Sheryl Woodhouse-Keese is the president and founder of Twisted Limb Paperworks, which launched in January 1998. Her office and studio is located on Mt. Pleasant Road in the countryside Northwest of Bloomington and Hwy 37. Customers typically do business with the company online or call for an appointment. Sheryl and her staff custom create handmade 100% recycled paper, invitations, and stationery for personal and business celebrations. Twisted Limb is best known for the company’s sustainable business practices, colorful paper, and the fact that it offers both stitched and plantable invitations.

Q: What has been your proudest moment as a business owner?
A: We recently surveyed our customers about their experience with Twisted Limb, and received some amazing results. 98% rated our service as consistently friendly and knowledgeable, 99% received their order early or on time, and 100% rated the quality of our work either high or extremely high. I was overjoyed with the faith our customers have in us!

Q: What advantages might a company benefit from in owning a business in Bloomington rather than a larger city?
A: My overhead costs are significantly lower here in Monroe County, which makes my specialty invitations seem reasonably priced to my customers in urban areas and on the Coasts.

Q: If someone bought your company today, what do you think would be the first thing they would change?
A: They would have to move the business, since it’s being operated on the same 10 acres where I live!

Q: What has been surprisingly easy about running your business (What are the things that are working better than expected)?
A: We have an extremely methodical, organized work flow, which might surprise people, given how customized the orders are. There is a very detailed tracking process, marking off each step towards the creation of someone’s paper and invitations as it is completed–from the moment the order is placed to the time it gets shipped. We carefully manage the amount of orders we schedule for each week, depending up the size and intricacy of each, so that there is a nice steady work pace, and everyone gets their order on time.

Q: What is your biggest business goal for this year? How are you planning to achieve it?
A: Traditionally, the last several months of the year have been slower for us, after the wedding season subsided. My largest goal for this year is to improve sales during the later part of the year by reaching out to new markets. We were very busy in the early part of the year designing business invitations and promotional items, holiday cards, and developing an eco-friendly school fundraising program. Our website was redesigned to promote these new products, and to make the very large site easy to navigate by Hanapin Marketing. We’ve sent a mailing to Chamber members about our holiday cards, have been creating special offers on our holiday cards to current and past wedding customers, and have sent press releases locally and nationally about our school fundraising program and our new business and holiday card offerings.

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