Hello! My name is Abby Trussell and I am graduating this semester as a communication student with an emphasis in strategic organization. For my senior project, I rebranded and organized my aunt’s business, The Rustic Schoolhouse.
The Rustic Schoolhouse is a business that my aunt, Amy, owns and runs in her own backyard. She uses Instagram to teach others about gardening, cooking, sewing, preserving food and taking care of chickens. Amy also teaches home economics and homesteading classes to children ages 7-12 years old. Amy believes that living a self-sufficient life leads to a healthier, happier life and she wants to share her knowledge with everyone else.
Project Goal:
In my first meeting with Amy, we discussed her challenges and how I can help her business be more successful. The image below shows Amy’s concerns and challenges and my goals to help her overcome those challenges.
Organizing:
Amy found herself forgetting to respond to messages or even losing client information all together. I wanted to create a tool for her so she would not lose her clients and not forget to respond. I created a document that gave Amy 4 different options of things she could do or use. Amy was already using Notion, so we decided to continue to use that. We also decided to create an Excel spreadsheet for client information. After looking at other options, we decided to pivot away from Excel.
We used Note Form to create a form that people can use to put in their information and then we connected that to a spreadsheet in Notion so Amy can have all the information in the same place.
The images below show the document that I gave Amy, the Note Form and the Notion spreadsheet.
I also created a flow chart that helps her follow the same process every time. There is a key to help her understand what to do if she encounters different situations. With a process in place Amy will have a more organized process which will help her have better time management.
Finally, I created an account for her through Sender, an email automation platform. The reason that I created an email automation account for her is because 90% of Americans use email. This is a great way for her to reach her clients and send newsletters that everyone will receive and look at. I created a step-by-step guide so that Amy can set it up herself when she wants to send an automated email. I also created her first email template that she can use when people subscribe to her newsletter.
Rebranding:
Amy’s original business was called Pantry Preps, however, she felt that this did not encompass her goals and visions anymore. I created a brand kit, came up with a new business name, created a logo, created a business card, created fliers and redid her website. Below are the pictures of all of them.
Here is the link to the website where I updated it, created new pages, and added blog posts.
https://www.therusticschoolhouse.com
Continued Support:
I am going to continue to support and help Amy for the next 3 months. I am also going to take branding photos for her at the beginning of July. She will be able to use these photos for her website, fliers, ads and her posts on Instagram.
Learning Outcomes:
This project has taught me that I love to help others visions and goals come to life. It was such an amazing experience being able to take Amy’s struggles and challenges and turn that into goals and outcomes.
Here is the booklet that will be printed and put at my table to showcase everything that I have created and done for my senior project.
