We recently connected with Sarah Kolis and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Sarah, thanks for joining us today. Innovation comes in all shapes, sizes and across all industries, so we’d love to hear about something you’ve done that you feel was particularly innovative.

I design and alter bridal gowns! Bridal alterations are the bread and butter of the business. In most alterations shops, the process if very quick in uneventful. When starting my business, I really wanted to focus on growing the bridal alterations service even when others told me that was a very low-level service in comparison to designing and creating gowns from scratch, almost as if alterations work was not honorable. I saw the opportunity though, and I innovated new ways to make the bridal alterations experience so much more than just sewing. The level of customer service I give brides is elite: I require appointments to spend on-on-one time with them, offer various enhancements to the experience, provide service options beyond just the alterations, I make a incredibly smooth experience, I am willing to do ANY alterations and custom work (like adding sleeves), EVERYTHING is customized to the individual bride, and we even end with a goodie bag filling with must-have items for the wedding day. Over the years, I have refined the Sarah Kolis experience to be incredibly luxurious no matter the budget. My biggest inspiration is 1950s couture Paris, elegant, and ultra-feminine. As this business is unusual and rare, there is no roadmap to follow, and I have innovated every step of the way, ultimately leading to the beautiful bridal studio we created last year. It is so much bigger and better than any other experience brides will find! It is their once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be treated and feel like royalty, adding to and enhancing the wedding experience as a whole!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Sewing was always my favorite hobby growing up; I could operate a sewing machine before I could write my own name! I always loved to sew clothes for my dolls, myself, and my 3 sisters. I would always answer the “what do you want to be when you grow up” question with “fashion designer” in which I would envision the most beautiful frilly dresses while saying so. My wildest dreams as a little girl are a picture-perfect vision of exactly what I am doing right now! I entered into the bridal industry specifically while working at David’s Bridal during my summers of college in alterations, and fell in love with it immediately. I started taking custom and alterations jobs on my own, as well as really growing a t-shirt quilt business through college. Today, I offer a variety of services and products within the bridal gown world and beyond, including complete custom couture bridal gowns and formal dresses made in the USA, bridal and formal gown alterations, steaming services, preservation kits, vintage re-designs, heirloom products, semi-custom sewing patterns, and so much more! I help women feel beautiful! As women, we often have mental blocks to our body image and I am so honored to be given the opportunity to help individual women fit their gown absolutely perfect so they can see their own incredible beauty within themselves! I desire having a unique approach to fitting gowns in that I want the women to help lead the conversation in what needs to be changed, and never to pressure or demand alterations be done a certain way. I want to give women the full luxury experience of feeling beautiful in a gown, no matter the budget! I offer a large range and variety of services to give each and every women the opportunity of a lifetime! The Sarah Kolis Studio is an incredible couture atelier based in Metro Detroit, Michigan!

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

Believe it or not, I was an automotive engineer for 6.5 years! I started my business in high school, then kept it as my side hobby for an entire decade before taking the leap! My business was hardly profitable in the beginning, and I didn’t see the larger potential it had for many years, I was greatly under-selling myself for a long time. I always worked with dresses too of course, but my real business sense began with t-shirt quilts for all my fellow classmates at that age. Custom dress work and dress alterations found their way to me, I didn’t necessarily seek out that work for the first several years as I did not know how, and truly, didn’t see the potential in that kind of work. As covid hit and we were all re-evaluating our careers, I took the first big booming bridal season of 2022 as the ultimate opportunity to finally do this thing ‘actually’ full-time. Before I left my automotive job in which I designed the patterns for car seats, I was genuinely juggling two demanding full-time jobs and hardly slept at night, I worked around the clock! I took the leap in February 2022, coincidentally two days after showing at New York Fashion Week for the first time, and never looked back! The decision was extremely scary, as I had the type of corporate job that any parent would be so proud of. That job helped me buy my first house and all the assets necessary to invest into my business. It helped me be personally financially stable while I took the most ridiculous risks with my business, that stability gave me the bravery to do so. So deciding to leave that job was extremely difficult, but looking back, it was the best decision I ever made!

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

I have a BFA, a MBA, and an MSM (Master of Strategic Management). However, none of those degrees prepared me in entrepreneurship as well as my current business coach, Sallie Ogden, with The BRIMM! All entrepreneurs should have a business coach. Entrepreneurship can be a very lonely experience, and having a coach/teacher/mentor by your side is extremely beneficial. Sallie Ogden herself is an immense wealth of knowledge; her life goal is to help women make more money. I believe entrepreneurship is difficult, but even more challenging for women. I happened to join The BRIMM community at the perfect timing, just 2 weeks after I left my corporate job. Sallie Ogden helped me fight through many limiting beliefs of being a woman in business, and I would not be anywhere I am today without her and The BRIMM, it changed my business and my life forever!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sarahkolis.com
• Instagram: @SarahKolisDesigns`
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sarahkolisdesigns/
• Linkedin: Sarah Kolis
• Youtube: @SarahKolis4232
• Other: Podcast: “Dressing Up with Sarah Kolis”

Image Credits

Mikayla Scheibe Photography
Penny Ralene Photography
Mallory Tahy Photography
J & N Studios
Brittany Allen Photography