We were lucky to catch up with Caissie Roberts recently and have shared our conversation below.
Caissie, appreciate you joining us today. Owning a business isn’t always glamorous and so most business owners we’ve connected with have shared that on tough days they sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have just had a regular job instead of all the responsibility of running a business. Have you ever felt that way?
Every single spring that I have been a self-employed business owner has been the hardest time of my life. Especially being in retail at this time, sales are slow and it’s a hard time of year to make money. And every single year I wonder to myself if I am doing the right thing for me, and my family. And every summer and into the holiday seasons, I am reminded why I am happy as a business owner and not working a standard 9 to 5 job. Spring is slow in retail. Money is tight for most families following the holiday craziness, the cost of fuel through the winter, the cold weather blues are running rampant and it’s just a tough time. But after every winter comes spring, then summer. And just like the birds come back, so do the customers. I look at my kids and I remember that I have never missed an event I needed to be at, I never have to call into work when they’re sick or worry about who will pick them up at school. I look at them and I remember all the free time I have to invest in them and I know even when it’s tough that I am making the right choice to be present with them. Owning a business is hard, it’s a lot like working every single hour of every single day, but with more freedom than you could ever hope for with a 40 hour a week job.
Caissie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
SewFetch dog company is a woman owned and operated business that provides high-quality durable, unique, beautiful, dog collars. I started this business because I could not find any collars that were safe enough for my rescue lab Mia, without sacrificing the pretty looks as well. I wanted pretty collars, so I made them myself. After sharing them on social media, my business literally snowballed when I started making collars for everybody I knew. It is quite literally an accidental business I found myself in. What sets us apart from other companies is that we pride ourselves in the best materials and the most heavy duty quality. I’m not happy if you are not happy and your collar is not safe. I am extremely proud to be selling to over 200 locations all over the world now, considering this business was an accident to begin with. Since starting, I have developed all kinds of our own custom designs as well as use artwork from other artists that make it available for me to use on fabrics. We also source as much of our material as we can from other small businesses. While we have had plenty of opportunities to use a manufacturer, we manufacture each and every collar by hand here in our workshop. If it’s not perfect it doesn’t leave our hands!
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
I literally started with $50 an a plan to make 1 dog collar. I barely knew how to sew on my Walmart kids sewing machine, but I bought some supplies anyway. I watched YouTube tutorials and got to work. The first collars I made we SO bad. Looking back at pictures I am mortified. But from $50 worth of supplies, I made probably 10 collars for friends that saw my first one, and immediately reinvested that money to buy more stuff. When people saw the first few, that’s when I realized people wanted relatable prints for their dog collars- lots of requests were for anchors, so I bought anchors. Next batch more people came with more requests and it just kept getting bigger. Every year from 2016 to 2021 my business grew over 100% YOY.
What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?
So after starting in 2016, sharing on social media, starting the initial snowball, it really started to take off. At the time I was an insurance agent and my husband a merchant marine and we just had a baby (I started this when I was on maternity leave partially because I was bored) Soon I found myself working in the morning before the baby would wake up, going to the office until 5 pm, taking care of the baby until bedtime and working some more after he was asleep, all while my husband was gone for 30 days at a time. It was exhausting, and hard, but the hustle was worth it. I did this for 2 full years while gaining traction with my business, growing bigger and bigger until regularly Sew Fetch was making enough to cover my bills. In May of 2018, almost exactly 2 years after starting, I resigned from the office with a hope and a prayer that I could continue to make enough to stay afloat. It was the best decision I ever made and I have never looked back since. The first Monday after I resigned I remember just sitting in the sun with my then 2yo with no where I needed to be more than I needed to sit there with him and it was the best feeling ever. Today I employ 4 people, one of which is the most amazing nanny who helps with our other 2 kids while I work at my at-home workshop. The kids can come and be in my work, they can play and have fun but still have mom nearby and I can still work and make money while literally having the best of both worlds. Never having to put my kids in daycare or sacrifice time with them. It’s the best.
Contact Info:
- Website: Sewfetchdogco.com
- Instagram: Instagram.con/sewfetchdogco
- Facebook: Facebook.com/sewfetchdogco
Image Credits
they are all my photos