Today we’d like to introduce you to Nevena Budakov and Pedja Terzin.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Nevena and Pedja. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
My husband and I moved from Europe to US in 2014 and came straight to San Diego. It was a random pick, but it was also a love at the first sight, and we were so happy to call San Diego our new home. Our love for photography combined with entrepreneurial spirit had lead us to a very unconventional idea – we found a way to print pictures to a very unique medium – wood, which we started selling in Old Town craft market every weekend. It was an amazing experience and we loved every second of it! Our booth at the market was an instant hit – but the more customers and experience we had, the more we started realizing that people preferred something personalized, created exclusively for them.
And that’s when we started taking custom orders – people would send us their photos, we would print them on beautifully crafted pieces of baltic birch plywood, and ship them directly to our customers’ home addresses. Around that time we started exploring other platforms that would help us reach more people – and we discovered Etsy online marketplace in 2015. That discovery has completely changed our lives!
Today, we have one of the top 1% most successful Etsy stores, our products are displayed in over 20,000 homes in America, and we are still creating each piece with the same passion, attention to detail and excitement as on the first day. Our concept has been featured in USA Today Show, BuzFeed, Mashable, etc which tremendously affected our business.
Has it been a smooth road?
As with any other business journey – it wasn’t a smooth road. Not knowing anything about printing, wood-working and online selling, there were a lot of trials and errors. However, we met some incredible people along the way who have helped us to figure things out and we are forever thankful. Our first big season was Father’s Day 2016 – we were buried in orders, working around the clock to make sure everything gets delivered on time when our equipment decided to stop working. Our friend came after midnight straight from his bed to try to help and fix the machines – but we had no luck. We started reaching out to random printing companies looking for last-minute save from a complete disaster, and small business from Riverside actually let us take over their production facility for the whole day, they worked with us restlessly and helped us finish everything, and they didn’t charge us a dime for that! We will never forget this.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with WoodLife Prints – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of and what sets you apart from others.
We specialize in turning the most precious life moments into beautiful wall art – by creating unique prints on wood. We print pictures, text and creative designs on in-house made wooden plaques that are made to last forever. This is a terrific gift product because it’s classy, original and personalized so our customers can say – “this is mine I created it!”. Whether it’s a night sky chart showing stars and constellations on a night of an important life event, picture of a favorite pet, watercolor portrait of one’s first home, or a word-art piece created with the wedding song lyrics – we’ll turn it into a special memento that will be cherished forever.
All of our pieces are created in a facility that is 100% solar-powered, and each project is treated with so much care and attention to detail. We are obsessed with quality, and we communicate with every single customer providing a completely personalized experience from start to finish, which resulted in thousands of excellent and sentimental reviews – making us even more proud of what we’ve made.
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
San Diego has been our American home for five years, and we absolutely loved every moment of living here. It’s gorgeous and it offers a unique combination of everything that a big city can offer and a small-town feel-good vibe when you need to relax and unwind. Unparallel beauty and dear people make it a perfect place to be, period. No matter where we go, every time we return to San Diego we feel so happy that we are back. Due to our business growth, we recently moved to Los Angeles – but constant San Diego visits are never going to stop.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.etsy.com/shop/woodlifeprints
- Email: info@woodlifeprints.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/woodlifeprints/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/woodlifeprints/
- Other: www.woodlifeprints.com
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