Her Embroidery Store Made $100k in One Month: Abby Price, Founder of Abbode

0:00Hey, business besties. Welcome back to the female founder world podcast. I'm Jasmine, the host of the show and the creator of the female founder world universe. Today I'm chatting with Abbey Price, the founder of Abode. You are now entering female founder world with your host Jasmine Garnsworthy. Abbey, how are you doing? Good, thanks for having me. For people that don't know Abode, what are you building over there? I am building a custom embroidery business that I want to disrupt the whole industry of embroidery. We love what you're doing. Let's go over a couple of milestones so people can like really get a hold of where you're at, where the business is at, and help kind of like put some tangible feelers around your story.

0:42What are some things that you've achieved in the business lately? Yeah. So we actually started off as a dry floral and, well, originally it was dry floral, and I would make these arrangements in my apartment and walk them around people in the city, which then turned into me sourcing vintage homeware to go with it. This was all right before COVID. And then during COVID, I ended up moving back home to Boston where I kind of did this for a bit, really focused on vintage because that was when that was like blowing up during COVID. Everyone was like thrifting and flipping and fake, it was basic marketplace, all that stuff.

1:18And so I was doing that. And then I moved back to the city for my last year of grad school, because that was like kind of the free time I had to allow me to do these kind of side hustle back to New York. And I just kind of was like, what am I going to do now? Like I'm finishing up grad school. I was studying fashion and I was like, it's such a terrible time for getting jobs. And I saw a couple other young women open up boutiques in the city. And I just thought to myself, if they can do this, then I can do it. And I had done a couple of pop-ups that went well. So I just decided that I was going to open a store.

1:54I only had like 3 ,000 followers on Instagram and everyone was kind of like, don't you think you should get more of a following before you like go to in person? And I was like, no, I'm just going to do it. So I got the idea in my head about a month later, I found a space about a month after that I opened the store. And then I did that for about a year and a half to two years. And then we ended up pivoting into doing embroidery. And I didn't realize how big that was going to become. But now we just celebrated three years since we opened. And that's the full. Thank you. And that's the full business now is all embroidery, no vintage, no dry floral.

2:30Amazing. And you also just had your first 100K month. Yeah, this past December. That was a huge goal of mine ever since I opened was I wanted to hit 100K in one month. And this year for holiday, we finally had a scalable product. And I think that really what made the difference to be able to do that. Okay, we're going to get into all of this. But the question that I that I really have for you is around that turning point and that pivot from vintage to embroidery and how that happened. So that one was like, it's kind of a long winded story. So I'll give you guys the spark notes. But basically, I thought that embroidery would be cool and fun.

3:10And I've now come to realize I'm really great at just kind of like innately like predicting trends and trend forecasting. And I actually bought my embroidery machine in January of 2022. And it ended up sitting in my store for months and I never touched it. I like it was in our basement so no one saw it. And I just didn't have anyone to help me. It was the classic founder story of I'm going to work in the store. I'm going to run the business. I'm going to do all the creative. I wanted to do everything and I couldn't. So the machine sat. And then finally in 2022, I ended up hiring someone to a girl to come in and intern for me.

3:52And that summer, so about six months later, she finally came in. She got the first person to train, to train the next person. And we were kind of doing some of the embroidery, but it wasn't really a main focus. Like I had a little sign that said, like, ask us about our embroidery. And it was not connecting with anyone. And this was also, I'd say, right before the trend of it really started taking off. And she came in and then we finally had it going, but it still wasn't really sticking and connecting. And so then in March, things were just had taken such a turn. The economy had changed so much since COVID.

4:27And things just we just needed to change. And the machine ended up needing to get serviced. So I was like, OK, we'll send it out. When we get back, instead of putting it back in the basement, we will do a little, you know, free embroidery weekend. Like if you buy something, you know, you'll get embroidery added for free and we'll come up with some like fun designs, whatever. Cute. And so we did that and it ends up just going so well. That was March 2023 that we pivoted the whole business to focus on that. We have three machines. We're actually getting an office in Manhattan soon. And we're just like we're just going for it.

5:01That is so cool. I, I'm trying to like, we're not a visual medium. And I think that people need to see your brand and the way that you do this embroidery. It feels very different to like, I think maybe the way that the average person would think about embroidery. It's very like Gen Z and cool and young and fresh. And you've also partnered with some really incredible brands that I think like help kind of speak to the aesthetic that you're leaning into as well. Can you talk to what some of those partnerships were and how they came about? Yeah. Because they're big ones. Yeah. And when they were as well.

5:41I'm really – I love to follow the timeline. Yes. So I am such a huge, huge, huge believer in manifesting things and networking and just like getting an idea in your head and making it happen no matter what. So two of our biggest partnerships that I got for us were Jerf Avenue, which was working with the Tilda Jerf brand, who's like a really large creator. that's so huge yeah and then another one was Levi's so those were two of my like huge vision board brands and with Durf Avenue I just just I knew they were coming to New York for their pop up like their last not the most recent one the one before and I was like I'm we're gonna work with them in some way like I just know for a fact that we are and so I was like figuring everything out like I bought their product making content it was like not sticking but I was like I'm not giving up like I know I'm gonna make it happen and then the day like they were arriving in New New York on like Monday and the Sunday before I met someone or I saw my friend and I was telling her I need to work with them you know it's next week whatever and she's like oh I'm actually um friends with like the head of their communications team or their PR team let me connect you so she connected us and I was like hi like I want to do this for you guys so I made a bunch of stuff for them they loved it I was able I had like a 24-hour turnaround time but I was able to do that for them and they had their napkins our napkins at their dinners they had they had our coffee napkins at their press previews and I was able to like get in there with them and then they returned for their most recent pop-up and we ended up I went over and like saw them I'm friends now with the team and we ended up doing an embroidery collaboration where you could if you bought their pajamas you could bring them to a boat and get them custom embroidered and get your name added to them so cute yeah so that one was really special and then with Levi's it was kind of the same thing when did that happen what year is this um so Levi's happened for a note in January this past January the jerk avenue the first version of that was september of 2024

7:37no no that hasn't happened yet last year yeah september 2023 which is wild because it's only actually a few months since you it's only a year since we've done all of this that's why like i get the date so confused because there's just so much going on um but the levi's one it was like they're on my vision board. I was like, we are working with them. I'm making it happen. And then my friend ended up last minute inviting me. She did a collaboration with them. So she last minute, I got invited to attend the like event with their team. And it was like in Brooklyn, it was raining. I was like, and I live in Manhattan.

8:11So it's a kind of like a hike to get there. But I was like, you know what, I'm going to this and I'm going to make, I'm going to get a connection out of it. A hundred percent. And I did. I've been to many events with the same intention. Yeah, exactly. So I went and I met the team and I pitched myself to them. I was like, hey, like, yeah, I'm friends with, you know, this creator. But like, I also have this business. I think we could do this together. And then I got their email, followed up with them. And then they ended up reaching out to me. And we were a partner of theirs for Fashion Week this past Fashion Week.

8:39Amazing. Or this past January. And we had a like we're a gifting suite with them for three full days offering custom embroidery. Wow. That's so cool. Congratulations. That is amazing. Thank you. Something that I'm hearing in your story is like the fact that you're in New York and like how big that is for your growth and the way that you're networking. What impact do you think that that's had in your business? Am I right? And assuming it's been big? Yes, definitely. I think that's like made my business. I mean, I started off as just a store without really much of a following or much of anything.

9:13and I think being in the city that's the way I was able to get my start was with all the people and the foot traffic and I made I used to be in the store every day so I made so many connections and met so many people just physically being in the store and meeting people and now it's like I go anywhere I go I meet people and I'm constantly pitching me and abode like I had been dying to work with Cezanne and they're our neighbor on Elizabeth Street and I went to an event and the woman who does their marketing was standing outside and I met her and like briefly pitched myself. So just any time like those those types of things wouldn't happen if I wasn't here.

9:51100%. Something else that you're doing really well is your organic content. You've never paid for ads. And do you do like influencer gifting? Yeah, I do. But only but very, very organically. Like I only work with people that I'm friends with for the most part or people I know I'll get content of or who are actual fans of the brand. I don't. You don't have like an influencer agency and like a strategy. It's like very organic. Yes, very organic. Okay. Your content's awesome. It does really, really well for you. Talk me through some of the. First of all, let's talk about some of like the viral hits that you've had, what they were and why you think that they worked.

10:30Yeah. One of our biggest items that went super viral was for Valentine's Day. I came up with an idea where you would put lipstick on and then kiss a piece of paper and then we would take your exact kiss mark and embroider it on boxers for like no you should just do that forever yeah i would do that for a birthday yeah yeah we have it now you can an anniversary yeah you can do it for anything okay i'm going in yes um and you can also if you're if you're listening to this and you don't live in new york you can also order it on our website um and you can take a photo of your lips that you kiss on a piece of paper too.

11:03But that was just like came to me for Valentine's Day. And I made two videos about it. One was like a gift guide where I included it. And one was just like showing the process. And those just went so viral. Like we sold hundreds of pairs and we had to cut off on like January like 29th for Valentine's Day. So we only had an order window of like five days and it blew up so much. And then we ended up like fulfilling Valentine's orders like through March because we got so many orders. And I think, you know, it's so discouraging a lot. It's really, even for me, I was like, you know, making my boyfriend watch my videos and like dissect why some of them would do better than others.

11:43And if you have a really strong and creative idea, then the video a lot of times will kind of speak for itself. Like just making content for the sake of making content a lot of times is not going to hit or land. It might help, you know, the algorithm them if you're staying consistent but like you need it to be at the heart and the root of it something really interesting and creative for it to really respond yeah I think that's such a good thing to call out and I feel like you're constantly coming up with really cool creative ideas like all of your collaborations have been really interesting and really fun do you do you feel like you have some kind of process or like a way that you nurture that in some intentional way or is it just you love this business you love what you're doing these ideas are like flying at you all the time how do you feel yeah I think it's a combination of the two I think that I love talking about projects and like brainstorming out loud and like collaborating with others like I think that is a huge resource for me like I lean very much on my team or even like my closest friends who I love their taste and style to be like what do you think of this like this is my idea how can I tweak it whatever.

12:48But I also think it's like, this is just like what I was fully meant to be doing. I think I'm just like naturally so like talented at coming up with like random creative ideas. And like, I can just come up with you, give me a topic and I'll just, I can come up with 10 ideas in a minute. Yeah. I love that. Let's have a brainstorm. Yes. Anytime. For my business. Yeah. I, something that I find really interesting about you and we like talked about it a little bit before with with Instagram and TikTok is this idea of like you don't need to have a million followers to get those hundred thousand dollar months in your business and you have what like 20 ,000 followers or something like that yeah we have 30 ,000 on Instagram and then my personal TikTok is kind of the only TikTok we use for the brand as as of now that's super interesting yeah and I have um like 26 ,000 followers on that one yeah and it's driving all this business view and it's driving business in store as well like in new york not just online no both i mean our website we're actually launching a new website very soon which is going to be so exciting and a huge game changer so we keep it's like we drive as much traffic as we can to our website but it's like we basically make it impossible to shop there because of all the different ways you can customize so we're actually building a custom ink style website for our products which is like basically like a create like a create your own item portal like on the website with like you can drag and drop and adjust the sizing and type and things like that um but you know I so getting people there you know it'll be a lot easier on from social media once that's operable and easy but um yeah I use I have myself as kind of the tiktok because one I do our own so all of our social media so I don't have time to manage to at TikToks.

14:34And two, I think that people read through it, everything so much that it's like me talking. It's like I'm our biggest influencer in a sense. It's like I'm a person that people are building an actual online, you know, like relationship with, like you build with influencers. So when I'm showing these things and sharing these things, it like just hits better than if it's like a nameless, faceless brand account with no personality because they're getting to know me you know and my taste and my style do you ever want to sell this business or is this business forever okay so you'll have to change it to a brand account eventually yeah that's true that's true i it's one of those things where it's like having a face tied so heavily yeah your business is like genuinely a superpower and it's the one thing that like levi's can't do yes not and they need you because they can't do that totally um But at the same time, it's this like, okay, well, do you want to like scale a business that you can move yourself out of at some point?

15:35That's so true. And it's, yeah, it's something that I think a lot of brands in the community like think about and talk about. Yeah, definitely. And me too as well. Yeah, I know. It's, it's, I mean, my, I think like saying I have all these ideas, it's like I want to start five more businesses. So it's like, I feel like I really, yeah, it's like, I feel like I really hit this like niche here. And it's like, I have this like amazing thing and how do I just grow it, scale it, sell it, and, you know, and then move on to the next one. It's so hard to kind of, well, like I find it hard to have that mentality of like build, scale, exit when you're genuinely just like so deeply embedded and invested and lit up by the business and what you're doing yeah that I'm like there's no formula it's kind of just like this innate thing within me that's like powering this thing I don't know how to how to like replicate that and create processes and like yeah oh yeah I don't I don't create processes I have people who do that yes at this point that is I have like just started working with someone who's helping me with that because yeah I'm like what's a process I don't know Natalie it's like yeah she wants a process from me I think yeah no I totally got that I think that I am so creative that I could do so many different things and I think that with with a way I love coming up with ideas it's like I kind of like fell into this embroidery thing and it's such a great outlet for like the my creativity and my ideas that I have and so it's like if I can like master this and do this once here like I could help so many businesses do the kind of same playbook and like or even just be like make the money I want and then like consults yeah it's so cool seeing somebody do something like in real life a physical bricks and mortar store I think we hear so much doom and gloom around small business especially in that like boutique space bricks and mortar but for you it's like the lifeblood of your business 100 are you when you look at the split between e-com and input and your store is it 50 50 is it mostly your store in store but that's because you know we have this bad website so that's right that's what's so crazy exciting is like if we can imagine the growth online is there's no ceiling yeah we can only reach so many people in new york you know um we still have i mean there's a lot yeah yeah still have a ways to go to reach everyone but No, they won't.

18:07So I'm excited to get to a point where online overtakes, you know, in person. But with the store gave me the opportunity to have this business because I I needed to just like make money right away. And I was able to do that with the store. I mean, you know, it depends how you define like how much money you need to live in New York. But like I was able to generate enough off the bat to be like, OK, this works not rather than like drowning in all the random websites out there. So I think it's you know, I like to say I don't pay for marketing and I don't do paid ads. But our store is basically in a marketing expense.

18:44I feel the same about our events. Yeah. So it's like without that, we would not have remotely built the following in the customer base that we have because we're able to like kind of drown out the noise of like every single website that you can find on the Internet. 100 % and I think in a world where we're so embedded in our screens when you have an in-person experience it's so much more powerful yeah and especially with embroidery people are bringing stuff into us yeah you know we you're touching things you're feeling things you're seeing thread you're seeing examples it makes such a difference to see it all in person and it's the experience of it is what makes it um and I think for our business too it's and just for brick and mortar you need to be doing something different and exciting to get people in the door.

19:27I think post COVID, it was kind of easy. I don't want to say it's easy because it's never easy, but it was like people just came and they just shopped and whatever. And it was like, wow, this is great. All I have to do is post on Instagram a couple of times a week. And then there was a change and people stopped coming. They didn't have the money they had post pandemic and that there was nothing so unique anymore. It wasn't a novel concept. So you need, people need to come for a reason. It's like sometimes now our Fridays do better than our Saturdays, which is like crazy in retail. But that's because it's like you come here because you need to come for an event for your bachelorette.

20:02It's like almost like an errand in a sense. So it's a little bit less like, oh, I'm going to just pop in and, you know, custom embroider something to pick up three weeks from now. It's like you come with like a purpose. And I think that's what makes our brick and mortar worth it for if we do grow and scale and get investors. is like because no one wants to invest in brick and mortar anymore yeah so it's like we kind of have a compelling argument as to why it's a big part of the business it's interesting because when you think about like embroidery has been a service that's been offered in bricks and mortar stores for forever forever forever and ever forever but it's such a dated it's so dated and there are so many of them yep and then you look at what you're doing where it's kind of like this service that's existed forever but with this like very fresh yes take yeah and when you kind of like package it like that I feel like then it becomes this thing that it makes sense like oh yeah cool I can see this like in every capital city like of course yeah exactly it's like it's kind of like a no-brainer it's like these businesses have existed for so long no one has come in and changed or disrupted them you know until us yeah so that's like really special and different and like there's so much opportunity and like powered with like the way I'm able to like trend forecast and you know network and come up with all these ideas it's kind of just like the perfect storm and it's just you know we're kind of in the phase of like how do I we're kind of did like the zero to ten now how do we go from ten to a hundred it's like that's the phase we're in now yeah that's really cool how were you funding the business in the beginning and as you've been growing so I was when I was like doing the stuff from home I never took a penny from that I just kind of saved all of it because like I was in school I had I was working for a bit it was all just like I didn't this wasn't this was just a hobby that I just kept so you had like a part-time job and you're putting that money into the business I well I was in school so I wasn't working when I was in school but I had worked previously like in the city so I was just kind of doing this like as like a hobby for fun and then as I made sales though but I just like left in the account because I just knew that it would be you know bigger and it was more just like an activity to keep you busy yeah and then And so when I went to open the store, I was able to just get a pretty small investment.

22:15And that was really all I needed. And then I just took all the money that I had from saved up from the last year basically of doing this. And it was also like COVID. So I was able to sign a – put a one-month security deposit down on a commercial lease where that's just not a thing anymore. so I was in a really really unique special situation that allowed me to get into brick and mortar that I never would have gotten amazing that is so cool yeah I was gonna ask like what does it cost to open a physical store so it costs like rent in New York varies anywhere from like East Village for example you could get a space starting around like 3 ,000 whereas a space on a month a month yep whereas a space on Bleecker Street that's the same size might be$18 ,000 a month or you know of course there's like Broadway and Soho and like I'm not too familiar with the super commercial areas like that but Nolita kind of falls somewhere I would say in the middle of those two and you need to put down usually like four months of a security deposit and the first month's rent so if you're you know your space is say ten thousand dollars you know you have to put down like fifty thousand just to start.

23:27And then you've got your fit out costs and you have staff cost and all of that were you working in the store yourself like every day yeah so when i the first so we opened on mott street first which is when i was able to sign that one month lease and i the store was closed monday and tuesday and i would work wednesday through sunday every single week for like a few months and then i ended up hiring like one or two people like one of them was like my friend's sister and she would help like two days like saturday and like tuesday or something like that and then it would be like okay she was helped like thursday saturday and then like as a second person with me.

24:00And then I'd be like, okay, like, you know, you can work on Tuesdays and I'll just like take that day off, but like the store also be open. And then it was kind of just like a slow build on that. And I just started hiring more sales associates and more sales associates and had a few, you know, people come in who were more than that, you know, and just organically were helping me with more things. And then once we started hiring the embroiderers, that is like, you know we have three full-time people doing embroidery we have one full-time store employee like manager and then we have myself and two others who are basically one is my coo and then i have a another person who's like she's basically full-time it's just she's a consultant until we can afford to pay her salary but she's basically like you know the third of third one of us um so there's really like six of us i would say working full-time in the business now which is insane are you the boss of people who are older than you um no not currently I mean I guess we'll be technically the two other people who um are working behind the scenes with me are older than me but like we're I feel like we're equals you know what I mean like each own our section of the business we don't really like buttheads um but when I started I was because I was 24 when we used to open the store and I had employees in the store who were older than me did that feel weird was it something where you kind of like slotted into that role of like okay I'm the boss this is my business or was it like a something you had to wrap your head around I think that I just definitely in the beginning was a little too like oh these are my friends like we're all friends we're hanging out and like this is so much fun whatever regardless if they were older than me or younger than me um and I think that took me it took a couple of tough lessons to learn that it's this is these are professional relationships not your friends um so that was I think a little harder but I would say managing people is not one of my strengths and that's I think the biggest thing that I can be constantly working on and improving on as like a leader and like a CEO of a company.

25:58When did you start kind of embodying the CEO energy? I would say probably when the embroidery really took off because it was like it was just kind of like a fun hobby before it was just kind of me like throwing spaghetti at the wall seeing what would stick like people the only thing people were doing in the business were just like working in the store so it was like yeah I was their boss but like they weren't like contributing these like huge ideas and really building something and looking to me for a leadership but now they are and now I really feel like you know I'm I'm meant to be doing what I'm doing and I'm meant to be leading everyone you know how have you bridged that gap and kind of like up leveled as a leader Is there any, have you been working with any, anyone doing any programs?

26:46No, I haven't. Do you meditate? No, I need to be. I think it's really just from delegating. I think it's like hiring for my weaknesses and entrusting those people to do those things. And me basically just like checking in on them. Like one of my first jobs doing PR, I remember my bosses would be so intense. And so like, they'd be like, like so detail oriented. And I didn't get it. I'd be like, oh, it doesn't matter. But now I'm them and now I get it. And it's like, those are the things that matter and make a difference. And kind of seeing like how I work and how I can manage a project and like get something across the finish line, I think.

27:24And seeing how like then I just have to kind of delegate the like annoying work maybe to them to kind of get done is really, I think, been the biggest, the biggest difference, if that makes sense. That does make sense. The last thing I want to ask you is for a resource recommendation. And I'm also curious about whether you would recommend any of the folks that are helping you with your website relaunch. I haven't seen the website yet. So my COO is kind of managing that. So if you check out if our website has launched by the time you're listening to this and you like it and you want to reach out, I'm happy to pass the info along.

28:01We love that. Actually, they're Australian. It's an Australian company that we found to like outsource to, which is funny. And I would say I did read a book that I really liked that my dad recommended to me. He's also it was an entrepreneur, is an entrepreneur, was a CEO. Almost everyone in my family actually has had their own business. That's interesting. Yeah. Which is really crazy. And I think they helped me a lot with decision making. But he recommended this book called The E-Myth, which is basically the biggest takeaway is you need to work on the business, not in the business. And I think that was kind of like an eye opener to me.

28:36And I listened to it on audiobook because I love reading, but not like not fun books. So I couldn't get through it. So I got the audiobook of it and it was great. And it's just like when you look at what you're doing in your day to day, you need to kind of think like, are you working in the business or on the business? And if you're in the business, it's never going to work. And everything they said in this book was like, I was like, oh my God. Like, it's like the euphoria thing. Like, is this play about us? Like literally that was this book. Like it was insane. I was like, oh, I'm, it's like the no original experiences thing.

29:08Like it was crazy. And it made such a game, it was such a game changer, just kind of hearing that perspective. So I would say a book like that makes a huge, huge, huge difference. And I said, that was my last question, but I do want to know what you're thinking will be your kind of like launch marketing strategy when you do do the website relaunch do you have ideas do you have a plan or is that we don't kicking that bucket down the road yeah I mean I think like I'm just trying to I've we've been launching things like I plan it like three weeks before it comes out yeah type of thing which is not the right like that's like the biggest marker of the improvements we're making this year is like I'm trying to have I'm trying to plan a holiday now.

29:48This is for anyone listening, like it's May. So it's like, that's a huge deal for us. Like I've never done anything like this before this far in advance. So I think like I'm trying to just plan out like the content and the imagery and the photography for this relaunch and then just like try to get like a great social strategy behind that. And like, I'm almost like, I'm almost just like, whatever, we'll launch this website, but it's like, I'm kind of like all steam ahead for the holidays and I'm like just kind of focusing on that and I'm like I think that the website's an organic thing that's going to come out I don't know if it's going to be this huge flashy thing because I'm just like what's going to make me the most money it's the holidays so I'm just trying to do everything in my power to like really gear up for that yeah are you um are you someone who has like all of your e-commerce marketing like all of your email flows.

30:39No. Unlock and no, none of that. None of that. That's like a big one. Yeah. Marketing. Like I really want to get into that. That's just like one freelancer though. You know what I mean? That's one, one good referral. Exactly. Three phone calls and like it's done. We're starting to build like kind of work backwards and like put in a marketing strategy in place because the problem is like when I'm launching something three weeks before, how am I going to have time to even come up with like the email strategy that's coming out you know so I think that's the goal is to just be like doing these things in advance so we can then be able to kind of get this like pattern going awesome Abby thank you so much for coming on female founder world can we do like a call community call with you at some point yeah do that a q a yes I would love that I would love that we'll figure out a time offline and I'll put a um a link in the show notes so that you guys listening can ask all the follow-up questions that I'm sure you have where you're like, Jasmine, why didn't you ask this?

31:39You can ask it directly and also specific questions about your own business as well. Thank you so much for coming on the show. This has been a lot of fun and congratulations on what you're building. It's so, so cool. Thank you so much. Quick shout out to all of our Business Bestie subscribers. If you are loving this show and you are building a consumer, CPG or e-commerce business, or you're about to build one, This membership will give you access to the people, experiences, and the tools that you really need to build your dream business. Head to femalefounderworld.com forward slash subscriber for more.