As University of Nebraska-Lincoln college students prepare for final exams, Megan Shipman is taking on another task by running her own small business on the side.
Megan Shipman, a UNL senior majoring in advertising and public relations with a minor in entrepreneurship and Hastings native, started a small business called ShopMegAnn in September 2020.
“I have always been really into art and design and knew since I was a little girl that I wanted to incorporate that into my future career in some way,” Shipman said. “I started doing digital art when I checked out an iPad and Apple pencil from the College of Journalism’s checkout room and fell in love with it.”
Shipman began to draw decals of pets and eventually turned them into stickers. This prompted her to open ShopMegAnn and have custom pet stickers as one of her very first products.
Lacee Consbruck has known Shipman since high school and has supported ShopMegAnn a multiple times. She has even purchased a custom sticker of her cat.
“She made me a custom-made sticker of my cat, and it looked just like her and I love it so much. The quality was really great and it’s lasted over a year now,” Consbruck said. “The second order I placed was a glass mug that said Coffee is my love language as well as a sticker with the same phrase, they were both great quality and I got them super fast.”
Shipman opened her Etsy shop in October 2020. One of her first items on the site were custom pet stickers. Customers would place an order with an attachment of their pet that they want drawn and Shipman would hand draw each illustration and make the stickers.
Since the start of ShopMegAnn, Shipman has incorporated her advertising and public relations major and entrepreneurship minor into her business.
“One of the biggest things I have learned is how to advertise my products across different platforms. I also use a lot of the design skills that I have learned from the college when it comes to designing my stickers,” she said. “I have even asked some of the staff in our college when I have had questions about my business.”
But while being a full-time college student, there have been some challenges that Shipman has had to overcome and some difficult decisions to decide.
“I am not going to lie. It has definitely been challenging at times, especially when I have had wholesale orders to work on,” she said. “I just have to be super organized with my schedule and make sure I have time planned out to do my school work and my shop work.”
Although ShopMegAnn is still an up-and-coming small business, her work has not gone unnoticed.
In August 2021, Nebraskainabox reached out to Shipman to include some of her items in their boxes. Nebraskainabox is a company that ships popular Nebraska snacks and other local goods to people who have a connection to Nebraska. Shipman’s hand-drawn Nebraska stickers are some items that can be included in the personalized boxes.
“We chose four of my Nebraska sticker designs to include in a pack of stickers that you can purchase on their website,” she said.
After graduating in May, Shipman plans on continuing ShopMegAnn.
“Yes, I look forward to the future of my small business. My dream is to open my own storefront someday with my products,” she said.
