Small business takes off during pandemic

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    Columbus, NE (The Columbus Telegram) — The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a toll on the economy, but business has been booming for one Columbus native’s handmade crafts business.

Through her business, DoorBadges, Amy Hanna sells handmade, hand-painted, hand-lettered wooden door hangers for “every season and occasion.” It’s Amy’s business, but it’s a full-scale family operation.

Amy Hanna was born and raised in Columbus. She now lives in Omaha with her husband and their three children, but Amy’s parents still live at home in Columbus. Each member of the family is involved with DoorBadges at a different step along the production process. The wooden door hangers begin life in Columbus, are shipped from Omaha and eventually make their way to customers from around the United States.

DoorBadges started in late 2017. Before the pandemic, Amy said she averaged about 35 orders monthly, with variation depending on the time of year. Since the pandemic started, she said that number has doubled. Many people are ordering for seasonal decorations, she said.

“I’m getting more orders now for, let’s say, Christmas. It’s six months away but I think people have more time to be online and to sit and think and plan ahead now than they did in previous years. So I’m seeing an uptick in seasonal items that are further away than I did in past years,” Amy said.

DoorBadges started with Amy cutting out logos to fundraise for the basketball team at Westside High School in Omaha, where her twin 17-year-old daughters attend.

“Then people said, ‘Well can you do this?’ And I said, ‘Yes I can,’ and that’s how it just kind of grew,” Amy said.

In the beginning, Amy and her husband, Terry Hanna, cut the door hangers by hand with jigsaws. When demand began to outpace that workflow, Amy brought her dad, Lavern Krings, on board.

“My dad has always been very good at carpentry and working with his hands so he had gotten this machine called the CNC machine. We started fiddling around with that. The way it works is it’s essentially like a printer. You write a code and you put it into the computer and the computer translates this code of your design and it sends to the machine and the machine literally cuts out a replica of what you’re designing,” Amy said.

Amy said it was easy to learn how to create the code for the designs, which are more intricate than anything she could easily cut by hand.

Eventually, Amy’s mom, Arlene Krings, got involved, too. She takes orders and designs from Amy and makes sure they are producing the correct quantities and designs. She also helps out with DoorBadges’ social media presence, taking videos of the products being created for Amy to post online.

During the pandemic, Arlene and Lavern have been meeting Amy and her family at a gas station halfway between Columbus and Omaha. There, they hand over the cutouts to be painted and shipped. Terry said it has been a good way for Arlene, 80, and Lavern, 82, to stay active.

“During this whole COVID stuff the elderly, who weren’t really able to leave the house, they were able to at least stay engaged,” Terry said.

Amy takes the cutouts back home to Omaha, where her kids help her put on the base coats. After that Amy paints out the designs. One of her daughters makes bows for the door hangers and her husband and 11-year-old son pack the orders to be shipped.

“It really is, truly, a family affair. It takes a village and not just one person. A lot of love goes into each one of these,” Amy said.

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