Meet Sonja Van Erkel Miller

 

We were lucky to catch up with Sonja Van Erkel Miller recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Sonja, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?

I was born into an entrepreneurial family. My father was a serial business owner. The list is long as to what he has done over his years and he only just retired at 93 years young. My mother, his right hand assistant, retired simultaneously at 91. You could call it child labor I suppose but I remember working for the family business even before we left The Netherlands and we left there to emigrate to the United States when I was 11. I was shuffled along on business trips that were half business/half pleasure. I attended more trade shows before the age of 18 than I care to remember and helped organize and run many receptions, registrations, photo shoots, product demos and marketing campaigns before I was even out of college. In my home, you did not rest, resting was for the lazy. I have learned to disagree with this philosophy to a large degree because I believe without the restful times, there won’t be productive times but it does set ones aim to work mode when growing up in an environment that doesn’t believe in idle time.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

I went into business for myself after many years of being a part of the family business with my mother, father and brother. I was at the head of the firm as President when I left but I wasn’t getting any time in my creative side. I graduated from college with a B.A. in Accounting and have always done admin duties extremely well whatever I have worked on but I also have always had a creative side that liked to write, design, create, a side that wasn’t utilized until I went out on my own and started Samantha Grace in 2006. I started creating things that made sense for me on a personal level. I would find things that I would like to have and if I couldn’t find just what I was looking for, I would create it. My Samantha Grace Designs brand was born that way. I had two small children with lots of little toys and a house full of stuff that needed to be organized. Life was too busy personally and professionally not to try to find a few loop holes to simplify. I started creating clear bags so we could find things quicker and the clean up of toys was easier if the kids didn’t have to dump out bags or buckets every time they wanted to play with something. Once I made the first one, it just kind of rolled from there into other sizes and functions. Soon I had clear organizer bags that fit into my handbag, ones that I could travel with, beach totes that I would take on vacation, storage bags for everything from junk drawer items to pen and pencil cases to larger bags to store ribbons, trim, colored papers, coffee pods, you name it, I was organizing it. I love color so I found fun, colorful fabrics and I found a method to laminate the fabrics so they would easily wipe down for cleaning and would be sturdier for toting around. I used the laminate fabric to accent the clear plastic and I developed a full line of clear bags that all closed with a velcro strip across the top. I quickly realized living in the South that people liked their items monogrammed so I bought an embroidery machine and started adding monograms to the top strips of the bags to personalize them. Next I purchased a vinyl machine to do the same on the clear portions of the bags. I was doing all of it out of my garage and had one employee doing all the sewing while I did all the cutting, pattern making and embroidery. Once I took the line to market in Atlanta, the wholesale orders started coming in and before I knew it, it was time to find a bigger space. I lucked out and found a cool space downtown Greenville in the back of a retail building and set it up as a cut/sew operation with a small showroom. I was anxious to sell direct to the public but I didn’t have retail frontage where people could see what we made so I patiently waited until a space opened up in the front of the building and that’s when I mixed my own line of products with 40+ other American manufacturers to create an eclectic gift shop. It wasn’t until a few years later that I added apparel to the mix and now I carry 60+ different brands and I have curated a nice selection of products that beautify and simplify your everyday life. That’s really what my focus was from the beginning, creating and later curating products that make you happy, can make life easier, can put a smile on your face and that make you feel good.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Patience is super difficult to have when all you want to do is be successful but without the patience I don’t believe I would have made it to where I am today. Things don’t happen in a hurry most of the time and sometimes if they do, that can actually be detrimental. My nickname is Myrtle the Turtle and I have been given that by my family because I am the slow one to get out the door, always needing to do one last thing, making sure that all t’s are crossed and i’s are dotted and a little too methodical at times. I have taken that title of turtle and used it in it’s good sense, slow and steady wins the race. It has taken me many more moons than most to attain what I have professionally but it also has not disappeared in the wind like so many other’s businesses have. The slow and steady creates a very secure foundation that is hard to topple.
My family’s business was a manufacturing atmosphere developing products that sold to the wholesale and retail market. As a family we traveled the world in pursuit of the family business and I attended oodles of tradeshows and walked many factory floors so when it came time to bring my own product to market, I was not unfamiliar with how to do so. When it came time to figure out how to manufacture, I had a pretty good grip on how to get it accomplished.
My business has been a journey, ever changing to adapt to what mine and other’s needs are. I listen and learn and soak up information constantly, I pivot when things aren’t working and I am not ashamed to say, wow that was a mistake, let’s go in a different direction. I think that’s very important when you’re in business for yourself. You will never anticipate every obstacle and you can not get too proud of a direction you are going in when it’s not working. You have to roll and dodge and flip around and keep trying different angles. When you think you have it, most likely things will change and you need to rotate again. Go with it, don’t fight it. Flexibility I think is the key to survival.

Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?

My first reaction when I am overwhelmed is generally not a pretty one. Anger, frustration, fear all come into play but I have anxiety and from a young age have battled this and a sense of not feeling good enough. In order to succeed in school, life, parenthood, business, these feelings of inadequacy aren’t welcome and will quickly spiral you in the wrong direction. I have learned to shut them down as early as possible. Sensing the trigger, recognizing that your initial reaction does not have to define the situation, that it’s a circumstance and not a fact, breaking the problem down into smaller sections, breathing, sleeping on it. All of these things combined can help you step outside of yourself and view things from the perimeter so you can better tackle the problems at hand, slow and methodically.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

all photos taken on premises at Samantha Grace by owner Sonja van Erkel Miller

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