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

Alright, Britt thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

TUTTO (two-tow) is a class studio and party venue located in downtown Carlisle, PA. It is always our goal to provide our community with a family-friendly and welcoming experience every time they enter our studio. We strive to create an environment that is inclusive to everyone, whether attending classes or a party.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

My name is Britt Reynolds and I am 30 years old. I’m happily married to my loving husband, Ian, I have 3 cats and a couple of backyard chickens, and I am the proud owner of TUTTO (two-tow) in downtown Carlisle, PA.

I was born and raised in Carlisle and have always been charmed by my hometown, even before starting a business I recognized the opportunity that the area provided to everyone. Before opening TUTTO I worked for years as a homebirth midwives’ assistant and birth doula in the surrounding areas. As I spent more and more time with the families I helped, I learned that Carlisle lacked a place that could serve the community with a safe place for meetups, support groups, information, classes and more. So, on an adventure with a friend through Europe I decided I would open TUTTO while I was exploring Italy. TUTTO means ‘all things’ or ‘everyone’ in Italian – a fitting description when considering all of the facets of TUTTO. That was over nine years ago now. The business has grown so much and changed into something a bit different than my original vision, but the essence of what I initially set out to offer is still very much at the core of the business today.

TUTTO’s focus is driven by two main factors – a children’s’ class studio and a party venue for small events.

The first focus of the business is our lovely class studio. We host a variety of kids classes for any child under the age of six. Our class offerings are a studio-favorite open play session, a variety of tumbling series for different age groups, and a music and dance class for kids and caregivers. As of 2023 we host 8 different classes in mornings and afternoons, Monday through Friday, year-round.

The final, and largest piece of the business is our party venue. Initially upon opening TUTTO, hosting weekend events was not in my plans, however, after receiving numerous requests to rent our space for parties, I couldn’t deny it anymore. Now the party venue demands the most of our attention and time – hosting an average of four events a weekend now, we totalled nearly 150 events for 2022, and are on track to do many more in 2023. Our venue has seen a huge variety of events over the years – birthdays, baby and bridal showers, and retirements; but we’ve also hosted engagements, rehearsal dinners, wedding receptions, and even a small prom. Being in the business of making people happy is terrific, being on hand to help bring peoples’ events come to life provides a wonderful challenge and a lot of joy.

The piece of TUTTO that I’m most proud of is the tremendous sense of community it brings to be a part of this town. My husband and I have grown very close with so many families and friends over the years of running TUTTO, seeing children and families grow and introduce new members, hosting year after year of birthdays, learning new ways to engage our community and bring new faces through the door is an invaluable treasure that will forever define my time as a business owner.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Like most small businesses, COVID hit us super hard. During the first week or two of the initial shutdown we were confident and ready to open back up ASAP. We couldn’t wait to see all of our class regulars and get back to the party business. We soon realized that our dreams were not going to turn into a reality anytime soon.

Our goal was to keep our business afloat, so we had to quickly adapt. Our good friend was sewing and selling cloth masks out of her home and asked if we could partner with each other to start creating masks at our studio and selling them on our online platform. We were very hesitant, as we didn’t believe the shutdown would last long enough to make this effort worthwhile. Within a few days of the offer we had a gut feeling that we needed to take her up on this offer.

Within a day of posting the masks onto our website we had sold hundreds, an inventory we did not yet have. We had orders from the West Coast to the East Coast. We got to work immediately with two sewing machines, a stringing station, pressing the masks, bagging/labeling, and shipping. Within a week the demand was so high we had to shut down orders and start to build an inventory.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

When I first opened TUTTO I was in college and working two jobs. I was already struggling to balance work, personal life, and college, but I knew that I wanted to open a business. In the moment it honestly felt like now or never. I did not have a savings account big enough to fund my business, I did not have anyone close to me that was able to fund my business, and I knew that I did not want to go into debt. The only way that I would be able to open my business was if I just took the leap of faith and worked hard. I started my business plan, worked day and night, had my mom helping with renovations of our location, all while I was studying.

The overhead of TUTTO would not be that much as I was offering classes and simply providing coffee. My instructors would be paid with the class fees and my business expenses would be covered too. When it came to our venue I did not make any purchases until I got our first few birthday party rentals on the books. I took the deposit money, paid by the customer, and I purchased second hand tables and chairs. We used what we had and never stressed about wanting to have better. The goal at this point in my business was to provide the customer with great customer service and a clean venue space. I was confident they would come back or provide a good review if we hit these two marks, because at the end of the day a chair is a chair but good customer service was what paid our bills.

I worked hard to fund my business when the classes weren’t full or the parties weren’t booking, especially in the summertime. Within the first year of owning my business I was working three additional jobs to keep up with my personal expenses, lifestyle, and business operating costs. By year two TUTTO was covering all of own expenses, it felt amazing. I never went into debt for my business, and not wanting to go into debt made me work harder everyday. Within the past few years we opened a savings account that pulled directly from our checking out. We use this money to fund renovations and upgrades while the main account funded general operating expenses.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.TUTTOcarlisle.com
• Instagram: TUTTOcarlisle
• Facebook: facebook.com/TUTTOcarlisle