We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jennie Sutliffe and Rachel Theede. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jennie and Rachel below.

Alright, Jennie and Rachel thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with the decision of whether to donate a percentage of sales to an organization or cause – we’d love to hear the backstory of how you thought through this.

When we first started Endless August LLC, we knew we wanted to add in some way to ensure we give back to our community so within a couple months of forming the LLC, we reached out to a couple local non-profit organizations to work with them. We currently have “The VREC Bracelet” for sale on our website and 10% of all proceeds will go directly to the The Veterans Resource and Enrichment Center in Saint Cloud, MN once the promotion is complete. We also have “The Pink Bracelet” where 15% of all proceeds will go to The Susan G. Kohmen Foundation to help with breast cancer research. We have many organizations near and dear to our hearts, including Police Officers and Nurses, so we will be working on those discounted promotions in 2024. Every person who wants lasting jewelry that doesn’t break the bank is important to us, so giving back and constantly thinking of new ways to do just that, is extremely important to us at Endless August.

Jennie and Rachel , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

We met in 2008 when we both were on our High School dance team. When life became busy and we started our own families, we grew even closer as our oldest children are only 10 days apart in age. One night, we were having a regular kids playdate and Rachel had mentioned seeing this new trend of permanent jewelry. We both looked into it and since I was going to be graduating with my master’s in business that spring, we decided to throw around the idea of starting a business as it had always been a dream for both of us.

We truly wanted to have a meaningful name that was impactful for years to come and that is how Endless August LLC came to be. The meaning of Endless is just that, endless opportunity, endless jewelry, endless family and friends. August is the month our two oldest children were born. We can see our brand continue to blossom as we add in more and expand our company and explore even more avenues in the future!

The logo of the Aster flower represents Rachel’s youngest son, while the blooming flower represented Jenn’s baby boy who coincidently, was born this past August.

Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?

Honestly, get ready to be told “no” a lot.

The competition for permanent jewelry in general is fierce. You can very easily get discouraged in this industry as the selling and making of modern jewelry in general has been around for many years, so it’s easy for small businesses to get passed over. Permanent jewelry is a very niche market so truly understanding what your current and potential customers want is vital to maintaining a business and steady clientele.

As we are both very busy moms as is, we’ve had to learn to be able to sacrifice times where we were so used to being home and get out into the community to show who we are. Our company is just us two so sometimes it can be discouraging and difficult, especially at the beginning of forming, we had SO much work to do. We believe we’ve hit that pivotal moment of knowing we have a strong tenacity to keep Endless August thriving and what we don’t know, we will learn and when we get told no, eventually someone will say yes. Owning a business is a rollercoaster ride, no matter what you do.

Any fun sales or marketing stories?

The people we have met along the way are really what has kept us going!

We started with traditional marketing, explaining who we are and what services we offer. Within the past 6 months we’ve really listened to what our customers want and adapted marketing techniques that would make people want to come back to us. Offering discounts, although over time, can take a toll on any company, we’ve found it to be crucial to making sure customers feel comfortable with price points. We also added in loyalty cards so the more a customer supports our small business, the more they’ll get rewarded in the future. We’ve found the more we listen and change marketing as seen fit, the more we get to help our returning customers. Really caring for your customers and listening to their desires for the perfect jewelry goes a long way. We recently had a customer leave a review saying it felt like she was just talking to her friend when she came to an appointment and that’s exactly how we want our customers to feel when they leave an appointment or party with us.

We are so excited and grateful for this company and our community, we have a lot more coming from Endless August!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.endlessaugust.net
• Instagram: endlessaugustllc
• Facebook: Endless August LLC
• Yelp: Endless August LLC
• Other: TikTok endlessaugustrcm

Image Credits
Valde Photography