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

Ashley, appreciate you joining us today. What’s the best or worst investment you’ve made?

When I first started my sewing business it was with a refurbished, household sewing machine. I had purchased it years before and had never used it. I was able to produce two surgical caps an hour. When I started my Etsy shop, I was only selling a handful of hats a week and was pleased with my production time. But as Stitchy Witch grew, I was spending all my time working at the hospital or in my sewing room. After two and a half years in business and moving into a large shop space, I was encouraged by my husband and family to invest in my business. Being frugal by nature I struggled to spend so much money, but my husband reminded me several times throughout the purchases that “time is also money.” So I went to my local machine shop and picked out my new machines. Over the next year I learned my new machines and refined my sewing pattern. I was able to sew 10 times the amount of hats, and drastically increased my production. By increasing my production, and decrease my time sewing. I was now able to use this time to focus on other aspects of my business; networking, marketing, and scaling my business. Investing in myself and my business helped me focus on a better work life balance, while also being able to offer more products and services to my customers. I went from only offering around fifty fabrics options to now over two hundred and have added apparel decoration and embroidery services.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Hi, my name is Ashley Hall, and I am the owner and creator of Stitchy Witch Co. We specialize in surgical caps and decorated (printed and embroidered) apparel. In 2018 I had just graduated with my Bachelors in Nursing and had accepted a position as a pediatric operating room nurse. When I started in the operating room I found that the only way to express myself was by surgical hat, due to uniform restrictions. When I began shopping for surgical caps I had difficulty finding ones I wanted to wear. So I decided to find a pattern, buy some fabric, and then asked my mother in law if she would teach me to sew. I spent all my free time perfecting a pattern and creating my own hats. They began getting noticed by my co-workers, who asked if I could make them hats. I happily agreed and asked for constructive feedback. With their feedback I was able to create a pattern that met their needs. My hats could stay in place all 12 hours with only minor adjustments needed, they were breathable, making them easy on the hair, and made for all day comfort. One day I decided to take $100, buy fabric, and create an Etsy store, which I named Stitchy Witch Co. I believe that being a nurse in the operating room sets me apart from other shops with the same product, because I created a product I was wearing almost daily. I pride myself on not sending our manufacturing overseas, each hat is cut out by my husband, Taylor, and sewn by me. I am incredibly proud of the quality we provide as well as now being able to provide high quality decorated (printed and embroidered) apparel both on our Etsy shop and also locally to Kansas City small business owners. As a small business owner one of the biggest problems I found in branding was being able to find a local or online apparel shop that didn’t have a large minimum order requirement. We are one of the only shops in the Kansas City metro area who does not require minimums on apparel and are able to meet the needs of any size order, while using the highest quality materials, with everything designed and decorated in house.

How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.

I sell online on Etsy, I created the store in late 2018, and then began receiving my first sales at the beginning of 2019. The reason I decided to sell on Etsy was because they are a handmade marketplace. When I first started my business I was only making one item, surgical caps. Each one was handmade by me, and with their large customer base I felt Etsy was the perfect place to start selling. With that being said I have been selling successfully on Etsy for 5 years now and these are my pros, cons, and why I still sell on Etsy.

Pros:

I am able to compare my pricing to my competitors
All sales, transactions, fees and sales taxes are managed by Etsy
Tax documents provided at the end of every year
Large reach, over 96 million customers
I can purchase discounted shipping through the platform
It is a trusted and profitable platform
Very low start up fees for a new business owners

Cons:
High seller fees 6.5%, as well as listing fees, and transaction fees
Constantly updating the platform, always having to learn new features and changes
Its no longer the handmade marketplace it once was, there are a lot of mass produced items
In recent years it is harder to stand out, with so many competitors flooding the market
There is a learning curve, understanding how to use the platform and drive traffic to your store
You are renting space on their platform, no control over platform changes

Why I still sell on Etsy
I have a large following on Etsy
I continue to grow on Etsy
Created a trusted store with over 4,500 reviews, buyers more likely to buy from a trusted store
It is easier than designing and running my own site
It is not all on me to drive traffic to my store
Etsy fees are still less than Ebay and Amazon Handmade

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

I am an accidental entrepreneur. My business started as a need for myself, to showcase my personality. When I first started as a new nurse in the operating room (OR) I quickly learned that the fabrics I wore on my head were the only way to stand out, because we all dressed the same. When I started shopping for surgical hats I couldn’t find any I loved, so I decided with no sewing experience, that I could make my own. I purchased fabrics, a pattern and enlisted my mother in law to teach me to sew. I spent countless hours learning to make myself hats, then I started to make some as thank you gifts for the nurses who trained me, and eventually other co-workers wanted to buy hats from me. One day on my way to look at fabric I decided to take the $100 in my pocket and buy fabrics, and those would be the first hats I put on my Etsy shop. I was so excited and hoped it would become a “hobby that paid for itself.” I had a goal of making 100 hats over the next year. After starting my Etsy shop, Stitchy Witch Co. The sales continued to grow, I gained more traction on the platform and my customers loved my hats, my goal of 100 was quickly surpassed. I sewed over 1,000 hats that first year and since have gone on to sew over 16,000 hats with over 4,400 five star reviews. I went from being a full time OR nurse, to a weekend trauma OR nurse, to now a per diem OR nurse, where I work 4 shifts a month. I had no intention of being a business owner when I graduated nursing school but now my side hustle or hobby as I called it went on to become my full time career. Having the opportunity to be full time in my business has led to scaling the business from only creating scrub caps to adding the production of decorated (printed and embroidered) apparel, both locally and on Etsy.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.stitchywitch.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/stitchywitchco
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/stitchywitchco
• Other: https://www.etsy.com/shop/stitchywitchco