We were lucky to catch up with Rebecca Clarke recently and have shared our conversation below.

Rebecca, appreciate you joining us today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

I think one of the biggest factors that affects someone being successful at just about anything is having the willingness to put in the time it requires to succeed. Whether it’s earning a college degree or working in your chosen career, you have to work hard and be dedicated to giving the endeavor the time required to succeed. One of the things that contributed to the growth of my shop was the loss of my full-time job during COVID. I suddenly had more time to put into the development of my products and designs, as well as actual time to create products and listings to sell my handmade items. I have always heard from people who ran their own business that there is always something to be done, always a task to be completed and that it’s often hard to balance work/home life. I have experienced this as Northwoods Cabin Baby began to grow and became profitable. Without a doubt, I work more than when I worked at my therapy job. Like, a lot more. But luckily, my shop operates from the upstairs of my house. I can put time into my shop and still be around my family. I am also fortunate to have a great support system in my husband. He is the primary meal maker and always helps with everything so I can get my work done. Crocheting takes time and there are many nights that I am up late getting my products completed so they can ship out the next day. The creation of my pregnancy announcement boxes is also time consuming as I make the cards from hand. I have a high standard for the products I send out, so I put in the time to create quality items. I think this has contributed greatly to my shop being successful.

Rebecca, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Growing up, I watched my mom and grandma create handmade, beautiful things. It seemed there was no limit to what their hands could do….crocheting, knitting, sewing, card making, basket weaving, stained glass art and quilting, to name a few. I learned that if they were sitting, their hands were busy creating something beautiful. I soon became like them, starting to learn how to crochet and to counted cross stitch at eight years old. I completed my first afghan and designed and quilted my first queen-sized quilt by age sixteen. Though I had a “real” career for 25 years, my hands never stopped trying to find a way to make my passion be my job. I am now the founder and owner of Northwoods Cabin Baby, a shop that designs pregnancy announcement boxes featuring crocheted items, as well as crocheted baby hats, booties, sweaters, pillows, blankets and baby gift boxes. I am very focused on the quality of the items I make for my shop, wanting each and every customer to be beyond happy with the items they receive. With every item I crochet, I mentally ask myself “Would I be happy if I bought this item?” I continuously focus on product development, always searching for the best yarn for particular items and finding new ways to alter a design to make a better product. I love picking new colors for items, tailoring the hues I offer to coincide with current trends and customer’s wishes. But I also get to play with my love of color, offering bright beautiful colors as well as neutral, natural colors for a new little one. I absolutely love rainbow items, so despite the extra time they take me, I offer various baby items in the colors of the rainbow, as well. I also offer organic yarn choices for parents that desire natural products for their baby. It is important to me to offer heirloom quality, handmade items at Northwoods Cabin Baby. Everything in my shop is made to order (except some premade blankets I sell) and personalization is offered free of charge. I very much operate my business with the principle that my customers are always right, because their satisfaction is the absolute heart of my business. As a mama to four and grandma to one, making items to announce and welcome new littles to the world brings me great happiness and satisfaction. Being a mom has been my greatest joy in life, so being a part of that in my customer’s life is something I never take for granted.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

One of the biggest pivots in my life, without a doubt, would have to be my change of careers in my 40’s. When I was young, I always wanted to help people. This drove me to choose a career path as a Speech-Language Pathologist, which was achieved with the completion of my Bachelor and Master’s degrees. Following graduation, I worked for twenty five years working with clients of various ages and conditions. I loved helping people but was often very frustrated by managers who focused only on one thing- generating as much money as possible. While there is nothing at all wrong about generating a profit, I had so many Rehab Directors through the years who attempted to push myself and other therapists into providing therapy to every patient who came into the building, solely to create revenue. It didn’t matter if the patient actually required therapy services or not! This seemed like a constant battle in so many of the places I worked through the years, the never-ending battle to stand up for myself and do what was right. This honestly just resulted in me not liking my job much at all. On top of this frustration was just the sheer desire to be creative and find a way to support my family doing something I truly loved. While working in therapy, I attempted several different avenues of selling items that I made. My mom and I made beautiful jewelry that we sold in a shop at the mall and we also sold our handmade items in craft shows. I also opened an Etsy shop selling handmade jewelry and lanyards which was unsuccessful. In 2017, I launched Northwoods Cabin Baby on Etsy. I continued my work as a therapist while attempting to grow my business. When COVID hit, I lost my job and it had a huge financial impact on my family. My business was not even profitable at that point. Losing my job turned out to be a blessing, as it allowed me to focus on so many things with my business that I couldn’t find time for when I was working and raising my family. I did return to therapy work briefly once therapy services were again allowed, but my extremely supportive husband encouraged me to to resign and focus full-time on continuing to grow my business. My shop has now had close to three years of continued growth and I’ve never looked back.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I think the best example of this would have to be trying to grow my business when COVID hit. I am sure that many business owners suffered through the same difficulties I experienced. Finding supplies to make my products was the main difficulty. Businesses I bought yarn from closed, then reopened, then closed again or didn’t have my needed yarn in stock. It was also difficult to find the buttons that I use for my items. I remember several day long trips that my husband and I took, searching for supplies. One day we traveled for nine hours, going to different stores in a 2.5 hour radius to look for supplies. I found it so hard to choose different yarns and supplies, when I had put so much time into carefully sourcing and selecting what I had used previously. Much of my time during this period was spent obtaining replacement items as I could or changing what I could design and sell based on the supplies I was able to obtain. Shipping was also difficult and I spent much time communicating with customers and sending out replacements when packages went missing in the mail. Ultimately, this stage of my business taught me to be flexible and to realize that I could be adaptable. I even found some supplies that were better and improved the product I could make/design. I realized that change is inevitable and at times even needed in the running of a business.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.northwoodscabinbaby.etsy.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nwcabinbaby