AUSTIN, Texas — Thanksgiving and Black Friday have come and gone, which now means Small Business Saturday is here.
One small business owner in Austin says the city is the ideal place to run a small business.
Juliet Whitsett moved to Austin 23 years ago, and is an arts and environmental educator, as well as an artist and self-taught graphic designer. She creates and sells graphic design prints of endangered and threatened species in Texas.
“What I want to do, is like create beautiful art that represents some of our biodiversity of Texas, that it kind of spreads the word on our most important species,” Whitsett said.
Whitsett works with scientists and experts to research about the species before she creates the art piece. She also finds and uses the exact color palette of the endangered species for each print.
“I started just reaching out to scientists who, like, dedicate their lives to know about these species, and then they give me the information,” Whitsett said.
On every print, there is a QR code that links to more information about the species. Whitsett also gives back to the community by sending 5% of her profits toward endangered and threatened species.
Running a small business means Whitsett is doing all of this by herself.
“I'm like designing, investigating, doing the social media, doing the sales, doing the packaging, doing everything,” Whitsett said.
Above all though, Whitsett says the support Austinites give to local businesses, makes it easy to run her business here.
“When they find out you’re local, people really want to support each other,” Whitsett said. “Austin is just a really warm and welcoming city, and I think the community is one of the best things about it. That's why I moved here and stayed here for so long.”