Remember quarantine round one? Watching Tiger King, Outer Banks, making whipped coffees and learning TikTok dances.
Now I don’t know about you, but I also remember seeing a ton of people wearing tie dye. Naturally, I decided to give it a go and make my own tie dye crewneck.
This is how my first one came out and I was in love. I wore it every other day and wanted to make more.
I sent my best friends a photo of the crewneck and they asked me to make them some so that is exactly what I did.
I found a website to order plain white hoodies, stocked up on tie dye colors and got to work. They came out better than I expected and I could not wait to ship them out.
These are the very first ones I sold and let me just say I wish I had one for myself in every color. My friends went above and beyond, having mini photoshoots in cars, outside, and in their bedrooms each showing off their custom outfit I had made for them.
Eventually they convinced me to start an Instagram shop. I was very skeptical but what did I have to lose?
I made an Instagram account called @debaesthetics and started posting the pieces I would make. My friends started messaging me and placing orders. Before I knew it, I had a small tie dye business.
If I’m being honest, it’s harder than it looks. Coming up with prices, finding an online website to buy the plain clothing items from, finding dye, and executing it.
I really loved making different pieces and started to add different options to my small shop. Rather than just making crewnecks, I added hoodies, t-shirts, and zip-up sweatshirts.
All items had the option of being cropped of course.
Instagram played a key role in this small operation. Once customers received their orders, they would take a cute picture and tag my account. Their friends started following the shop and began placing orders too!
While I do not have hundreds of followers, I had very supportive customers that told their friends and family members about the shop.
I felt very lucky and my favorite part was seeing a new Instagram DM notification because it meant someone else wanted to buy something.
Every item I made was unique in some way. No two items could ever be the same because of the way I had tied the item and the amount of dye I used. Sometimes I felt like some kind of scientist, mixing two colors together to try and get the right shade a customer wanted.
Throughout this experience I learned a lot about the realities of having a small business.
Here are a few things that I learned:
1. Always, always, always have people Venmo you before you order the items.
2. Make sure people know that each item is unique.
3. Including a "thank you" note in each package goes a long way.
4. Shipping is not cheap, so take that into consideration when selecting prices for each item.
4. Lastly, enjoy it and don’t stress about the little things!!
I put the shop on hold once the Fall semester started because I was too busy and have not had the time to keep it running. I may start it back up again in the future so give the account a follow and hopefully I will be back soon!!