Yesterday, my family and I had a great reminder of the value of entrepreneurship. For Mother's Day, in addition to a nice day at the beach, my kids and I gave my wife a wooden jigsaw puzzle showing a picture of the three of them. She absolutely loved it, and spent the morning and evening putting it together with our kids. It's like no other puzzle we've put together before - each piece is very unique in size and shape, and is incredibly durable, being built out of 5 layers of thin wood.
So what does this have to do with entrepreneurship? Well, for years, we've also used services like Shutterfly to create photo albums, calendars, and even an occasional puzzle based on pictures of the kids. These have been holiday and gift staples within our family. But in the case of the standard Shutterfly puzzles, they tend to be the traditional cardboard variety - great the first time you use them, but easily damaged over time.
But the puzzle we put together yesterday was so much better, will last so much longer, and is guaranteed to be unique because it's hand-cut. This it the kind of product that would be nearly impossible for a larger company like Shutterfly to provide. Based on how it is created, it is by definition something that lends itself well to an individual artisan. And in this case, Katie from iPuzzleU.com has created quite a nice little business for herself by creating incredibly cool gift items for just about any occasion. By the way, check out this video of the cutting process - it's awfully cool.
So if you're ever at a loss for a really cool gift idea, check out iPuzzleU.com for some amazing handiwork and exceptional service. You'll end up looking even more thoughtful than usual.
In case you're wondering, we heard about Katie when she started using Outright.com for her business, which both inspires us and makes us a little proud.
Outright is secure.