We were lucky to catch up with Kaitlyn Uglialoro recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Kaitlyn, thanks for joining us today. How do you feel about asking friends and family to support your business? What’s appropriate, what’s not? Where do you draw the line?

Asking friends and family to support my business was probably the most uncomfortable part about starting a business. Naturally, I wanted everyone’s support but wasn’t sure what their reactions would be. I have a very supportive family so why this worried me, I’m not sure. Once I told them, they were excited for me and asked plenty of questions. They share my social media posts and check in on how things are going. I’m grateful for their support. My friends have been my biggest cheerleaders. They are constantly giving me motivation to keep going and pushing my limits. The day my shop opened, my friends were there promoting me across all platforms. It was amazing!

Kaitlyn, 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?

I am the proud owner of a small bookish business that sells merch related to books of all genres! I have always been a book lover but I really became hooked when Twilight came out. I remember going to the midnight releases of the books and the movies. Two years ago, I created my bookstagram account where I posted photos of books I loved or special editions. It turned into so many amazing opportunities. I’ve built beautiful relationships with so many people who all have a mutual love of reading. I began repping (promoting) for small businesses and influencing for book conventions. Slowly, I turned my love of books into a side business when I started doing personal assistant work for some authors and a book convention. This consisted of helping them with content creation for social media, scheduling, admin duties, and team management. I realized that I wanted more and with the support of friends and family, I got the courage to start my own bookish merch business. Creating designs has become therapeutic for me and learning how to even become a business owner has really pushed me to grow as an individual. I love that I’m always learning something new in the community I’ve built for myself. Some of the items I sell in my store include tshirts, crop tops, hoodies, stickers, and headbands! I have so much I want to bring to the store in the future. And if you’re curious, my shops name is Euphoric Chapters! You can find my online shop at euphoricchapters.com

We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.

When starting my merch business I knew I wanted to be hands on. I researched how I could create everything myself and had a few great friends with experience to also support me when I had questions. I looked into what heat presses were best for what I was looking to do, where to order transfers and materials from, website development and shipping. I had originally ordered samples to make sure everything was what I wanted and the quality was good. There was definitely trial and error with sizing and quality of some things but I was able to figure it out through every mistake and make it a learning experience. I’m so grateful for the support system I have that continues to educate me and push me to do more.

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

I sell on my online store! For me as a brand new business owner, having my own platform seemed like the easiest solution to try at first but I’ve already started looking to cross sell on other websites such as Etsy and TikTok shop! My online shop has been easy to use and efficient but I do love the idea of being able to generate more sales through a platform that gets more overall views from so many people.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.euphoricchapters.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/euphoricchapters?igsh=MTIzZDFzamUwaGF4Zw%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1Gp9BD4uJP/?mibextid=wwXIfr
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@euphoric.chapters?_t=ZT-8t2z0auqZFS&_r=1