We recently connected with Stephanie Freud and have shared our conversation below.

Stephanie , appreciate you joining us today. Parents can play a significant role in affecting how our lives and careers turn out – and so we think it’s important to look back and have conversations about what our parents did that affected us positive (or negatively) so that we can learn from the billions of experiences in each generation. What’s something you feel your parents did right that impacted you positively.

Where do I begin? My parents did so many things right. My mom is the strongest woman I know. She is a fighter. What I mean by that is I never once saw life’s obstacles stop her from moving forward. She always got up, scraped herself off and kept going. My Dad, now, he’s a salesman through and through. He’s a fantastic orator and has a thousand stories. He truly believes that every no leads to a yes. Put those two together and you have quite the team. I was 16 when their small business failed and as a family we had to start over in a new city. At the time I was not the happiest 16 year old. We had lived in the same town since I was 5 so I left all my friends that I had known from K-10th grade. I learned so much from them during that experience. The biggest thing I learned for myself personally is that you can survive great change. My mom built a new small business and I watched that grow into a very successful business that carried her into retirement. What made her business so successful is that she catered it to the changing needs of the customer. To do that takes a lot of hard work but when you take care of the customer they are loyal to your brand. My dad returned to sales at that time, but he was good a it. He sold through storytelling. What I learned from him the most was that when you can communicate through storytelling you build relationships with people. Aside from the professional side of both my parents I also learned balance. No matter what every summer they took us kids camping, and I mean camping. In a tent, sleep on the hard rocky ground, cook over a fire. There was no glamping. Again, that was hard work but the rewards far outweighed the difficulty of the work put in. We, as a family, worked hard at building the campsite and sacrificed comfy beds for hard lumpy ground to sleep on. In exchange we have hundreds of memories of singing ourselves to sleep, swimming, fishing, boating and pranks. How all of this impacted me and my journey is when it came time for me to take a risk I had all of what they gave me to remind me of what I could have. I just had to trust in the process. I had worked thirty years in the restaurant industry moving up from employee during high school and college into a general manager as an adult. It was hard work but unforgiving. You worked 60-70 hour weeks, was never really off even when you were off. When I finally took that leap to quit it was because I craved of having what my parents had built. I remembered all those years ago that you can survive great change. I knew because of their example you could make your dreams a possibility with hard work, determination, and perseverance. You could have all of that and find balance. As I write this, I am finding that balance while I camp with my granddaughter traveling across the northeastern part of this great country. When I return home next week, I will be back at it working really hard to cater to my customers as I build relationships with them through storytelling.

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?

When I had quit my restaurant career I didn’t know at the time that a year later I would begin the journey I am on now. My mother had taught me how to quilt twenty five years ago when I had just given birth to my fourth daughter. I now have eight children, six that I have given birth to and two that I am very lucky to have gained through marriage. I am also currently raising my granddaughter. In 2019, my fourth daughter, the one who I had just given birth to when I learned how to quilt, had come to me asking me to make a bag for her. She was going on a trip to Ireland and was needing a bag that she could keep close to her body and possibly be able to have under her jacket. She wanted it to be able to hold her passport, phone, money, cards and a few small items. I searched and searched for such a bag and came across a pattern for a Daytrip cellphone wallet that fit the bill. She fell in love with the design and I ended up making six of them for all of the young adults going on the trip. Then I made three more for Christmas gifts for three of my other daughters. I did all of this while making nine quilts for my children and granddaughter for Christmas gifts. It was actually the mother of my bonus kids that told me I should really think about starting my business. I started to put a plan together, then Covid hit, and I became a mask maker. After about nine months of that I returned to my plan and started making bags. I love fabric! I don’t know of any quilter that does not love fabric. On top of loving fabric, I am picky about which fabric I use. It has to be very good quality fabric. I spend quite a bit of time researching designers and then traveling within Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin to see and feel the fabrics I am interested in. I also love finding custom designers for some of the fandom fabric I use. I have also fallen in love with cork and it has to be Portugal cork because that’s the best quality. I am currently working on a few projects that will merge my quilting experience with bag-making which has been really fun. I also hope to bring in some items in the future that are more on the home decor side using quilting techniques. One of the things I try to establish is that every bag I make is unique, even if the fabric is duplicated I will tweak it with changing the interior, the hardware choice, the zipper or thread color. When doing this every bag is unique to the owner and they know that their bag is not the same as someone else’s.. I also try really hard to listen to the customers I meet at my markets to see if I have the ability to meet their wants and needs. For example, over the past holiday season I heard numerous times at every show that customers really wanted a stadium bag. Over the first few months of the year I did research on which stadiums had which requirements for bag policies. I narrowed down a size that would be universal to multiple stadiums and started selling those this past spring. These have been such a hit that I am visiting a supplier this week to purchase some custom football zipper pulls, zipper tape and webbing. These will be available soon and will be the first bags I will release that will not be unique. They will definitely be here in time for football season. I think the thing I am most proud I of is that I keep learning new things, especially the parts of owning a small business like social media, web design, and marketing. I know those are my weakest points and I own that and try hard to learn more. What I can promise, however, is I will never sacrifice on quality.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

Well, I didn’t start with any capital. I jumped in with what I had on hand. My first purchase was a Juki TL2010Q, which is a semi-industrial sewing machine. Like I mentioned earlier I had been a quilter for over twenty years, which meant I had fabric on hand. I used a small amount of savings to purchase my machine, some stabilizer and hardware. Instead of waiting to put together initial capital I jumped in and purchased what I needed to grow with the money I made from my sales. This is a much slower way for growth but it has worked for me so far. My first year doing markets was 2022 and I was in ten markets. This year I currently have 33 scheduled and am looking at 6 more for the holidays. My advice to anyone that is afraid to start due to lack of capital, jump in! Slow and steady can work.

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

I will be the first to admit that marketing and social media are not my strong points. I am constantly trying to improve in those areas. My greatest strength for growing clientele has been in person artisan markets. Customers being able to see my product and how well it is made in person has gained a lot of trust in what I have to offer. As I grow I am looking to add someone to my team, which currently is just me, to help in the area of social media and marketing.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.StephanieAnnehandcrafted.com
• Instagram: Www.instagram.com/stephanieannehandcrafted
• Facebook: Www.Facebook.com/StephanieAnnehandcrafted