It's been 3 months since I launched fritzandfancy.com. I figure now's a good time to check in and share a little more about where I'm at since I decided to start up a scrunchie business in a freaking pandemic.
Ready to Sell
Before I ever even thought of launching my website, I sewed a whole bunch of scrunchies and gave them away as gifts. The recipients liked them, but I didn't. Being a perfectionist workaholic, I was hypercritical of my work. I wanted to make scrunchies that would bear my good name that I was proud of.
My scrunchies needed improvements. The seams weren't right, the elastics were too small, the stitching didn't match the fabric, all in all, a hot mess. In one iteration I was literally hot gluing them shut like an inexperienced drag queen in a sewing challenge on Rupaul's Drag Race! Through my scrunchie sewing experiments, I ended up with about 100 scrunchies that I wasn't overly proud of - sitting in a box. This venture was not in the cards for me and I abandoned the idea.
Take a Chance
In February, I found myself unemployed and deflated. I really wasn't sure what I was going to do with my career but I figured after a month of not working I should find work. In March, I had a job for 3 days and just like that, Miss Corona Virus decided to show up to the party and shit on everything - my career prospects were down the toilet.
I needed to make some money and took this as the sign to face my fears, take a chance, and sell the scrunchies. I took some shoddy pictures (and a leap of faith) and shared my scrunchies on my personal Facebook page to sell.
Well that was Fast!
Much to my surprise, the response to my post was awesome! I sold all of my scrunchies in a matter of a hours thanks to the amazing support of my friends. Just when I stopped believing in myself, my friends believed in me.
To those of you who showed up for me and bought that first batch of scrunchies, you have no idea how much I needed that win in my life. Suddenly my future was a little brighter - this scrunchie business could actually work.
Supplies Surprise
With the decision to finally make scrunchies into my full time hustle, I was once again caught off guard. Who would have predicted that this pandemic would completely obliterate the supply chain for the materials I needed. Fabric and elastic - the same two components needed to make masks were sold out or backlogged for months.
Again, I reached out to my online community and they delivered! Thread, fabric, elastic, they shared it with me without asking for anything else in return. Archana, Maddie, Thea, Erika, Jayda, Claire, Angelina, thank you SO MUCH for all your help! You are truly amazing human beings.
Man Becomes Machine
With materials in hand, I became a my own sweat shop, spending 8-10 hours per day working at my sewing machine. In a matter of weeks I went from being able to sew 20 scrunchies a day to sewing 60 per day. Yes, that's from start to finish. You consume a LOT of podcasts and audio books when sitting at a sewing machine. If you haven't listened to "My Dad Wrote a Porno" yet, you're really missing out. It's as hilarious as it is disgusting.
Not wanting to half-ass it and run out of stock in a couple hours again, I made sure to have at least 20 options up on the site before launching. The hustle was real and I got the first batch done in a week.
Getting Online
With my new batch of new and improved scrunchies, it was time to get an online platform. Weighing my options between Etsy and Shopify - I decided that Shopify was the way to go. They had an option to use it for free for 3 months - really a no-brainer. Etsy's fee structure seemed like a mess to me - not to mention literally every scrunchie maker is on there - it seemed overcrowded. Also, Shopify is based right here in my home city of Ottawa - so I was happy to support the local multimillionaire.
Then it was on to building my online social presence. A Facebook store, Instagram business, website, the whole shebang - I dug in my heels and got it done - all in a matter of 2 days. It seems insane now when I look back, but my desire to eat and pay rent really gave me the motivation to make this happen.
On May 11th, 2020, fritzandfancy.com was live!
The Ladder to Success
As someone who is constantly comparing myself to others, Shopify really meets that need for me. From what those stats are telling me - I am off to a great start! I had my first sales the day I launched and under 10 impressions (something that usually takes over 1000 for other businesses).
The platform also gives me little virtual high fives like congratulating me when I did my first 100 sales in the first couple months! This little dream is beginning to become my reality - all without any paid ads or in-person views of my products.
The Perks
Being the creative person that I am, being able to make whatever I want, however I want is incredibly satisfying. Using my social media accounts, I am loving this opportunity to flex my creative muscles to make gorgeous images! My social game is hitting new heights. My images went from being flat, boring white-background posts to animated, vibrant pop-art that I am living for! In case you're wondering, I work a lot of my magic using Canva.
Part of being a serious online business is using high quality images. Lucky for me, my partner Rob takes fantastic images of all my products for me. We work side-by-side setting up the photo shoots. Then we process the images with some tweaking in LightRoom to make sure the colours of the products you see online are true to what you get in real life.Making New Connections
What's Next
Stay Fancy!
xo
John