We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Amy Gardikas. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with AMY below.

AMY, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Almost all entrepreneurs have had to decide whether to start now or later? There are always pros and cons for waiting and so we’d love to hear what you think about your decision in retrospect. If you could go back in time, would you have started your business sooner, later or at the exact time you started?

I started my custom keepsake blanket business in April 2023. I quit my job in the corporate world to do it and was ready to embark on my journey as an entrepreneur. Had I started sooner, I feel like things would have picked up quicker in terms of growth. Given the nature of my blankets—they contain images of saved greeting cards, handwritten letters, notes and photographs—I think that starting the company during Covid would have made a difference. At that time, people were separated from their loved ones and were really craving connection. My blankets would have bridged the gap between them and their families until they could be together again.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a very emotional, sentimental person. Also, I save pretty much every greeting card I receive. One day, I was looking through a tote in my closet where I keep those cards and other paperwork I need to save, to retrieve an important paper. An hour later, I was sitting on the floor of my closet rereading every greeting card I had, and reliving the feelings I felt when I read them the first time. At that point, I knew I needed to think of a way to capture images of my cards on an every day item I use so I could put that joy at my fingertips, easily accessible for whenever I needed to give my heart a hug, as I like to say. And I knew I had to do this for other people.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

What’s helped me build my reputation has been my determination to get things just right for my clients. Whether it’s the image size of their mementos, the arrangement of them or the types of mementos they want on their blankets, I work closely with all of my clients to ensure their custom blanket looks exactly how they envisioned it in their minds.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

The lesson I had to unlearn in this business is that people will not be instantly clamoring for your product straight out of the gate. It takes time to build your brand and your reputation, as well as to get the word out about what your product is/what you do. Just because you have a good idea…that’s not enough. It takes time and, for the business owner, a great deal of patience and persistence.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.rejoys.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rejoys_dil/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ReJoysbyDrapedinLove