We caught up with the brilliant and insightful RaNae Andrews a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

RaNae, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your business sooner or later

Sooner!

I acquired my first embroidery machine in 2005 just after my mother passed away. I started designing and creating embroideries for families and friends. I worked at that for two to three years but then realized that I couldn’t continue to supply just that group of people with my creations. I was bored and they were inundated with embroidery. I started tole painting, woodworking and doing stained glass to take up my time. I dabbled in other things until about 2013 when I realized that there were other ways I could be creative and start a business to provide me with a creative outlet. I officially started my business in 2013.

In 2013 my children were all grown and out of the house, and in fact had been out of the house for several years. I was looking for new things to do to express my creativity and realized that I had spent nearly 14 years at home with no kids to take care of and had not branched out or expanded any of my abilities. As I look back on that now I can see that I should have started my business right after my children were gone and I was able to afford to buy more equipment.

I believe that had I started sooner I would have been able to expand my skills and abilities more and would have been able to take advantage of the “new” technologies and product innovations that were coming out to help the home-based businesses like mine become more productive. Those innovations also helped us to do the things that had, until then, been relegated to larger, more commercial businesses. I dabbled when I should have doubled. There’s nothing like getting in on the ground floor, and I feel now that I missed that opportunity by holding back and starting off later than sooner. I seemed to be playing catch up rather than leading out.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I have been crafting, sewing, tole painting and making stained glass since the early 80’s. At first, it was mainly making knick-knacks for family and friends. During those first years, I tried many different types of crafts and projects, learning as much as I could. I decided to start a business and my first “company” was called “Naer’s Nik Naks” in 1992. Living in Utah provided me with ample opportunities to attend boutiques and other craft shows and I started to slowly build up a clientele.

I got my first embroidery machine in 2005 with some money I received from my mother’s estate after she passed away. At that point, I started learning how to embroider and digitize designs. Friends and family started requesting embroidered items such as towels, bags, pillowcases, and hats. Then I discovered how cool it was to embroider logos and other things on shirts, sweatshirts, and hoodies. This kept me busy learning and finding new things to embroider. I was doing fairly well and earned enough money to branch out into the vinyl world and purchase my first digital cutter. I put vinyl on wood, wall décor, ornaments, and car decals.

In 2014 I changed the name of my business to “Naer’s Stitch N Such”. In 2017 my daughter-in-law wanted some t-shirts made with Disney designs on them. She didn’t want them embroidered so I purchased a heat press and created my first heat transfer vinyl designs and put them on those shirts. That really started me down the HTV path with all kinds of mediums: shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, aprons, onesies, hats, wood, and ornaments. This has proven to be profitable and really fun. I attended many large boutique shows and continued to build my brand and get my name out.

In 2020 I purchased a sublimation printer and that opened up another world for me. In addition to all the other mediums I was using I was able to sublimate on mugs, shirts and other items. Just this year I purchased a 7-thread embroidery machine and have learned how to use that to embroider multi-colored items in much less time and with much less effort.

I continue to attend the boutique shows as well as create custom designs for friends and family, businesses and schools. Learning new and interesting processes, such as bleaching, is something I enjoy and helps to keep me busy and creative.

I am now starting into yet another adventure. I just purchased a screen printing machine and and a DTF printer coming soon. I am learning how to screen print and then learn another printing feature. I look forward to these new creative avenues and am excited to offer my customers yet more design options.

What sets me apart, I believe, is that I am all about addressing my customer’s needs. I have no minimums when it comes to embroidery, heat transfer vinyl and sublimation. My pricing is very competitive and I provide quick turn around. Those who have called on me to help them are very happy with my work and keep coming back when they need something new, even if I haven’t done something specific before. I’m always happy to learn!

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

The best sources for me have been word of mouth, social media and vendor/trade shows. It’s a toss-up as to whether the word of mouth or vendor shows have been better, but both have been good and I keep doing both.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

Visiting local events and participating in giveaways. I find that going to those events and letting people meet me when they see my products increases interest. I’ve been contacted several times from people hosting local events that would like to have me donate products for charitable functions; after one such event I was told that my products were the most popular and were the first to go.

Contact Info:

• Website: naerstitchnsuch.com
• Instagram: #naerstitchnsuch
• Facebook: naerstitchnsuch
• Other: tiktok: @naerstitchnsuch