Meet Claire Drury | Owner of Paper & Bows Wrapping Co.

We had the good fortune of connecting with Claire Drury and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Claire, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
Growing up I was surrounded by an entrepreneurial mindset. As the owner of a successful small business, my dad regularly brought up his business during dinner conversations. Even when I was a kid, I enjoyed activities and games that incorporated this entrepreneurial mindset. The one I liked best involved owning your own clothing store and working with other companies to grow your business. I had always considered becoming an entrepreneur, but it wasn’t until a family member suggested that I seriously considered starting my own business. During the holidays, I would always help my mom wrap Christmas gifts for the family. However, over the years I gradually began to take over the job more and more. I had aunts and uncles shipping their Christmas gifts to my house just for me to wrap them. My family members decided to pay me for wrapping gifts for all occasions after about 3 years. They recommended that I help other families by starting my own business to help them out with their gift wrapping. This idea of starting my own business finally clicked into place when COVID hit. During this time, parents had to take on many roles such as becoming teachers for their children since we were all stuck at home. I understand how stressful the holidays are for parents in general. Therefore, after many months of planning and preparation, on November 7, 2020, I launched Paper & Bows Wrapping Co.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
To ensure our customers get luxury gift wrapping without lifting a finger, Paper & Bows Wrapping Co. was created. Poorly wrapped gifts and long hours of wrapping will no longer be a problem when you take your gift to Paper and Bows Wrapping Company. We will give you luxury gift wrapping for all your gifts. For whatever occasion, Paper and Bows will have coordinating wrapping paper, ribbon, bows, and bags to meet customers’ needs. The company recognizes that celebrating special occasions can be stressful and time-consuming. We will have your gifts delivered straight to your doorstep for free. The only thing customers need to do is drop off their gifts at the given location. Their gifts will be sent to their doorstep beautifully wrapped in a short amount of time. Starting this business was very difficult since I made many of my decisions through trial and error. However, I overcame these challenges by staying consistent and believing that there will be success in the future. After a little over 2 years, my business has grown in terms of customers, followers, profit and the gift-wrapping techniques themselves. As I have learned along the way, owning a business does not necessarily result in a consistent income. There will be busy months and some months where I only have a few orders. However, you must get through the slow months in order to get to the busy, profitable ones. I would love for the world to know that even though I began this business at 15 years old not thinking it would grow this much, I pushed myself outside of my comfort zone and have put many hours into this business in order to make sure my customers get the highest quality wrapping at Paper & Bows Wrapping Co. If there are any people reading this thinking about starting a business and are scared, I want to tell them to take the jump. It is critical for them to start, no matter how frightening it may seem to them. Working hard and taking care of your customers will result in success as long as you make sure they are satisfied.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
In this area, there are so many fun and interesting things to do, and I haven’t explored them all yet. If I were to take a friend around the area our first stop would have to be Marietta Perks to get an iced coffee or iced tea. From there, we would make our way to the Battery Atlanta for some lunch and shopping while we wait until the Braves game starts. Of course, we would have to stop at Jeni’s to get some ice cream. Another thing I would love to do with my friends is climb Kennesaw Mountain and show them the views of the area. A visit to Lake Allatoona is a must! At the lake we could wake surf, wakeboard, tube and standup paddle board from sunrise to sunset while snacking on chips and listening to some music. In my opinion, I love exploring places that are mainly outdoors or have an indoor-outdoor feel in order to appreciate Georgia’s natural beauty and the weather around us.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I would never have thought of starting my own business at such a young age without my business teacher, Jolene Render. During my freshman year of high school, I began taking her marketing class as well as her business class. She inspired me to launch my own business due to her success in owning her own business. During 2020, while I had her class online, we had a day where we had to pick what kind of small business we would want to start as a teen, and it occurred to me that you can start a business at any age. I continued to take her business classes and complete the Entrepreneurship pathway at school in order to gain more knowledge about establishing and running a business. Her entrepreneurial spirit and passion for business inspired me to establish Paper & Bows Wrapping Co. By having her as my role model, she helped me to find my passion for business and entrepreneurship. She is one of the biggest supporters of my business and she truly believes you can do anything you put your mind to. Thank you, Ms. Render, for helping me find my passion and pushing me to achieve more. My business would not be where it is now without her.

Website: https://paperandbowswrappingco.godaddysites.com/

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