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Bright(nin) Updates

Hello and welcome back to my entrepreneurial series! I hope your day is as bright as the updates I have for you 🙂 So much has recently happened with my business Brightnin that I am writing this article at a fast speed mode, excited to share new milestones from my entrepreneurship world. So, if you are interested in how moving mountains with notebooks has been going, keep on reading!

I am happy to share the news that the notebooks are not available only in Brightnin’s online store anymore. Now you may get them also in Smile Concept Store in the centre of Ljubljana and in Center Motus’ online store. If you visit Smile Concept Store, you might even meet me in front of the store window. Nowadays I often go running to the centre and run that extra mile just to see my coloured notebooks there. It is a special feeling to have something you created in a real, brick-and-mortar shop. Additionally, Smile Concept Store is so gorgeous – it really matches my notebooks in colours and has divine aesthetics – yet another reason to visit it!

Packing notebooks for another store
Brightnin notebooks in Smile Concept Store

In October, Smile Concept Store participated in Design Month, an annual event promoting the role of design in society and emphasizing creative potential in Slovenia. Brightnin notebooks were given additional support and promotion as Slovene products that encourage creativity and innovativeness.

Design Month in Smile Concept Store

Now here is the best part: the event had a grand opening on 6th October. On that day, one month of sales and promotion of the chosen products in the stores around Ljubljana began. In the evening, featured entrepreneurs and designers were invited to the city centre, where numerous restaurants presented their creative dishes. The foodie inside me was thrilled when I was gifted 40 food coupons. One coupon meant “one bite” and I went all around the centre, trying everything from Potica to sushi, spreads, pastry, and other delicious, colourful food. One dish – the fanciest one I have ever seen – made me laugh when I was trying to figure out whether its transparent sphere on the top was plastic or something edible – it turned out to be just sugar.

Some fancy food

As much as Brightnin notebooks encourage creativity and innovativeness with their plain covers intended for decorating, they are also meant to help people with scotopic sensitivity syndrome with reading and writing. It is therefore especially valuable that Brightnin gained support from the Slovene paediatrician of the year. She then took the notebooks to the USA and presented them to American doctors who gave positive feedback. I am glad that it is not only Brightnin that is gaining recognition but also scotopic sensitivity syndrome.

While we are talking about going abroad already, I recently celebrated sending the first order to Croatia. I have a funny story to share related to this topic. A while ago, I received an order from a customer living in Zreče, a small Slovenian town. As I checked the address for the first time, I quickly read it as Zrće which is a Croatian paradise for… partying! Sending notebooks to a wild party would be epic – as colourful as they are, they could even match with club lights!

First order from Croatia

For now, they were matchy-matchy only with my pastel outfit at a special event titled Dyslexia – a Child of Hidden Treasures at the beginning of October. The purpose of this event, which took place at the Institute for Dyslexia, was to demystify dyslexia, share ways to cope with it and emphasize its strong side. I was invited to present my notebooks to parents of children with dyslexia and experts from this field. Memories from that day are special to me because it was my first time presenting Brightnin in front of a wider audience. After my presentation, I listened to parents sharing their experiences of raising and schooling their children. Their stories provided valuable insight into the day-to-day life and challenges of dyslexic children. As dyslexia often appears together with scotopic syndrome, having as much knowledge about it as possible enables me as an entrepreneur to offer notebooks that are maximally suitable for people with the syndrome and dyslexia.

For the end, I have the sweetest two updates: on 7th July, my beloved blog turned 2, while on 14th August, Brightnin turned 1! I celebrated my blog’s birthday in Croatia at the seaside, with a delicious dinner. Brightnin’s birthday was an awesome day as well – first, I dressed in a sparkly T-shirt, then I baked cupcakes, decorated them, blew out a candle, and celebrated with my family and friends. To celebrate with everyone else that supports me on my journey, I organized a giveaway For Bright New Beginnings. 10 notebooks were won by a mother of a boy with scotopic syndrome who really needed them. I could have read from her messages how happy and thankful she was. Her reaction was the cherry on top.

Ms. Demystify’s 2nd birthday
Brightnin’s 1st birthday

Phew, that was a lot of bright new updates! I especially love being a blogger because it is a way for me to sit down and go through everything that has happened to me and Brightnin. Once I do that, I can fully see how much great progress has been made altogether. I often even get some new ideas for the future while I am in this creative blogging bubble. Some of them are already in the development phase and the first samples are coming from a printing house soon… Additionally, I might have been planning another project with the Institute for Scotopic Sensitivity syndrome – ahh it is exciting but let me keep that for another article. This entrepreneurial journey continues. Until next time! 🙂