The recession can claim another small business victim with the closure of Santa Barbara Scrapbooks. But its owner is not looking back to pick up the pieces. Instead she’s closing this chapter of her life and moving on to the next.
Barbara Bartolomè started her scrapbook store six years ago on a whim. Her experience extended from more than two decades of customer service and executive assistant positions. And she wasn’t even much of a scrapbooker to begin with. But in her time running the store she believes she helped a number of people preserve their memories and gave inspiration to other people looking to start their own business.

“I worked at UCSB and was really happy in my position,” Bartolomè said. “I got up in the morning one day and heard something that said I will start a scrapbook store.” Bartolomè said she kept hearing that advice all day and instead of driving straight home from work she stopped at Santa Barbara Bank & Trust and asked about a business loan.
“Before I had a business plan the vice president of the bank told me I had been approved for a $250,000 loan and asked if I wanted to come back with my husband to sign the papers.”

Bartolomè didn’t have a business plan until after she hired a manager and opened the store in August 2003. She took night classes through Women’s Economic Ventures, where she learned what it took to develop a plan and a business and won the group’s Businesswoman of the Year award in 2004. 

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