You've Come A Long Way Baby

I was going through some old boxes today, and look what I found--an old conference notebook for taking chart orders. This booklet was pre-Family ChartMasters, back from the earliest days when we called ourselves Generation Maps.  Remember that?  Wow.  You've come a long way baby.

In the beginning, like with any entrepreneurial endeavor, we didn't know what we were doing.  We got some things wrong but we did get a few things right.  It was interesting to see how far we've come and how much better we are at it all now.  Take a look:

This was our three ring binder for clients to browse:

And this is the 47 page booklet we offer at conferences now.

We did offer 100% satisfaction guarantee and free previews from the very beginning.  And extra copies were 50% off.  So we did that right.  Look at the explanation page in the binder.

I've gotten better at explaining things I think.  I certainly hope so. 

And look at these crazy embellishments we offered at first.

Wow.  I'm sure glad we've gotten better at that. 
Now you can see hundreds of design ideas and samples and graphics on our Gallery.

We limited the font styles.  We picked some good ones that we still use all the time.  Castellar and Edwardian are some of our most popular.  But now you can choose anything you want.  Thank heavens.

But one of the most amusing was this page.  The borders.  At least I don't call them frames anymore (to avoid confusing them with actual frames that you would frame a print with.)

Again, we're much better now with lots of borders to choose from.  But the funny thing was that we still use the calligraphy borders, and the straight 1 (tri-line) border has been our most popular forever--even with a familiar household-name designer choosing them for his personal family charts.

So life is good.  It is nice to be able to see how far you've come, and how good you've gotten at something.  Not only are we better, but our whole team of designers are fantastic at displaying any vision you might have for showing off your family history.  You'll have to check out our new 47 page idea book at a future conference, or click around our website.

I wish I'd counted how many charts we have shipped from the beginning.  We probably aren't up to McDonald's "Billions and Billions Served" but we recently crossed an annual 6,000 mark. So I know there are lots and lots of Family ChartMasters charts out there binding and inspiring families. 

And you know what, you ain't seen nothing yet.  Just wait until you see what is next.