We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Joy Pelt a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Joy, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?
I have always loved sewing since the age of 7. I was taught the basics by both my great aunt and grandmother. My grandmother worked in a sewing factory so I would tail along with her and watch the workers in the factory making clothing, sometimes even lending a hand. I don’t remember how long I did this but I do remember one day when she told me the new bosses would not allow her to bring me and I was upset.
Instead, I turned that into making my own clothes, like skirts, blouses, cabbage patch clothes and even stuffed animals. I would have my mom, grandmother or someone buy the kits I picked out and start sewing on a borrowed Singer sewing machine in my bedroom. One year, I had my first sewing machine given to me it wasn’t brand new but it suited just fine and it was a Singer too.
As years progressed I became more skilled and would try new challenges. When I was in middle school the Home Economics teacher got really upset at me because she would show us a project on the over head and I would have it done by the end of class when everyone else was just starting. Several times I was sent to the office for being disobedient until one day the counselor had a meeting with me, mom and the teacher to inform the teacher that I was clearly more advanced than the class and she should just let me get the project done at my pace for the grade and then be an assistant.
As years continued, through high school I had to take a home economics class again that involved sewing and aced the class ahead of my peers, once again assisting the teacher.
As life continued along, I went to Harford Community College and took business and marketing courses for 2 semesters before deciding to join the U.S. Army. I initially signed up Reserves doing Basic and Advanced Individual Training (AIT) in Fort Jackson, SC. My Military Occupational Skill (MOS) was Administration Specialist (71L). I graduated top of my platoon/class and was stationed at a reserve unit that was about 2 hours away. After speaking with my recruiter on the travel and the other opportunities out there I made the decision to switch to National Guard. This switch brought me closer to home and stationed me at the Combined Support Maintenance Shop in Havre de Grace Maryland where Captain Johnson was thrilled to hire me on Full- time. I updated the Safety Occupational Procedures Handbook which was 4″ thick, did payroll, managed jobs, orders, schedules for the other soldiers, and many other tasks.
After my term ended, I decided not to re-enlist and continue the education at Medix School of Towson and become a Medical Office Administrator. I worked in many fields like Physical Therapy, Psychology, General Practice, Oncology and Pediatrics. I have to say even though it was stressful and tasking, working in Oncology was my calling. I was on-call alot with one of the nurses because at the time we were the ones in the office who were not married and didn’t have families so it landed on us 90% of the time. The patients called us the “dynamic duo” as we knew each others routine like the back of our hand and honestly ran that department like a well oiled machine.
When I decided to move in with my boyfriend it was months later that he proposed. I decided to set up a small area in the basement and turn my hobby into a little side business offering alterations for those in the neighbor. As word got around we had people knock on our door more and more to the point where I had to put a clipboard and sign in the door. People would write their name, number, and what they needed. I would contact them to schedule a time for them to come by.
When I went wedding dress shopping and said Yes to the dress it was apparent that it would need alterations. That was the first time I was scared as I had never worked on a wedding dress, only regular clothes, sundresses, bridesmaid dresses and a handful of prom dresses. So I decided after my mom’s input that it would be best to let them alter my wedding dress. I went back for my first fitting and was told it was not ready and needed to come back in 3 hours. So we stayed in the area, did some shopping and grabbed a bite to eat. When we returned I tried on my dress to find out that the bodice was lopsided and hem was uneven. I began crying while my mom went to find the manager. While she was doing that I sat on the dressing room floor, collected myself and turned my dress inside out to look at what had been done. The manager walked in and apologized and said they would make it right to please put the dress back on so we could re-measure and see what was wrong. Well, I knew what was wrong. They only took in the one side of the dress and the hemline was crooked. I politely said no I want a full refund of alterations, discount on the dress and I am taking it today. My mom tried to talk me out of it but after a lot of arguing and witnessing another bride going through the same thing, we ended up getting a refund and taking the dress home. I ended up fixing my own dress except for the bustle which they had already installed and was okay.
After we got married, I pushed my side hustle a little more. Then we decided to start a family and my husband didn’t want me returning to the medical field to bring germs home, especially since the first pregnancy didn’t work out and I was really sick on the next pregnancy. At that point, I started having people want me to do more things for them. Once Mackenzie was born and then Will 21 months later I did up my first website and pushed the side hustle more to gain more business. In 2006, I purchased a wedding dress at a consignment shop so that I could teach myself more about wedding dresses as this was the first time since my wedding dress I had worked on one. In 2007, we bought my husband’s childhood home which provided me a larger area in a basement bedroom. I worked out of this area helping many brides, bridesmaids, prom girls and customers with regular clothing alterations till the studio above the garage was ready to open at the end of 2009.
Once I got up to the studio and re-did a new website my business grew. My customers were leaving reviews, spreading the word and dress shops were adding me to their seamstress list. Each year, I had growth.
In 2010, I decided to work part-time for the holidays at the Kohl’s thinking it would be just seasonal. I later found out they wanted me to stay on and I eventually took a Part-time supervisor position. This allowed me to help my husband with steady income while I was still growing my business and taking care of our family.
In May 2015, I resigned from Kohls as it was getting in the way of me growing my business more and the kids were older, active in sports, homework was becoming more challenging and other family things were taking precedence.
In 2017, I received my first award from “The Knot” and every year after, I just received the 2024 award.
Joy, 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?
Well, the first question explains a lot of how I got started and the discipline.
I will say persistence has been my key and the drive to push a hobby into what it is today. As many can probably relate to when someone tells you that your hobby will never amount to anything substantial, DO NOT LISTEN TO THEM… PROVE THEM WRONG! I did just that, not only proving them wrong but everytime they have needed my help in altering a dress or other service, I have reminded them of it. Now it is funny to watch when people come up and talk to them about how much I helped them or someone they know.
I have made dresses, costume, skirts, shirts, blouses, embroidered, made memory items and more.
I remember the first time someone came to me asking if I could turn her wedding dress into a baptism dress for her soon to be granddaughter. I was so nervous and told the lady I had never done one and if she was sure she wanted me to do it. She obviously said yes so I carefully steamed it out, took a lot of pictures and we discussed what she wanted and the ideas I had. Piece by piece I carefully took parts of the dress apart and had her come in so we could collaborate along the way and about 3 months later she had her finished product and was in love.
I remember the look on her face the day she picked it up, like it was yesterday. She was so appreciative, tears were welling up in her eyes and she said she knew she brought her dress to the right person instead of sending it off. It was in this moment I realized that my talent was giving people and myself something more.
Seeing the look on a customers face when I finished a custom job or when a bride walks out of the dressing room seeing her dress fit to her body is just indescribable and so heartwarming. This is where I am reminded that I am giving my brides a fun, relaxing and quality experience much different from what I had many years ago.
Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?
I can honestly tell you that in funding my business it was challenging. Especially since I had a couple people telling me I could never turn my hobby into anything profitable that I could make a living off of. So when doing things for people I had to learn quickly how to budget even more and price things out so that I could get the job. As you know the cost of supplies were much cheaper than they are today and cost of living was a lot lower back then. So most of the time I was working for way less than minimum wage and not even taking a paycheck the first 5 years of business. I was putting everything back into supplies so that my husband wasn’t having to fund my business since he was providing for our family doing his Full-time job and working side jobs for people. Once I got to the point, where I was feeling more comfortable about the services I was offering I devised up my first contract for customers to sign and this allowed transparency and set me up so that I could start paying myself a little something while most still was invested back into the business to build equity and purchase supplies. Slowly year by year, I would pay myself a percentage of the job, giving people the option to buy their own supplies for the job or me buying them and charging for my time plus cost to do so. Eventually, I got to the point where I could pay for small things our family needed and took the burden off my husband some. I just kept pushing because I knew I could make this hobby something and no one was telling me otherwise.
Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?
I would say my most effective strategy for growing my clientele is just treating people the way you want to be treated and being transparent. I love working with people, listening to what they want and explaining what I can do to help them get that. I have met some really amazing people doing this and gained great friendships along the way.
When a customer comes to me I know they are nervous as there is a stigma that those who offer alterations don’t listen/communicate, are hard to work with, do what they want and send you down the road, etc. but that’s not what I wanted in my business. If you remember back to my experience with the bridal shop for my wedding dress alterations. That was a pivotal moment for me. I did not want anyone to every have to go through what I did. So when a customer comes in I talk to them and try to create an ease. I go over the process so that they know I am being transparent in the service I am providing them but want to continue to see them as well as their friends, family, neighbors, etc. in the future. If they are unhappy, we work through it and come out with a stronger trust in the end.
Sure there are rare times, as in any business, when someone just can’t be made happy and that is usually because there is something else going on in their life and I just happen to be the one they take it out on. For these instances I have policies built in my contract.
In closing, my clientele is pretty amazing and I love putting a smile on their face and welcoming them back each time they come to see me. I enjoy helping those they refer to me. My clientele loves that I have an updated website to get information from, schedule their appointments, pricing, services offered, and pictures to justify my experience.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.thejoyofsewingservice.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejoyofsew/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheJoyOfSewingEmbroideryService/
- Twitter: https://x.com/TheJoyOfSew
Image Credits
None taken by me except for last photo taken by brides MOH.