We recently connected with Karli Hausman and have shared our conversation below.
Karli, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you come up with the idea for your business?
Lyte Up Clothing started by accident from a fun outfit idea. It was 2013 and I was living in New York City at the time heading to a festival called Electric Zoo. I had purchased some el wire and decided to hand stitch myself a hat with the word DOPE on it. At the festival over 50 people stopped me and asked me to take down their information to make them one. Fast forward a few months and my first etsy shop was opened! I started off by making a few staple designs but I always, and still to this day 10 years later, offer customization. All of the profit I made I would roll back into my business which enabled me to get more product line accessories, It grew and grew and grew into the business it is today. Now we offer over 300 products and designs!
Karli, 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 personalize your party & Lyte Up your night! I consider myself a very unique creative person by nature. We help everyone stand out at their events that attracts a little bit of attention. It’s really an experience as well as a product that we are selling. We’ve had the pleasure of making products for Missy Elliott, Jack Ü, College Mascots and Teams, Color Runs, and much more!
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
My very first custom hat order on etsy was with a design that needed to be very specific. I was very new at stitching with el wire so it had to be edited so many times the customer wanted a refund. I thought about giving up and I’m so glad I didn’t because that never happened again in my entire 10+ years we’ve been open! Now I’m at the point that I’m making 2-3 custom hats per day for married couples, tv shows, famous DJs, music artists, shows, colleges, pro teams and more!
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
Another piece of resilience is the fact that I was running Lyte Up Clothing as a side business on top of my 9-5 job. I worked in college athletics so there are times I would get home from running a game at 11pm and I would still have to do a hat order to get in the mail the next day. It was long hours and I didn’t have much free time to learn how to grow the business. I took our stay at home orders during covid as an opportunity to finally get some much needed course and lessons on online marketing and SEO searches. It launched my business to a level that when it was time to go back to work I had to pick between the two!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.LyteUpClothing.com
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/lyteupclothing
- Linkedin: Lyte Up Clothing
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/lyteupclothing