We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Andrew Eymer a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Andrew, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?

My mother taught me so many lessons that apply to business: financial discipline, patience and kindness. I owe her more than I can ever repay. From Steve’s mother we pull self-reliance, tenacity and hard work ethic.

Andrew, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Steve & Andy With their hand-dyed colorways inspired by the theatre, pop culture, and nature, partners Steve and Andy truly are the Leading Men in the world of COLOR. Established in August 2013, their dye studio and store front is located in Clinton, Illinois, from which they travel the country attending shows and festivals. Their products can also be found in stores across the world. They specialize in semi-solid, variegated, speckled, and gradient yarn dyeing techniques. When auditioning projects for a starring role, make sure to cast the Leading Men!!!

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

We started our business with $500. It was the earnest money that we put down when we bought our house. We probably should have used it to fix up the house but instead we bought our first batch of dyes and yarn and got to work in our kitchen. That is the only money we have ever put into the business. The business has funded itself since. There are a lot of times when we disagree about what and when to spend money, but for our small business debt is the enemy. Not having debt of any kind allows us to be able to navigate sales slumps and slow times of the year.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

In 2012, we had been together as a couple for 5 years at this point. Steve, my partner, was coming to end of his third year of teaching high school English and theatre, and we thought we could move anywhere since we had no attachments to where we are. We decided on a trip to Maine for spring break that year to see it was somewhere we could call home. While we were out there we met a woman, Heather, who was a yarn dyer and podcaster. Steve and she met online as he was also hosting a knitting podcast at the time. Anyway, we had dinner and a great visit. On the short 20+ hours drive home, we thought we could try that. Dying yarn. Had no idea how to dye anything on purpose. Had no idea of where to buy yarn or dyes. I liked the idea because I thought we had an audience from the podcast who may be interested. So we decided to stay in Clinton, Illinois, where we had been living and buy a house that we thought would be able to start our new life and business in. We took our $500 earnest money from our house and launched our website Leading Men Fiber Arts. I think we had 50 skeins of yarn for that first update, and I think we sold out in the first afternoon. What a rush it is when you try something and you find success. We did not need the money from the business for living expenses so we were able to plow all the money made back into the business. We also discovered that there were yarn festivals and events that happen around the country. So our weekends became about where can we go and set up and sell as well as online. At this point the 70+ hours a week working started for both of us. We worked our day jobs and then would come home and dye and pack and ship yarn in the evenings, then pack up the car to drive somewhere for the weekend. We did this for 5 years, reinvesting the business money back into the business, more product, a better website and clearing all personal debt except for our home. It took 5 years to pay off his student loans, but after that Steve got to go full time with the business. That was a major milestone. A year later I joined him full time. Since then we have been able to travel the country selling our wares at local festivals and yarn stores across the country.

In 2019, we purchased a building on our town’s square that was formerly a dog groomers. We used this building solely as our dye studio for almost 2 years. At the start of 2021 we open our doors as a local yarn store. In the summer of 2023 we purchased the historic Taylor Magill Building that is located right next door to our shop. A few months later we have exanded into the adjoining space, with hopes and dreams of continued expansion into the rest of the building.

Contact Info:

• Website: leadingmenfiberarts.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/leadingmenfiberarts
• Facebook: facebook.com/leadingmenfiberarts
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCC5zhCO-8LrfxYwg9XWspyw

Image Credits
Leading Men Fiber Arts