We recently connected with Emily Roan and have shared our conversation below.

Emily, appreciate you joining us today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

Well I would like to say that this business idea was something that was 20 years in the making from when I was a young child to now. I was raised by a Mom who LOVED arts and crafts and her mom, my Grammy, was also quite the crafter herself. My Mom always enjoyed attending the local craft shows and I was always in awe of the artisans selling their handmade goods, that’s when the seed was planted. I grew up loving all sorts of different methods of art, I painted a mural at my high school, took as many art classes as I could and learned as much as I could from my Mom/Grammy. Sadly they both passed when I was a teenager/in my early twenties so I didn’t get a lifetime of lessons but I did acquire my love for fiber arts and sewing from them. My Grammy, hand quilted 2 quilts for each of her grandchildren (she had 7!) and she also loved to crochet. My Mom was more of a hobby crafter, I giggle when I look around my home studio now at all my half finished art projects because my Mom was the same way, she would get really excited about one thing, start it, then proceed to get really excited about another project. LOL!

Anyway, fast forward to 2022, My husband and I got our first dog, ODIE, in May! 2 years later in 2024 here, he is now a 70 pound Mini Bernedoodle who is my absolute pride and joy! I never had a dog before so I went off the deep end of spoiling him, and buying him all these little outfits, rain jackets, vests, hoodies, you name it, he wore it and LOVED it! I then thought, “Hey wouldn’t it be neat if I made a few bandanas for him and maybe people would be interested in my handmade products and I could start selling them at local markets?!?” Around late Summer of 2022 the business idea really started coming to life, I could make handmade, elastic bandanas to honor my late Mom/Grammy’s love of crafts and share my love for my dog Odie with everyone! Soon after that I signed up for a sewing class at WorkshopPGH as I needed a refresher on sewing since the last time I touched a sewing machine, I was a young Girl Scout! I took the class, everything came back instantly, and then early December I officially made my first Odie Bear Brand bandana.

My bestie, Lydia, from Serfling Designs deserves a ton of credit as well because once this business idea popped into my head I went to her for help with my brand identity. I had a vision about how my brand should look and feel to my future audience and customer base and wow, she truly knocked it out of the park. She turned Odie into a logo and helped me put all the ideas in my head into reality.

Now as of today, I am getting close to wrapping up my second year of selling my handmade products at markets all over Pittsburgh and Westmoreland County!

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 Emily and I got into this small business world as I was looking for an outlet to express my heart in a way that I felt like I couldn’t really achieve through my full-time work in the Recreation Industry! Doing any form of arts and crafts has always been extremely therapeutic to me and ever since I got my now 2 doggies, Odie and Zoey, I wanted to share my love for them and all dogs with everyone that I came across. I grew up with cats and even though I loved my childhood cat, Frisky (who lived to be 20 years old), SOOOOO much, there is quite honestly no love like the love that a dog can give. When I come home from work, Odie and Zoey are at the door, literally battling to see who can get my attention first.

I kinda told my story in the previous question about how I started my small business so I will say here that I am absolutely so proud and in awe every single time that I leave one of my markets because it’s always a true testament of how much people love their pets, but specifically dogs! I have customers aka friends, now that send me updates on their pets health, when they get a new puppy to add to the family and of course pictures of their furbabies dressed in Odie Bear Brand bandanas. I have created a little community of dog loving people who would do anything for their doggies and those are the people that I want to be surrounded by in this life. I am so extremely grateful for my loyal and repeat customers!

We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.

I currently sell on Etsy which is how I started and what makes sense for the sole proprietorship, business owner that I am. For anyone who has browsed on Etsy as a customer you know that it’s a flooded platform for nearly every art form there is. So for me, I use Etsy to my advantage for inventory tracking purposes and the ease of shipping. When I’m at my in-person markets I can use my square card reader to run the transaction and because it’s linked to my Etsy shop, it will automatically remove it from my inventory. This is a very helpful tool for someone like me who is juggling a full-time job and a small business. Inventory management is a whole job in itself and this perk is a life changer for me.

The next step in my small business journey is building my own website! I’m excited to launch this sometime soon as this will also help me in areas that I am looking into to help foster community and brand loyalty.

So for now, www.odiebearbrand.com goes straight to my Etsy Shop but someday soon will direct folks to my website of my very own.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

For me, it’s all about putting myself out there and applying to and attending new markets in different areas that I haven’t been to before. So I will attend new markets every now and then to introduce my brand to that community. I am really looking for bigger shows next year to focus my time and effort on, and to continue to expand my brand awareness in the Western PA region and beyond.

Also, honestly, a ton of it is also word of mouth through my loyal customer base. They love my products and they want to share it with their family, friends, coworkers, neighbors, etc. It really means more than I will ever be able to put into words when a loyal customer of mine comes into my market tent with a new friend who just rescued a dog who they want to spoil. That means the world to me!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.odiebearbrand.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/odie.bear.brand/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100087282245996&mibextid=LQQJ4d

Image Credits

All photos were taken by me!