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

Brandee, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you find your key vendor or vendors? Maybe you can share the backstory and share some context and the relevant details to help us understand why you chose them, why they chose you, etc.

Everything over the last year has been a huge learning process. Of course, I bought fabric to start making my template bows from a local store. It was great but I felt a bit limited. Luckily, as smart analytics and marketing works in favor, Facebook was starting to show me adds for an online fabric store. I jumped in and took the chance of ordering fabric online. It was scary. I couldn’t feel it before I bought it. It was then sucked into their Facebook group for customers. Luckily, there, a girl had posted about making some cute clothes with their fabric. I was inclined to ask her questions. We quickly became ‘virtual’ friends. She works with the same fabrics I needed, though she wasn’t a bow maker. I asked her lots of questions, quickly learning about how I could find seamless files and send them to fabric printers. When I learned about that, it opened up so many more possibilities!

When I got to the point where I could print on my own fabric, I asked my new friend, Chloe, where she suggested for printing. She provided me with several places to try out. After months of orders, I finally found my favorite fabric printing company! They’re so easy to work with and have the highest quality printing! It’s been fun to learn about seamless files. I’ve actually started creating my own files to have printed! This allows for me to be able to really create unique and custom options for my customers.

Through this process, I have learned to just try things out and test new options. Sometimes it was disappointing with the printer or even fabric of choice. Learn from the mistakes until you find what fits best. I’ve also become more comfortable with accepting that not every vendor or supplier is for everyone. It might work well for someone else, but it doesn’t mean it has to work well for me. And that’s okay! Same with my products. I know my style of bows aren’t for everyone. And that’s okay!

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

I have always been a very driven entrepreneur. I’ve loved being creative. I started my first ‘side hustle’ when I was in 7th grade! I became a mom to twin boys in 2018. Mom life was crazy, but that didn’t hold me back from having another. We had our daughter in July 2021! I couldn’t wait to have a mini me to coordinate dressing up in. Once she arrived, I started looking for bows. Specifically, a leopard bow. I couldn’t justify spending $10+ on a bow from Amazon that I knew was mass produced in China. That’s when another mom pointed me in the direction of an online store where all the bows were hand made. I ordered two of them and received them in the mail. I took one look at these and knew I could make something better! That’s when I started grabbing fabric from the local store for trial-and-error processing. Once I got down what I thought was my ideal design, I had my first ‘drop’. It was thrilling to finally find something that would allow for my creative juices to flow! This is what is meant when it’s said to moms, “Do something for yourself”. I look forward to nap time and bedtime so I can be business lady rather than just mommy.

I have really worked hard to perfect my craft this past year. I’ve learned about new style of bows and trying new things. I have a group of moms who are my advocates. Some call them resp, I call them friends! They help push my creativity. They bring me ideas of styles, colors, prints, fabrics, and more. I enjoy taking on the new challenges. Over the last couple of months, I’ve really taken a lot of custom requests. I enjoy the break from the usual collection of bows I do. It also helps me just create something extremely meaningful for my customers. It could be as simple as a custom name bow for their daughter’s birthday or as elaborate as an over-the-top bow with all the rhinestones and glitter for an upcoming pageant! I have learned how to keep my overhead low, so I don’t have to overcharge for my customs options. This helps keep me competitive to other small bow businesses.

If you have multiple revenue streams in your business, would you mind opening up about what those streams are and how they fit together?

I actually do have a secondary side business! It’s been great! I started my bow business online through our Shopify website in 2021. I decided in mid 2022 to try out Etsy. I found it overly diluted with all the other bow makers in one place. My bows were just sitting there. I didn’t get a single sale. The plus side is that it only cost me 20 cents to make a listing. However, with the growth and expansion of the seamless files, I converted my Etsy store to sell my seamless files. It’s great! I create my listings and add the file for customers to instantly download. Bam! Passive income. I am already creating the files to use as my prints for drops, might as well list them and see if others would want them too. The more seamless files I create, the better they get. Surprisingly, for the last 4 weeks, my Etsy store has done more in sales than my bow business! The extra income has helped the business account stay where I’m comfortable – having enough to buy fabric for one to two drops ahead of schedule.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

Actually, yes! I haven’t read a whole lot over the last two years, but listening to podcasts has been so helpful! I enjoy listening to them as I work on my bows. My husband, Colin, and I enjoy listening to The Iced Coffee Hour, The Graham Stephan Show, Alex Hormozi, and couple of other smaller podcasts (mostly about SEO, etc.)

The content and conversations that these podcasters share is always so interesting! It’s almost always applicable to my small business as it is to a large corporation business! They have perspectives that help boost my motivation to keep pressing through the hard season. It’s a good reminder that there’s going to be bumps in the road but that’s going to happen no matter what business you start/run.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.shopbonniesbows.com
• Instagram: @BonniesBoujeeBows
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bonniesboujeebows
• Other: https://www.facebook.com/groups/bonniesboujeebows – Facebook Group

Image Credits
Nina Bella Photography Sabrina Winningham Photography