This side of the Hustle Spotlight Q & A features, 34-year-old founder of the 34-year-old founder of the Needlepoint store Krista Leray. Connecticut lives in Westport and lives with two children. Answers have been edited for length and clarity.
Picture credit: Penny Lynn courtesy. Krista Leray.
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What was your side to your side or the initial occupation?
Before starting a new-year-old needle-to-point store that offers manually painted canvas, accessories and more, I have had a full-time effect that works on the basis. I started a blog in 2013, but I just took him a year ago a year ago before the penny line. While driving the blog, I had a corporate career in the Great League Baseball I worked on more than five years of social media.
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When did you start from a side haste and where did you find the inspiration for it?
First of all, I entered the name of the work, and then I received the college at the University of Kentucky. I knew the perfect hobby to return to love as I approaches a ring-bearing cushion and pandemic for my father and my husband for my husband and my husband.
I quickly clinged to my linen pavement, and I was disappointed both the man and online needles and online needles. It was an antique; There were no many sites with a good user experience, the shops and designs called to order were very adult. I saw that I wish I had more fun and better accessories and canvas, so I started doing them after my search came short.
Picture Loan: Penny Lynn courtesy
What were the first steps you took to get your side to the ground? How much money / do you do to start investing?
When I started to paint my own linen, I was not like that in the minds of starting a job; It was just a hobby for me. Probably I have painted a blank canvas with Etsy and Paint in Michaels and painted the Ralph Coffee Cup for myself. When I shared it in my instagram, I asked many of the followers to buy one, so I knew my watchers were interested in the needle point.
As I started looking for cutting accessories for myself, I found that many special items were a 100-item minimum. At that time, I had a business bank account for my blog, so I used this money to order inventory, and at least I could have at least I could always sell my needs from them to my watchers. After preparing several canvas and the request, I realized that I had enough ideas to put a bigger collection online. So I got the smallest shop package, I started to get the needs and project bags and started to hire my friends and family to help you paint.
In general, the initial inventory and shipping materials for our accessories, canvas ribbon and so on. I spent about $ 5,000 in his initial inventory, but none of these could do in the canvases for a painting.
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If you could go back in your business trip and change a process or approach, what would it be, and how would you do it differently?
When I look back, this is 22; If I knew I know today I could make it different. But on all sides of my hands, my hands brought a large number of knowledge and evaluation that continued to form a business.
Initially, every canvas that took many hours, I took a lot of hours, but my work was in fact for free and supervised my invention. If people knew that there was a foreign drawing, so much time and energy would save me a lot, but myself taught the value of a hand-colored linen.
Similarly, if I could hire people at the beginning to take more than a plate than me, but I learned all my own classes and I knew how I wanted every side of the work. I do not think that Penny Lynn, if I did not have my fingers to all sides of the work at the beginning, if it was such a thoughtful and effective brand.
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When it comes to special work, what is especially difficult or surprising, and surprisingly and surprisingly, should be prepared for this type of work, but aren’t it?
Penny Lynn has been so successful as a business, as well as our need to innovate in the industry to revive the cultural love to a needle. I never expect the amount of impetus from the sellers and industry vets. On the board, people took back to our thoughts and work.
Today we found the partners who believe in our growth and build with us. In 2022, when our acrylic line is launched, it is not innovative or unique, but today we have a lot of patent for design, and this is one of our most sold lines. We get a slightly small wholesale margin from the industry standard because the spare point is accessible accessible. Our wholesale partners will not be successful at first, but it has been proven vice versa. When I learned to close the blogging and noise, I prepared a thick skin, and you stood shaking the industry, I closed me to a penny.
Picture Loan: Penny Lynn courtesy
Can you remember a particular instance when something is wrong? How did you make it?
I clearly remember one of the first bags of bags, which did not go as planned. It’s selling so quickly that it was a beautiful project bag from the skin and PVC! While packing them, I tested several zippers and were very disappointed and despite the perfect work of examples, it was very disappointed to find it difficult to open. I contacted each client that commands them and not to the standards of the bags. If they want to keep the bag or her, if they want to make a bag or discount, I suggested a full back.
This was one of my greatest rules in my business: when something is wrong, I have to work to have property and immediately. Our society was commendable how active we were and ended up to keeping the most bags. We put the rest of the bags in clean and now we worked with our team and with our sellers to ensure quality control measures.
How long did it take to see consistent monthly income? How much did the side haste earn?
After the launch, it was the only consistent revenue in the first six months and during the launcher. Everything will be sold so quickly so that we will not remain in the inventory until the next start. It was not a continuous way to carry a job, without a job, without a sales of one or two days or two days. We have started to produce more inventory to prevent this and have started to provide our penny collective and bring designers to bring expanding our proposals. Our designer team became productive for us in the last five years and continues to grow today.
In two, we started to see more consistent income, and more than $ 30,000 per month. The popularity of our beginnings began to rise to the level and we could better predict inventory to keep our income continuously. It was so great for us to reach these numbers so much for us, but now we do it in a day. Every year, it differs sharply in terms of demand, and we reach an infection, which we need to increase every six months.
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What does the growth and income look like now?
Penny Lynn is really interesting that it has doubled or three times every year. In 2024, we earned $ 4.4 million in revenue, and we have already surpassed it and followed it to double in 2025. Currently, it is an average of $ 570,000 per month. If I think our ceilings may be, we go in and double each year. Our growth was so explosive that this is the next year or therefore I expected to start fixing, but still have the opportunity to work.
As we expand our proposal, the brand is always competing with new ideas, start new designers under Penny Linn, and bring a new accessory to the market. At the beginning of this year, the opening of our store in Norwalk was a big stage for us, and now we are exploring what the store can be seen. I do not see our growth slowed soon.
Picture Loan: Penny Lynn courtesy
What do you like the most from running this job?
Honestly loves I do very much and performs a big one inside. I feel so much pride, excitement and joy in Penny Linn and what we have created in five years. This is not something I can imagine as my career or the growth of penny lini. We have not seen many bumps on the road and not continue to succeed after success.
I’m proud to be “from a stitch for a stitch” of the penny and there is nothing more satisfied with a needle to be able to do something in my collection. I give the ability to work with our sellers to create the products of my dreams and it is excited to see how much our society loves.
I find so much joy in the change in which we brought to the industry and bring the needle point in the forefront for a new generation. It is crazy to sit back and think that the brand has revived the tradition for centuries and to live for generations for generations and become something that will develop.
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What is your best job advice?
First, “If you don’t ask, there is no answer.” People are afraid to deliver because they are often afraid of rejecting, but my motto is always asking, and if they do not answer, it is not yet. If they do not respond, this is not the end of the world, but the opportunity to be yes.
The second is to learn the difference between constructive opinion and criticism. If someone doesn’t like you or your business, nothing will happen to say never and it is not worth listening. However, if they are a loyal fan and often a trader and comment on how a product or process can be improved, it is worth listening. It is easy to lose in negative reviews, but if you learn what is worth listening faster, you will make better decisions for your business.