We were lucky to catch up with Shana Benhayoun recently and have shared our conversation below.
Shana, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Parents play a huge role in our development as youngsters and sometimes that impact follows us into adulthood and into our lives and careers. Looking back, what’s something you think you parents did right?
I feel very fortunate to have grown up in a family that breeds entrepreneurs! My family originates from Poland during World War II when my grandparents were displaced from their homes and forced to build a life for themselves without help from anyone around them. Both my grandmother and grandfather, individually, used their birth-given talents to build a business for themselves. My grandmother had a knack for languages, spoke 9 fluently, and found a job at the United Nations as a translator. My grandfather, a natural businessman, built up his business with his brother and would continue to grow real estate & retail companies throughout his life. Both my grandparents worked every day of their lives, and this work ethic trickled down the line to my father and eventually to me. Working was never not an option in my family. Whether working as an employee for another company or building something of my own, I was always encouraged to work at something that made me happy. As a young college graduate, I dreamed of being a mental health counselor and working with incarcerated people. However, after taking all the necessary steps to land my “dream job,” I quickly realized a void in my life. That job was not bringing me the happiness I thought it would. So, in 2018, I decided to make SBT Stitches, my side hustle for many years already, my full-time job, and I feel fortunate to have had the support of my parents from the beginning.
My father always told me that if I wanted to own a business, I had to learn how to do every person’s job within the company. The only way to learn it was to work for an already established business in the field. He didn’t care what business I chose as long as I knew the business from the inside out. During my undergraduate years, I dreamed of opening a hair salon after graduating. At that time, my father supported the idea and told me to get a job at a hair salon, which I did, only to quickly learn how much I hated it. This went for needlepoint as well! When I had the idea of opening a shop, and recently leaving my mental health counselor job, I got a part time job as a sales associate in a local needlepoint shop. While I only worked there for a few months due to my pregnancy, I fell in love with walking into the needlepoint shop every day! At this point in my career, I can say that I know how to work every job in the industry – from needlepoint designer, needlepoint teacher, and now, needlepoint shop owner!
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
My history with needlepoint began when my great-grandmother, Lola, picked up her first needlepoint, long before I was ever born. She seamlessly instilled a love for this needle art in her daughter and subsequently her granddaughters. In my case, my grandmother persevered through several unsuccessful attempts of immersing me in the craft until my Senior year at the University of Miami when my affinity for needlepoint was born. As a novice needle pointer, I took every class offered at my local shop and quickly picked up an abundance of tips and tricks to elevate my stitching. At this time, young needlepoint designs were nonexistent; you could not buy a canvas online to save your life. After countless failed attempts of finding a canvas that spoke to me, I learned to paint my designs which led to the first step in my needlepoint career.
Painting a needlepoint canvas is not as simple as putting a brush on canvas. It is a very intricate and detailed process of converting squares into a design (think pixilated art). I began by painting just for me, then for friends and family, until I opened up shop. As time progressed and my skills improved, I earned a reputation in the industry as the go-to shop for custom canvases.
I had an opportunity to own this part of the market because no one else was doing anything like it. At my height as a canvas designer, I had waitlists that were six months long and required a deposit to secure a spot. I have always been fortunate in my path in the sense that my growth has been both natural and organic.
During my days of painting canvases, I contemplated opening a brick & mortar shop but the timing never felt right. After giving birth to my second child and taking a six-month maternity leave from painting, I needed a change. I knew it was time to literally set up shop. It all fell into place so quickly and easily that there was no stopping this ball from rolling. I opened my doors in June 2022 and it has truly been a dream!
What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?
Being able to turn a hobby into a job is what most people strive for, but few succeed at. SBT Stitches did not start as a brick-and-mortar shop; in reality, it took many years of sweat and tears to build. What sets me apart from many hobby businesses is that I did not wake up one more and say, “I am going to start a business today!” Instead, everything in my company has happened organically and slowly, which is very important. When I first fell in love with this craft, I was a college student with no budget to keep up with my stitching. One thing everyone must know about needlepoint is that it is an expensive hobby. I first began as a needlepoint canvas designer. In the beginning, I was painting canvases only for me, then for my friends and family, and eventually, I opened up shop for others to enjoy my work. I worked as a mental health counselor in the Broward County jails at the time and would bring canvases to work to paint on my breaks. At this time, needlepoint was not on the internet AT ALL. If you wanted to be a successful needlepoint designer, you had to be represented by the brick-and-mortar shops, primarily owned by older women who did not understand (or like) the modern take on needlepoint. Following this path, I attended the needlepoint trade show to get my designs out there. I had just left my job in the jails and was determined to make it as a designer! I distinctly remember at that show, some of the women walking past my booth and flashing me dirty looks while making remarks such as “I would never carry these designs in my shop” or “Young designers are going to ruin the needlepoint industry.” I felt defeated at this point but determined to find another way. By late 2018, I worked part-time in a local needlepoint shop where the owner encouraged me to not listen to those shop owners and sell directly to customers. You have to understand that at the time, only a handful of designers were doing this, and they were essentially blacklisted from being carried in the brick-and-mortar shops. This was a significant risk that I took but one that I am so happy I did!
After that, I quickly found my niche as a needlepoint designer in the industry. I found that many people were on the hunt for custom canvases. This worked out great for me since I never enjoyed painting the same design multiple times. At the height of my custom canvas painting time, I had a many-month-long waitlist that required a deposit to join.
While the pandemic was brutal for many businesses, the pandemic was single-handedly the most significant milestone of my career. In August 2019, I launched my first-ever online beginner’s needlepoint class. This class consisted of a kit with everything one would need to stitch and a two-hour live online course, in which you got to keep a copy of the recording for reference. While my classes were always sold out, I only taught one class per month. On March 14th, 2020, I shared an Instagram story where I asked if people would be interested in me adding more courses to the schedule since everyone was going to be stuck at home. I received an overwhelming response. Within the month, I had so many people interested in the class that I was teaching 2-3 classes per week! Soon-there-after, I added intermediate and advanced levels of courses to my schedule. By the end of 2021, I had taught over 500 people how to needlepoint!
The pandemic’s impact on my business gave me the strength and courage to open up my brick-and-mortar shop. I built my customer list, gained their trust and loyalty, and had the experience necessary to make this significant step in my career!
How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?
We all know we can only have a successful business with our customers. I have always had a talent for making anyone I am speaking with feel like my best friend, which helps me a lot with my relationships with customers! Social Media, specifically Instagram, is my primary source of connecting with my customers. While I mainly show content directly correlating to my brand, I also like to give my followers a glimpse into my personal life, often sharing my husband, children, and dog on my page. Someone once told me that followers tend to trust you more if they feel they know you. I fully believe in this and implement it daily!
Another tool that I found helpful in keeping in touch with my customers is text messaging. We live in a world where people do not want to pick up the phone to call others but feel more comfortable texting. During the build-out phase of my store, I decided that I was going to have a cell phone as my store phone so that my customers could text me to place orders. This is extremely useful for getting the customers from the thinking-about-purchasing stage to the purchased stage!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.sbtstitches.com
- Instagram: @sbtstitches
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/sbtstitches
- Youtube: www.youtube.com/sbtstitches
Image Credits
David Moreno Photo @davidmorenophoto