include branded Sticker Mule and Dribbble stickers (including our newest product [transfer stickers](https://www.stickermule.com/products/transfer-stickers)), sample stickers, and [Sticker Mule gift cards](https://www.stickermule.com/products/gift-cards).

## Kicking it off

Last month, [we kicked off the partnership](https://dribbble.com/stories/2016/01/26/global-meetup-sponsor-sticker-mule) with what became a Legendary Playoff shot ["Free Custom Stickers for Everyone"](https://dribbble.com/shots/2483034-Free-Custom-Stickers-For-Everyone). The shot was viewed more than 14,000 times, rebounded over 600 and received a record breaking 1,553 likes. Although the deal has ended, we have much more in store for the design and Dribbble community.

## What's next

In addition to sponsoring global meetups, we plan to continue the monthly playoffs we began mid-2015. With a theme and unique prizes for winners, each playoff presents a unique opportunity for Dribbblers to see their design in real life as a sticker or a [button](https://www.stickermule.com/custom-buttons).

[Visit us on Dribbble](https://dribbble.com/stickermule) to see past playoffs, upcoming deals, and new shots!


We're sponsoring Dribbble meetups all over the world with meetup kits, stickers, and more. 

The Sticker Mule guide to Asana 

![The Sticker Mule Guide to Asana](https://s3.amazonaws.com/assets.stickermule.com/blog/2016-02-12-the-remote-team-guide-to-asana/sticker-mule-guide-to-asana.png "The Sticker Mule Guide to Asana")

[Asana](https://asana.com/) is Sticker Mule's task management platform. We use it to create, track, assign, discuss and complete every task that isn't managed by a specialized system. Asana is flexible and feature rich which makes it intimidating at first. There's no definite way to use Asana correctly. To get full value requires upfront effort and a willingness to agree on conventions to standardize use.

We wrote this guide to explain how we use Asana at Sticker Mule. We designed it as a reference for our team and have published it for other teams that may find it useful.

##How we organize tasks in Asana
Asana encourages you to create teams of people that manage projects comprised of tasks and subtasks. We generally do not use it in this manner because most of our projects are small. It doesn't make sense for us to create hundreds of projects so we redefined Asana's conventions to categorize our work.

> It doesn't make sense for us to create hundreds of projects so we redefined Asana's conventions to categorize our work.

We use teams to create top level categories and projects to create subcategories. A task within a project (i.e. subcategory) can be a discrete task or a project that's organized using subtasks. Occasionally, we use Asana projects to track actual projects too. Our top level categories, which are setup as teams, are:

### Product design
The product design team categorizes improvements to our product (i.e. web site & related apps) by placing them in categories (via projects) for each functional area (i.e. cart, checkout, reorders, reviews, etc.). 

Periodically, we prioritize tasks within each functional area (i.e. project) using section headings to sort tasks by priority. When we start work on a particular area, we can quickly scan a list of related improvements sorted by priority. For example, if a developer is working on the cart, they may look at the cart project to quickly grab a few extra tasks to complete.

### Development
The development team categorizes development work by creating projects to track: defects, rough edges, high priority tasks and our roadmap. The roadmap provides a high level overview of the main improvements we intend to make. 

We also stay focused by using a "rough edges" project to categorize non-critical improvements that won't be noticeable by most users. Most "rough edges" are rather easy fixes and our team will tackle a few in between pursuing more substantial projects. 

Finally, we will sometimes create projects to track actual projects our dev team is pursuing if they are substantial in size.

### Operations
The operations team organizes work that's related to operational improvements. Since most operations projects are substantial, we use Asana projects within this team to track actual projects. The projects are roughly sorted by priority from top to bottom so anyone can monitor them. 

Additionally, we have a catch all project called "Ops ideas" that tracks ideas that may lead to operational improvements. Anyone is free to post an idea to the "Ops ideas" project. If a task within that project is green-lit, and seems substantial, we may convert it to an actual project.

### Marketing
The marketing team includes projects that categorize work by functional area (i.e. email, advertising, content, conversion, launches, etc.). Within each project we use section headings to sort tasks by priority. Additionally, we have a "Marketing ideas" that tracks tasks which don't fit into an existing category. 

Ideally, one person would own each area, but our team is still small so most people oversee a few areas.

### Customer Service
The customer service team includes a "CS ideas" project that tracks tasks that lead to customer service improvements, a "FAQs" project that tracks FAQs we need to create or revise and a "Rush" project that tracks orders which must ship early. 

Anything posted to the "CS ideas" project is intended to have 2 specific results: improve customer service efficiency or reduce the need for customers to request help.

### Human Resources
The human resources team includes a "Positions" project that tracks all open & potential positions. We use subtasks within each position to track additional tasks that need to be performed to fill the position (i.e. post ads, create job description, etc). 

We also have an "Onboarding & Training" project where we create tasks to represent each new hire and subtasks that reflect the onboarding and training tasks for that person.

## Asana tips & tricks

### Task naming conventions
1. Start task names with verbs (i.e. Consider, Send, Fix, Add, Design, Implement, Order)
2. Use sentence case. It's Easier To Read.
3. Be concise.

#### Example task names:
1. Consider using Google Tag Manager
2. Redesign invoice PDF
3. Design custom labels early access landing page
4. Implement custom labels early access landing page
5. Fix issue with address validator presenting identical addresses
6. Send email announcing custom labels
7. Order new chairs for the office.

### How to write a good task description
1. Use headings to give structure to a task description (CMD + B to bold)
2. Include screenshots & screencasts whenever possible using [Cloudapp](https://www.getcloudapp.com/)
3. Be concise and comprehensive. Needless words waste an assignee's time but so does making them ask for clarification.

### Turn off email
To speed up Asana adoption we encourage everyone to turn off email notifications to get used to relying on the Asana inbox.

### Assign tasks during onboarding
We give everyone Asana tasks as part of their onboarding so they start using the platform immediately. Example onboarding tasks we'll assign include "Place a free order using store credit", "Review and sign company handbook", and "Turn off email notifications in Asana".

> We give everyone Asana tasks as part of their onboarding so they start using the platform immediately.

### Use today, upcoming and later
Asana lets you organize your personal task list by putting tasks in either today (Tab+Y), upcoming (Tab+U) or later (Tab+L). Generally, we put current tasks in "today" even if they're not to be done today and use "upcoming" to track pending tasks. "Later" tracks tasks we might do.

### Projects aren't required
It's helpful to categorize work using projects but don't agonize trying to find the correct project for every task. The important thing is to create tasks, assign them to the proper person and notify the relevant people using the followers feature.

### Tasks can belong to multiple projects
We often put tasks in multiple projects. Most team members only care about a limited set of projects (i.e. task categories). To better coordinate, we sometimes categorize task in multiple projects so that relevant people can quickly view them. For example, a task could be in the "CS ideas" and "Checkout" project if it's both a benefit to our CS team and related to our checkout.

### Use Tab+Q
We encourage everyone to create tasks using the "Tab + Q" keyboard shortcut. It speeds up the task creation and helps you quickly put all of your tasks in Asana.

### Encourage task creation via other channels
We encourage each other to create tasks Asana when they're identified via another channel (i.e. in person or Slack). Usually, this is as simple as saying "Can you make a task in Asana and assign it to (me, yourself, another person)". This is especially important with new team members so that using Asana becomes habit forming quickly.

### Copy & paste templates
Asana's [templates feature](https://asana.com/guide/team/advanced/save-time-in-asana) is imperfect so we maintain our templates in a Google Doc. Often we'll post templates to a project description for quick access. For example, our "Onboarding and training" project includes a template of common onboarding tasks. A team members can copy & paste this list of tasks to create subtasks that need to be completed to onboard a new hire.

Hopefully Asana builds a real templating engine to make it easy to manage lists of re-usable tasks that can be added as subtasks to existing tasks or as tasks to projects.

> It's common for new team members to embrace Asana reluctantly only to become emphatic proponents within a few weeks.

## Concluding remarks
Since Asana is more complex than other task management platforms, it's common for new team members to embrace it reluctantly only to become emphatic proponents within a few weeks. Without Asana, and our conventions for using it, we wouldn't be able to gracefully coordinate and grow a remote team. 

While Asana is a big help, it can just as easily become a big mess without care to keep it well organized. As we continue to grow and launch new products (like [custom magnets](https://www.stickermule.com/products/custom-magnets)), our documentation and conventions will continue evolving. 

Our team works extraordinarily well together not just because we share the same tools, but because we share a similar perspective on work. We all tend to be [humble, independent, logical, thoughtful and autodidactic](https://www.stickermule.com/blog/characteristics-we-look-for-in-team-members). 

If you have these characteristics too, [we're hiring](https://www.stickermule.com/careers?ref=blog).


Although there's no definite way to use Asana correctly, Sticker Mule shows how it organizes and grows its remote team with the platform. 

Pour your own beer with iPourIt 

- __About iPourIt:__ iPourIt is a unique patented technology that allows customers to pour their own beer. The system consists of a management workstation, meter, valve, iPourIt board, RFID wristbands and RFID readers. Pubs and their customers can sell and order their beer by the ounce.
- __How they use stickers:__ They use stickers to create custom branded RFID wristbands for their clients. It's been a fast and easy way to make clients happy with extra service and a unique look.
- __Results:__ As the company grows, it has been able to offer its growing client list the ability to make the iPourIt system their own.

iPourIt is a self-serve beer and wine company. They use RFID (radio frequency identification) wristbands and cards to activate beer taps to let the patrons pour their own beer (and then add it to their tab automatically). Today, more than one million ounces of beer go through the system per month at pubs, bars and breweries around the U.S.

Despite the explosive growth of microbreweries and beer gardens across the U.S., beer drinking is still very much a simple activity—and it’s gone unchanged for centuries. 

It’s quite fitting, actually, that the unchanging, monotonous way we drink beer is what inspired Brett Jones to question the very way we all pour and drink beer. In 2011, Brett was at a restaurant for a playoff game that gave him an idea. 

"It took 15 minutes to find out the beer I wanted wasn’t available… then 15 more minutes to get a terrible beer... and finally another 15 more minutes to get the right one."

Out of frustration Brett told his friend, "It’d be nice to be able to pour my own. Why can’t I pour my own?"

The answer to that question was the start of iPourIt — a patented technology that allows customers to pour their own beer.

> It’d be nice to be able to pour my own. Why can’t I pour my own?"

![Pouring beer with custom stickers on RFID wristbands](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/243cabd2bad254a970c7b0388b940fa93e88b536)

And it’s not surprising that his background in technology is providing the solution.That terrible experience at the pub disrupted his twenty year career in I.T. as a software developer on network and system integrations, and sent him headlong. 

Brett spent six months developing the system and took another six months to sign his first client. The technology took another year to develop fully before it became a full fledged company, with a sales staff, etc, etc.

In the early days, each RFID wristband had a screen printed iPourIt logo. Brett and his team soon kept getting feedback from their clients who wanted to have their own logo on the wristbands. 

> Clients really wanted their own branding.”

It was difficult to make a two-color screen printed logo for most clients and the result was low-resolution at best. iPourIt found that it was better (and saved money) to order blank wristbands and then order custom stickers with each client's logo. More importantly, the quality of each sticker was high-resolution and full color, allowing the team to make the wristbands for any client. Clients then apply a sticker to each wristband once.

"It's a wet environment. And the custom stickers from Sticker Mule hold up great. We have clients that have been using them for almost two years and they still look great."

![Man using RFID bracelet to pour his beer](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/ecc7eb4680d1fba6643f8cc10202d755ba6c6a77)

Sticker Mule’s die cut stickers are made with a thick, durable vinyl with a UV laminate that protects from scratching, water and sunlight.

> Before we made clients use a template, but now we let the client do the work and send it to Sticker Mule."

Five years on, iPourIt Inc. has raised more than $2,000,000, pours over a million ounces every month through its system and has more than 50 clients at pubs, breweries and yard houses around the country.

## 3 reasons iPourIt chooses Sticker Mule

Ordering [custom samples](https://www.stickermule.com/samples) in small numbers of stickers has been helpful to smaller clients or to show a client how their wristbands would appear before installing a system. 

And for larger clients with many taps and customers, [buying in bulk](https://www.stickermule.com/support/can-you-provide-a-discount-for-a-bulk-order) has made it cost-effective to brand their wristbands. 

Sticker Mule's [reorder feature](https://www.stickermule.com/reorder) has also helped larger franchise clients as well. With reorder sharing and a faster turnaround, reordering has made the process of adding more wristbands fast and easy.

Beer drinkers love iPourIt because it describes each brew on a display, makes it easy to pour just a few ounces from each tap, and the ability to later rate and track what was poured. 

![Smart bar tending with an ipourit display system](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/29d1533b68befa97501469db24332b6ffaca944a)

But the clients love it too. Besides being able to brand it themselves, bars, breweries, and restaurants have benefited from the data that iPourIt generates. They can easily see which brews are most popular and use definite metrics to prove what is in or out of season. 

Recently, Brett and the team have developed the ability to allow restaurants and breweries to allow customers to reserve a pint of beer in advance. 

For example, if a restaurant brings in a very rare brew once a year. iPourIt’s client can email their customers that describes the brew and a link to reserve their ounces or pints.

"It’s a big improvement over waiting in line hoping that you’ll get a pint before the keg runs dry. With our system, no one can take their reservation."

At the heart of iPourIt is the answer to Brett’s original question, "Why can’t I do it myself?"

## Do it your way

Want to make your own custom stickers, labels, magnets or buttons? Get started with $10 credit when you create your account. 

With custom samples, multiple design discounts and fast, free shipping, you'll have your own custom products before you know it.

<ButtonCta text="100+ ways to use Sticker Mule" href="https://www.stickermule.com/uses?ref=blog" />

iPourIt is a unique patented technology that allows customers to pour their own beer. They use stickers to create custom branded RFID wristbands. 

Planting the future with GDCC 

- __About Green Dream Clothing Co.:__ A lifestyle brand that plants a tree for every article of clothing sold, Green Dream is "bridging the gap between inner city and country club lifestyles."
- __How they use stickers:__ Stickers are used to promote the brand, be sold online, and for student ambassadors to get the word out on college campuses. Stickers are also used in  packaging and on boxes.
- __Results:__ Stickers have been an easy, cost effective way to do marketing and promote the vision. The stickers have been effective on college campuses (like CU Boulder) and allow millennials to engage with the brand in a meaningful way. 

College graduates often grapple with the seemingly binary decision to either "do good or make cash." A 2014 graduate from Indiana University at Bloomington, Adam Swartz has chosen his own path: doing good by launching a lifestyle brand that is as cool as it is eco-centered.

With a slick logo, cool tees and strapback hats, the style of Green Dream speaks for itself. Beneath the look, the upstart brand and vision is far bigger: a greener future.

![Green Dream clothing company uses custom stickers to promote their brand](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/573bb2a740d99914e37f34d36b061585a07bda27)

When I chat with Adam on the phone for the first time to talk about how he uses stickers in his business, it's clear that he's passionate about that vision — and he's rooted it in thoughtful intentionality.

"My generation is interested in causes that matter — we're into a better environment. It's not an afterthought or an added bonus— we all care about the environment deeply from the start."

For every article of clothing (or pack of stickers) sold a tree is planted. Green Dream partnered with Plant-it 2020, a nonprofit foundation that performs worldwide tree-planting and more, to make it happen. "It's easy to latch onto the GDCC brand ‘cause there is a genuine interest in a sustainable future."

![How to use stickers to promote your brand in public](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/88d002e8570b9945ac7c156cecd9d11b9f8a7c60)

On the business side, Adam is getting the word out about Green Dream using branded custom stickers.

> It's a cheaper way to do marketing and promote the message.

After graduating, he moved from Indiana to the eco-friendly and all around great city of Boulder home of CU Boulder -- Colorado's largest college campus.  He's found college students to be great ambassadors for the brand and spreading the message. 

> Students know the stickers — they've seen them around.

Adam's student ambassadors or his "The Street Team" carry stickers with them around campus at all times. "It's a cheaper way to do marketing and promote the message." They'll give away free stickers to students who proudly stick them on their [laptop](https://www.stickermule.com/uses/laptop-stickers), [phone](https://www.stickermule.com/uses/phone-stickers), or [cars](https://www.stickermule.com/uses/car-stickers) — anywhere that is seen every day by others. 

"The street team always gets great feedback. Students know the stickers — they've seen them around. When someone says, ‘Ah, I love that sticker' an ambassador can give them one right then and there."

The stickers vary from pure marketing to promoting green messages ("Plant Trees") to inspirational words ("Good Vibes Only" and "Dream Louder").

Every sticker features Green Dream's memorable logo, an upside down umbrella — which is full of its own meaning, "Unlike an umbrella that blocks out rain, wind, or hail, our umbrella is flipped upside down allowing for these experiences and thoughts to fall in and help shape who we are, what we dream of, and where we dream of going."

Beyond the street team and word of mouth marketing, Adam's logo stickers are an important part of the customer experience. In keeping with his eco-centric and sustainable mission, old boxes are reused and given a new look with die cut stickers fixed on the outside. And after they've opened their box, inside they'll find a Plant Trees sticker Adam used to secure the tissue wrapping paper. 

![Use stickers to to close wrapping paper](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/b1fcc7e0be73894542e439c183173069ca24ffd5)

After that package is received, the stickers frequently are spotted on social media, on street signs around the country. 

"Friends are always sending me pictures whether it be from London or my old college campus. The support is real."

Stickers have also been a [product in and of themselves](http://www.greendreamcloco.com/shop-1/stickers). Every sticker pack sold also plants a tree — and seeds for the brand to continue to grow.

There are countless ways to promote your own clothing company, product, or brand using stickers. Check out more ways Sticker Mule can help your business grow.

<ButtonCta text="100+ ways to use Sticker Mule" href="https://www.stickermule.com/uses" />

How to use custom stickers to do good, promote a greener future, and grow a clothing business. 

El Cambio grabs attention with circle stickers 

* __About El Cambio:__ El Cambio Trading Co. is a sustainable clothing company, whose mission is to promote art, charity and sustainability through fashion. 
* __How they use stickers:__ They used stickers to get the word out about the company before formally launching a new website and brand.  
* __Results:__ Within a few months, Alex turned his Etsy store into a known brand with a social media presence.

> I always carry our logo stickers around with me."

What is the best way to start a clothing company? 

For two college students, the answer is simple; do it while studying, traveling the world, with a partner that you’ve never met in person, and with a mission that goes beyond the clothing.

Alex began selling his hand drawn designs and tanks through an Etsy store. After selling out of all of the designs, he decided to make it into a company. Through a friend, he found Sami and asked her to help with his social media presence and to create an online shop.

Without investors or startup cash, they were looking for a way to grab attention for the new company. He wanted to start right away without paying for a large advertising campaign.

![how ElCambio turned its Etsy store into a brand](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/42218b2c426bb52b53256567556c210cf25ea767)

## Getting the word out (without going broke)

Alex and Sami realized that the answer was staring them right in the face. The best way to get the word out was to make it easy for their friends, family, and even strangers to connect with the brand and tell others about it.

They wanted something that was easy to give out, inexpensive, and could be seen by lots of new people.

> It was our version of a business card! We'd hand them out to friends, people we met, anyone that asked about the design.

After designing a new logo from scratch, Alex and Sami put their logo on circle stickers.

Before launching the new website, they were handing out El Cambio Trading Company stickers, placing them around the world, and giving them to friends.

"We ordered our stickers from Sticker Mule before we ever bought business cards," says Sami. "In fact, it was our version of a business card! We’d hand them out to friends, people we met, anyone that asked about the design."

People loved the stickers and started spreading the word by snapping pictures of the stickers and tagging it with #ECTC. Soon, the stickers were showing up all over social media with photos of the stickers on [water bottles](https://www.stickermule.com/uses/water-bottle-labels), [laptops](https://www.stickermule.com/uses/laptop-stickers), lightposts, and more.

Each sticker, photo, mention, and hashtag helped Alex and Sami launch their new clothing company.

## Generating conversations and sales

With word spreading, El Cambio started selling their unique tanks online through their new website.

To drive referrals and sales, each order gets a few stickers inside the box. El Cambio also uses their stickers as tape to get all of the packaging together. From the wrapping of the tank, to the outside of the package, their message goes everywhere the packaging goes. The stickers added the benefit of giving people confidence in El Cambio as an established company. 

> The reality is you only wear a shirt once in awhile but if you put a sticker on something you use every day it gets in front of more people and generates conversations.

Although giving away something free helps spread word about your business, it can be tough to give away the actual product for free.

Handing out stickers with a logo is a great way to leave customers (and future customers) with something of value without breaking the bank. "I always carry our [logo stickers](https://www.stickermule.com/uses/logo-stickers) around with me," says Sami. "They are in my bag right now! When people ask what I do, I simply grab one and say, 'Here’s a sticker, check it out!'"

## A global idea localized

These two college students launched their clothing company. But, it is much more than cool designs on tank tops, El Cambio Trading Company is a sustainable clothing company whose mission is to promote art, charity, and sustainability through fashion.

Started by Alex Kinczel in 2014 , each El Cambio design represents a different international charity and has been inspired by Alex’s years traveling the globe with his school LIU Global. 10% of the profit from each sale is donated to the charity represented by the design. “We believe that businesses have the responsibility not to exploit, but to give back to the earth and those who we work with,” says Alex.

Currently, Alex and Sami sell their tanks online, but they’ve found success selling the shirts on the ground as well at festivals and markets.

Anyone that stops by gets a free sample of their logo as a sticker or button. Giving visitors something to take with them is an easy way to help someone who is interested but not ready to buy right away. They ask visitors to take the sticker, put it on something they own, and then tell people about it if they ask.

## What's next

As the business grows and graduation looms, Alex and Sami plan to keep using stickers to grow and grab more attention as they look into growing their business into brick-and-mortar spaces and other online stores.

Their plan is to sell new designs as stickers and to use them in a photo contest to generate more interest through word of mouth and social media.

There are countless ways to promote your own clothing company, product, or brand using stickers. Check out more ways Sticker Mule can help you grab attention.

<ButtonCta text="100+ ways to use Sticker Mule" href="https://www.stickermule.com/uses?ref=blog" />

Within a few months Alex turned his Etsy store into a known brand with a social media presence using circle stickers.

Sticker Mule goes to Italy

Today we officially launched [Sticker Mule Italy](https://www.stickermule.com/it) so it seemed fitting to explain how we got here. 5 years ago when we started Sticker Mule our vision didn’t reach beyond the United States. International business is complicated and we were a small startup. We thought it best to focus on growing at home and set out telling everyone we could about Sticker Mule. 

Our background made us inclined to engage with designers and developers so we tried our best to befriend these communities. It didn't take long to realize that that the Internet is international and many of the best developers and designers live outside the United States. 

To properly engage these communities we needed to ship internationally at a minimum. So, early on, we contacted UPS to get rates, added international ship methods to our web site and naively thought we were done. Shortly thereafter, the complaints came in: "my order is stuck in customs" "my order is late" "I got hit with an unexpected $80 charge to clear customs." It turns out selling internationally isn't as simple as adding international ship methods to your web site. 

We eventually developed our roadmap on [how to become an international ecommerce business](https://www.stickermule.com/blog/building-international-ecommerce-company). This guided our progress as we quietly made numerous improvements to help our international customers including:

1. Shipping worldwide quickly and with tracking. 
2. Ensuring orders clear customs without problems.
3. Eliminating import duties (we pay them for you).
4. Reducing shipping costs worldwide.
5. Introducing free shipping to Western Europe.
6. Supporting the metric system.
7. Supporting the Euro.

Along the way, our team grew to become international as well. More than 50% of our core team lives outside the United States. [David North](https://twitter.com/davidnorth) has been with us since our inception and lives in England. 

[Brian Quinn](https://twitter.com/bdq) works out of Ireland. [Lucas Húngaro](https://twitter.com/lucashungaro) is in Brazil. And, [Andrea Giannangelo](https://twitter.com/Facens) & [Stefano Di Luca](https://twitter.com/pennadl) are in Italy. Already, we've seen tremendous growth internationally, year over year we grow faster abroad than in our home country and that will accelerate as we execute our roadmap. 

If it seems as though we stumbled into becoming international that's because we did. We didn’t plan to have an international team or sell internationally. Our sole intention was to build an amazing customer experience and it turns out expanding beyond the U.S. and hiring the best people in the world were necessary to pursue that goal. 

Admittedly, we even stumbled into starting our international expansion in Italy. One night, I came across the [Unixstickers](https://www.stickermule.com/unixstickers) website and started a live chat session with Stefano Di Luca who happened to be Italian. You don’t have to chat for long with Stefano to realize you would love to work with him so we kept in touch. 

Eventually he introduced us to his partner Andrea Giannangelo who also left an amazing impression on us. We immediately knew we wanted Andrea & Stefano on our team and I’d like to think they knew right away they’d enjoy working with us. A few months later Sticker Mule Italy was born. We haven’t decided what country we’re headed to next, but if you’re interested in being a part of our journey [we’re hiring](https://www.stickermule.com/careers "Sticker Mule careers"). :-)

We recently launched an Italian version of our website. Here's a brief overview of how we stumbled into the Italian market. 

Introducing wall graphics 

Today, we’re introducing [custom wall graphics](https://www.stickermule.com/products/wall-graphics). Our wall graphics (commonly known as wall decals, wall stickers, or wall art stickers) are an easy way to add style and decor to businesses, offices, homes, kid’s bedrooms and nurseries, and more.

<YouTubeVideo videoId="eDCFI9Mie4o?rel=0" />

Sticker Mule’s vinyl wall graphics are made from a special self-adhesive fabric that looks awesome and won't damage your walls. They are designed to adhere to drywall (a standard painted wall), laminated wood, glass and other smooth surfaces. You can remove them easily from most wall and painted surfaces without causing damage.

Colors appear bright on a matte fabric-like textured finish that diffuses light and matches the texture of your wall

![Grand Bycycle Center Wall Graphic](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/3aa979df95ed2462f459cce1f98ad8a3fc8ed6fd)

## Ordering your wall graphic
Every wall graphic is completely custom. You can upload your own high-resolution photography, an artistic reproduction, a company logo, football team logo, or an image of your favorite Star Wars character. Simply pick an approximate size and we will adjust your pricing to match the exact size.

For example, if you want a large wall decal that is 4 feet tall but don’t know the width, simply enter 48” x 48.” Our proofing team will update the size and the price during our free proofing stage using our [automatic discount](https://www.stickermule.com/automatic-discounts) feature.

Next, upload your artwork. Although it is best to upload a high resolution or vector image, you can upload any artwork and we’ll work with you. 

Within 4 hours you’ll have a free digital proof that you can approve online or request changes to. Once approved, we’ll begin production and ship your wall graphics to you in a sturdy mailing tube that protects your wall graphic.

![Famebit Wall Graphic](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/7b3097f7115e3992bea5dc2ba79076b5b0d69180)

## Installing your wall graphic
<WistiaVideo videoId="soj8h3a3s0" />

Sticker Mule’s wall graphics are easy to install. We include printed instructions with every order and can be done in a matter of minutes. We recommend cleaning the surface and letting it dry before you start. It can also be a bit easier to install your wall decal if you have help from a friend or coworker. 

Although our wall graphics are designed to be single use only, they can be removed and reapplied during installation. After the initial installation you should not expect to move and re-use them at a later date.

Follow these [instructions for vertical wall graphics](https://p-pnf75vn.b0.n0.cdn.getcloudapp.com/items/12u7LJ10/93ff8e42-7240-4c06-b3b7-87d0ab603622.pdf?v=9a3b65c9438bbfb38684009d9677339d) (taller than it is wide).
![Ember Wall Graphic How-to-install](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/2b5e668d48e78df715a7874a69e8182e822be20b)

Follow these [instructions for horizontal wall graphics](https://p-pnf75vn.b0.n0.cdn.getcloudapp.com/items/Kou9jrW0/aa23df35-aefb-46c8-94c9-e5e44835958b.pdf?v=8927d5b6a3a767c3d675abf98aa140bf) (wider than it is tall).
![Docker-Wall Graphic Horizontal How-to-install](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/5b6c49c81bae264bcc48e37aed65ec9fa65ca436)

When you’re ready, place your [wall graphic order here](https://www.stickermule.com/products/wall-graphics). If you have questions read our [wall graphic FAQs](https://www.stickermule.com/support/wall-graphics) or [contact us](https://www.stickermule.com/support/contact). 



Our custom wall graphics are an easy way to add style and decor to businesses, offices, homes, kid’s bedrooms and nurseries, and more. 

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