We were lucky to catch up with Taylor Golen recently and have shared our conversation below.

Taylor, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

From a young age I was always surrounded by creativity. Everyone in my family was always good at something, whether it was cooking, gardening, woodworking, or crafting. I was taught to always try something new, you won’t know if you like it if you don’t try. My Memere has always been a role model for me – we had dinners every Sunday at her house growing up and during that time we always tended to the garden or helped with a project. One Sunday she was working on a macrame hanger for her new plant and I was so intrigued. It was crazy to me how knots and cord could make such a beautiful thing. This was something that she had learned growing up and I felt so honored to learn from her. Macrame clicked ever since.

Fast forward to 2018. I had been practicing and learning new knots. Some of my family and friends would reach out to me to have a custom piece made. It really made me think – could I make a side business out of these hangers? I decided to try a shop on Etsy and that’s how I came up with the name The Knotted Finds. It could pertain to so many things as long as there was a knot involved.

Come 2020, Covid had rocked the world hard. We were all told to stay home, and the days went by slow. All we could really do was keep ourselves busy somehow. Plants became a huge part of Covid. People were starting to collect, share and bond over them. Macrame and plants essentially go well together so I then started to propagate my own collection and sell on Esty and locally.

In January 2021, I was unfortunately laid off from my corporate job in Boston. I immediately felt a huge emotion of fear, doubt, and uneasiness. What was I supposed to do – everyone was getting laid off and there were no jobs available at the time. For about a week, I tried to come up with ways I could make a career for myself. Since I was little – I had always dreamt about being the first in my family to have their own business. My Etsy sales were flooding in, and it finally dawned on me – could this be my business? Within 2 days of that thought – I went to visit my favorite plant shop at the time and mentioned to them that I’d love to start my own business. It just so happened that the owner was selling a 1970s coachman camper that she completely gutted and used as a mobile shop. The way the universe works sometimes is funny – I couldn’t help but listen to it. I remember calling my fiancé and saying I was buying a camper. He thought I was nuts, but I reassured him I had a plan.

Come May 2021 – We completely transformed the camper into a tropical jungle. We had our first pop up at a small business in Hudson NH and made over 50 sales in one day! We were in awe – I couldn’t believe that it had all worked out. We traveled with the camper all over NH that summer. We would pop up at other small businesses because we have to support each other. I met so many great people and made so many friends that summer.

The colder months were coming, I had to either find a corporate job and close the camper or search for a retail space. I wasn’t ready to give up on my business just yet, so we secured our first retail location in Amherst NH. We opened in October if 2021 and haven’t looked back ever since! We love our small business community and are so thankful for everyone who has followed us since day one.

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?

The Knotted Finds provides healthy tropical plants, workshops, and local vendors. We want everyone to feel at home when they walk through the door. We love to get to know our customers – it helps us cater to their needs and find plants that will best suit them. We offer a loyalty program where frequent shoppers can earn points and get rewarded. We want everyone to be successful in our space whether you are a vendor or a shopper.

We provide workshops to learn various crafts like terrarium building, macrame, and pot & sips. We wanted to create a space where people can come together and have a great time.

We also offer plant styling for offices and salons as well as party favors for special events. We’ve done baby showers, weddings, and teacher gifts! If you have an idea – we can make it happen.

What sets us apart from most greenhouses and shops is that we want everyone to leave with the knowledge to succeed. We won’t let you leave with a plant we don’t think you can care for. We are always a message or call away as well. Plants are supposed to make you happy not stressed. Good vibes are what we strive for!

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

Social Media has been my best way to reach out to all my customers. It’s where I post restocks, new items and sales. I also use email marketing as well to send updates and sales as well. We offer a loyalty program for every $25 you spend with us you receive 5 points. When 100 points are accrued you receive a $20 coupon to use on any purchase. It really gets our customers excited to rack up points. On birthdays we give away a free handmade cement pot to home a new plant.

We also love to host pop ups of vendors and we host markets and events as well. It really brings the community together. We have a blast when we see everyone supporting each other.

Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?

There was a time last year that I thought I’d have to close my doors. We were struggling so hard. We had only done 2 pop ups with the camper that summer and took almost $4k to stock. We are learning as we go but now, we know that wasn’t the smartest decision. If we are going to stock it, we are going to pop up consequently vs only 2 times. It hurt us bad. Our retail location was also not in a very visible spot and lacked signage. Once our plaza neighbors moved our sales plummeted. We could barely make rent and didn’t know what to do.

The universe came through once again. our engineer neighbors were looking to expand their office space and confronted us about our space. We started looking for a new spot and within a month we were packing up and moving. To top it off our local tv station reached out to do a segment on us. We feel so blessed to be able to make this move. I always say everything happens for a reason and it truly does.

This taught me that if you put your whole heart and soul into what you love – you can overcome anything.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.theknottedfinds.com
• Instagram: instagam.com/theknottedfinds
• Facebook: facebook.com/theknottedfinds