We recently connected with Jessica Bittner and have shared our conversation below.

Jessica, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Often outsiders look at a successful business and think it became a success overnight. Even media and especially movies love to gloss over nitty, gritty details that went into that middle phase of your business – after you started but before you got to where you are today. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. Can you talk to us about your scaling up story – what are some of the nitty, gritty details folks should know about?

In 2014, I was working at a job that should have been a dream. I had graduated the Fashion Institute of Technology with a Bachelor’s Degree in Fashion Merchandising and had found a job being a buyer for a gift shop in my town. No commute to NYC, home everyday by 5pm with my kids, free reign to buy and cultivate a store however I wanted. However, with 3 year old twins at home, I wanted more. I wanted something that was challenging in my career and I felt unchallenged and bored. I decided to take a class locally on making a custom piece of jewelry. The class taught us how to handstamp a necklace. I took that class without realizing how much it would change the course of my life and career. After I made my necklace, stamped with my twin girls names of course, I took a photo (which I am now embarrassed to say I posted because it was so awful), and posted it to my facebook page. I had a few friends request one with their kids names and from there I started a facebook page and my idea was born. A few months later, in September 2014, I launched my Etsy shop. I had no clue how to run an e-commerce store, but absorbed myself in Etsy Groups on Facebook trying my best to learn the in’s and out’s of SEO and how Etsy worked.
A few years in, I was making 6 figures on Etsy and working 100 hours a week. It was too much for me and I had become pregnant with my son, so something had to give. I quit my “real” job at the end of 2016 and I knew I had no choice but to keep this up and make it bigger and better than what it was.
I continued selling on Etsy for years, but handstamping became something that EVERYONE started to do and the market was way too saturated. I was challenged daily by other artisans pricing their items lower, taking ideas, and even the website Wish.com stealing my photos and selling “my items” for 99 cents. It was awful, it was scary, and I didn’t know how I was going to keep this up. I had 3 kids at home and no choice but to pivot my business.
Once the pandemic hit, I was terrified. I thought it was all going to be over for me. I had a great run, but who on Earth would be buying jewelry during a pandemic? I remember in March of 2020, sales were dismal on Etsy and I told my husband, I felt like this was the end of it. But again, I couldn’t let that be. I had been running this business by myself for 6 years by that time and I knew in order to keep it afloat I had to change it up.
Turns out 2020 was our best year yet, online boutiques became a huge thing, people were started their own boutiques right from home and were looking for unique items to offer their customers. No one was going out to shop at malls, everything that year was done from home, including all the shopping needs of the consumers. This is where I saw an opportunity to change things up. I decided to change my entire business model and switch from retail Etsy sales to wholesale online sales. I stopped handstamping and purchased 2 laser machines and a some other equiptment so I could bulk make items without my two hands doing all the work. I created my own website for wholesale, I started a wholesale facebook group, and I tried marketing the best I could to all of these new online boutique owners. By the end of 2020, I voluntarily shut off my 6 figure Etsy shop because I could not handle both the retail and wholesale world. Things were amazing. I hired some help, finally, and didn’t feel like I was doing everything on my own.
When 2020 ended, I was so nervous that it would all end again and 2020 was just a fluke. But with persistence, dedication, and my extreme need to not fail, I kept on growing. Focusing on wholesale was the best thing I have ever done for my business. It is hard everyday to think of new ideas to keep the store buyers coming back for more. There is so much competition yet again now across the board with wholesalers. Everyday I see it, everyday I persevere forward to try and make my brand unique.
Now, in 2023, it’s definitely a different time than it was from 2020-2022. Things are not as “easy” as they were. The boom has ended, the economy has shifted, yet I am here making sure I continue to grow my sales numbers this year higher than the last year. I am still here showing my 3 kids now, that I am able to pivot and grow and not quit.
I am very proud to now have a small team of people helping me, we employ 4 women and I feel like I learned that I cannot do this alone. I do need help and when you finally realize it and ask for it, the possibilities are endless.

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 brand is focused 100% on handmade items. We do not import anything from China. Everything is made by me or my team out of our warehouse in Connecticut. We specialize in laser engraved wood and acrylic accessories, jewelry, and branded merchandise. We also have a sublimation machine where we make cups, bags, socks, shirts, magnets, keychains, and other items. We have a snarky 100% soy candle line and also offer mini freshies and soaps. We design business cards, postcards, and clothing tags for boutiques as well and print them.

I love helping boutique owners brand themselves which means offering items that they can personalize with their logo, QR codes, and more. With that said, we brand items such as lip balms, marketing materials, QR code signs made of acrylic or wood, keychains, stickers, and more!

I am proud to say that we employ all local moms and pride ourselves on our items being unique and handmade. This is so important to our brand. I want to offer things you can’t find with other wholesalers, things you don’t see at the trade shows, and items that can be 100% customized. This is what I think sets us apart and makes buyers interested in what we have to offer.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

My reputation is solely built on who I am and trust. I have a background in customer service and have always felt that within my own business, if I wasn’t giving 200% customer service, it would be a fail. I think this is what helps me. I love to get to know my customers on a personal level. I know when their birthdays are, how many kids they have, where they live, what items they gravitate to… Because of this, we build a friendship that can then form into a business relationship. This is where trust comes in. And if something ever goes wrong, which it does, because let’s face it, I am human, my customer service is what helps me retain these customers. Customer service to me is treating people how I would want to be treated if the situation were reversed. I think this goes a long way to help create a reputation for myself that makes people feel they can trust me and my business.

How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.

I started on Etsy initially in 2014 and grew a great retail business there for 7 years. I felt like Etsy really allowed me to find customers I never would have been able to reach otherwise. However, when I pivoted my business into wholesale, I knew the only way to do this would be to grow my own website. I really focused on creating a site that showcased our products, a section about me, and photos and stories, so that customers could see and feel who they were buying from. I think having your own site is great! You can customize it how you want, you can truly use it to create your brand. The hard part about this is no one is “sending” people to it like they do with Etsy or amazon. You have to figure out ways to drive business to your site. No one knows who you are. No one is going to find your products like they would by using an Etsy search engine. It is much harder to grow your own website. You have to do all the legwork, but no one else owns it.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.lastingimpressionsct.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/getlictwithjess
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/lictwholesale

Image Credits
All images were taken by me, Jessica Bittner