Amanda Kuhn and Kelly Oppelt grew up together in the Poconos. After school, they ended up working together in the area at Local Flair Magazine, Kuhn as its marketing coordinator and Oppelt as senior graphic designer.
The two women had talked about starting their own business together. They were temporarily laid off from the magazine in the winter, and when they elected to not take their jobs back and resign in early February, they put their idea into action.
Soon after Oppelt and Kuhn launched Smart Blonde Creative (the name is a nod to their mutual hair color), a design firm based in the Monroe County town of Cresco. The business recently received a $15,000 loan from MetroAction, which provides various forms of assistance to small businesses in Northeast PA.
Most of Smart Blonde’s projects so far have been websites, brochures and advertisements. The company focuses on serving small, local businesses that usually don’t have technical or design expertise in-house.
“Nice business cards and a nice ad go a long way,” says Kuhn, co-owner and business director. “It’s those kinds of things that are a representation of your business.”
Source: Amanda Kuhn, Smart Blonde Creative
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen
