November 08, 2019 Behind the Scenes
MINNA Team Retreat 2019
A couple of weeks ago we closed up the shop for a few days and headed across the river for our first ever team retreat. We mapped out what we want to share with you in 2020, the goals we have for ourselves, and discussed the importance of our company values.
By Lucille Corbit
Our first morning started with breakfast around a large wooden table, half of us still in pajamas, and several guesses as to which coffee belonged to which person. We then kicked things off with a complete history of MINNA A-Z.
Sara walked us through her background in graphic design to her early days of self-taught weaving to how she stumbled into starting a textile brand to an extensive flow chart detailing each artisan group we work with now. One of the biggest takeaways from day one was just how many stories we want to share with you, our community, in the coming year.
We were joined by Sara's business advisor, Holly Howard, who lead us in a discussion about factors for this year's growth. Margaret walked us through our budget for 2019, how we've stuck to it, or in some cases, deviated. Holly lead us in a workshop of setting acheivable sales goals for next year.
Next, we tackled marketing, with a worksheet that put our out-of-school brains to the test as we went around the circle sharing our rough drafts and ideas for how to best connect with all of you. One major theme that came up here was community and how we hope to continue to celebrate the many communities we’re lucky enough to be a part of here at MINNA.
On the final day of our retreat, we sat down to take the goals we brainstormed the day before and put them into a (somewhat) concrete timeline. We’re excited for next year and sharing more about our team, our process, and our stories with all of you.
