Saratoga Business Journal
By Christine Graf
California native and Ballston Spa business owner Michelle Brandriss fell in love with Saratoga the first time she and her husband, David, visited the city during horse racing season. Their dream to settle in the area became a reality after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the U.S.
They were living in New York City at the time, and David was working on the 23rd floor of the North Tower. He was among those who were able to evacuate the building before it collapsed.
While working in advertising, Michelle came up with the idea for Name Bubbles, a personalized name label company. At the time, she was a new mom and her son was enrolled in a Saratoga Springs day care program.
“In New York state, day cares require everything to be labeled. I was using Sharpie pens and masking tape to label his bottles. The labels would wear off, so I would redo it every few days,” said Brandriss. “Then I started noticing other women had really nice, fancy labels.”
After learning the women were ordering the labels online, she started researching label companies. She discovered that the biggest custom labels companies were located in Canada and Australia. Much to her surprise, there were no major players in the United States.
“I immediately saw an opportunity,” she said. “I started doing some more research and found out that New York was not the only state that required moms to label things for day care.”
Making the decision to start a business wasn’t an easy one. It meant quitting her full-time job and dipping into the family savings. Although she saw the potential for the business, her husband was less than enthusiastic. Ultimately, he supported her decision.
Name Bubbles launched in January 2009, with Brandriss operating the business out of her basement. The company specializes in customized waterproof labels for kids.
“It ends up saving time and money because you don’t have things end up in the lost and found,” she said.
According to Brandriss, developing a product that would be able to withstand the dishwasher and washing machine required a lot of trial and error.
“It took quite a long time. I wanted a material that was non-toxic and sourced in the U.S. I found the material through 3M and even had an outside lab test it to make sure that it was safe.”
In the first three months, she had just 17 orders. Then she cashed in an IRA and used the proceeds to purchase online ads through Google.
The ads were successful, and sales began to grow steadily. Before the end of her first year in business, she hired four employees and moved Name Bubbles out of her basement and into a 9000-square-foot space on Science Street in Ballston Spa. The company now has 18 employees, and Brandriss recently expanded with the purchase of a building in Brighton, Colo.
Renovations of that space are underway. She expects the location to be running before the end of the year. It will be staffed by three employees.
“A lot of my customers are out west, and shipping can take five or six days,” she said. “Rather than expanding our footprint here, I thought it made sense to have a second office.”
Just two years ago, at the height of the pandemic, Brandriss worried her business wouldn’t survive. With schools, day cares, and camps closed, the demand for labels all but disappeared.
“We had a really, really difficult time during COVID. We had to go through some of our savings, and my retirement got pushed back. But we made it through. It was a nail biter,” she said. “The next year, everybody wanted labels. They wanted to make sure there were no germy mix-ups. We had 10 times the normal amount of orders.”
Although business is stronger than ever, Brandriss said COVID taught her a valuable lesson about diversification.
“During COVID, I was really able to see where the holes were. You ask yourself, ‘Should something like this ever happen again, what do we need to do to diversify?’”
Ultimately, she decided to establish a second division of the company that will launch in the coming weeks. Called Sticker & Co., it is a custom sticker company that offers a variety of products.
“We can do company logos and decals, but we will also be doing things like waterproof photo stickers. The other cool thing that we are doing that I haven’t seen anywhere is our sticker greeting card,” she said.
The greeting cards will feature a waterproof sticker or reusable wall decal. The decals will not damage walls and can be moved up to 100 times, she said.
Name Bubbles also launched Labels to Last, its senior care division, last November. These custom labels can be used for adults living in nursing homes or other care facilities.
“We are the biggest in North America and we are one of the biggest in world. I only know of one that might be bigger,” she said of the label market. “We have a premier product, we use the best material, and we continue to test our products.”
Brandriss is excited about the future and grateful that they were able to weather to pandemic.
“At the end of the day, I’m just so happy we are here. And that’s just the truth of it,” she said.
For more information, visit www.namebubbles.com