We recently connected with Taylor Dean and have shared our conversation below.

Taylor, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?

I can say with confidence that I am entirely the person I am today because of my parents. They both came from very humble beginnings and provided a wonderful life for our family. The strong foundation of love, trust and compassion they share with one another are all values I constantly try to replicate in my own relationships.

Growing up, I was constantly pushed to be the best version of myself and accept nothing less. I was taught to treat people kindly and with respect and to build meaningful relationships. I was ingrained with confidence (probably a touch too much in hindsight) and no idea I had was ever too big. To this date, I’ve never taken a dollar of outside funding, from my parents or anyone else. Instead, I was encouraged to put my head down and get scrappy if I didn’t have the money. I taught myself how to do things like build a website, marketing, design, SEO, etc. I dove head first into making myself an expert in as many things as I could. And man, its been a lot of work… However, I am incredibly thankful they pushed me to keep going and not give up (I owe you one for talking me off the ledge many of times, Mom).

My dad owned several different companies while I was growing up and watching him over the years taught me lessons no book or college course ever could. He always says, “If you do not ask, you do not get,” a motto I remind myself of almost daily. There isn’t a single day that I don’t call him with a, “Hey can you talk me through this really quick?” kind of question. I wake up everyday with the goal of creating a life as wonderful as the life they’ve given me – and to make them proud.

Taylor, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Tart By Taylor started like a lot of small businesses today… during quarantine! I started making our classic pill coasters in my parents kitchen to distract myself from the craziness of the real world. After lots of encouragement from friends and family (and maybe a few martinis), I decided to sell my coasters. Before I knew it, I’d sold 1,000+ coasters and Tart By Taylor was born!

Fast forward to 2023, Tart By Taylor now has over 200+ designs. In addition to our resin designs, we also make acrylic coasters, acrylic trays, champagne flutes, and decorative book boxes that are all designed, manufactured and shipped (with a whole lotta love) in the heart of Dallas, Texas.

While Tart By Taylor happened by accident, we think it’s a big part of what makes us so successful! We have been featured in several magazines and media outlets including Good Morning America, Southern Living and Good Morning Texas. In addition to our retail site, we also wholesale in over 1,500 stores across the country.

Our team has grown into a small but mighty group of 5 employees, and we pride ourselves on being women owned and operated. It’s our goal to always keep our brand fresh and fun, and we design every item as if we are gifting it to our best friend. Whether you’re shopping for your friend, your mom, or yourself, we hope you find something special at Tart that’s unique, colorful, and brings you lots of joy!

How did you build your audience on social media?

Our social media audience really began to grow when we started to be super consistent with posting on our channels every day. We are diligent about sharing relatable and engaging imagery and videos while also sprinkling in product drops along the way!

The best advice I can give for building a social media presence is to be consistent, but also to not take yourself too seriously. Jump in on the funny video trends, share your day to day business tasks (even the not so glamorous parts), and try to bring something creative to the table that your audience will enjoy. Become a brand that people can relate to and want to root for! I get the BIGGEST kick when people come up to me and ask “are you Tart By Taylor?!” because they’ve seen one of our post online. We spend a lot of time and resources on social media and UGC and I think its lead to a huge part of our brand awareness.

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

As I mentioned before, Tart By Taylor was started in my parents laundry room. When I first started, I was making everything by hand, party of one! Literally pouring my love (…and sweat and tears) into every product. I was also building our website, fulfilling all orders, running customer service and trying to build a social media presence. As we gained popularity and retailers started to show interest in carrying our line, I couldn’t keep up with demand. It was gut wrenching turning customers away and I was becoming incredibly inpatient. I wanted to grow fast, but there was literally just not enough hours in the day.

I knew I had to bring in help, however, I had never had a product manufactured before and had NO idea where to start. After many hours spent on Google, I turned to overseas manufacturing – and it was great! Until it wasn’t… I found a manufacturer to produce my products incredibly cost efficient, however shipping times and shipping costs were insane. I also didn’t have the cash flow yet to order in bulk and I didn’t have months to wait for the product. So, I found myself stuck… yet again.

Back to Google and through trial and error (and hundreds of samples), I figured out a way to bring manufacturing back in-house. I now get to directly oversee all production and quality control. We’re also now able to turn products around in less than 2 weeks, which has allowed us to offer customized products to customers. We’re also able to test new products on a small scale before launching to the masses.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.shoptartbytaylor.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tart_bytaylor/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shoptartbytaylor
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tmdean/
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@tartbytaylor