Successful Sistas is an interview series featuring successful women pursuing their dream careers.
Job Title: [Vicki is] Co-owner of Dirty Dish Towels with her three sisters [www.dirtysdishtowels.com]
Job Description: Designer of funny and naughty embroidery designs, seamstress, embroider, web design and marketing.
Why did you decide to pursue this field? It was just an idea we had that sounded like fun. We researched online and found it to be a unique idea. After countless bottles of wine and laughter, we brought it to life online. We all have other full-time jobs as well.
What do you love most about your job? The creatve process is fun, and I enjoy the humor that we add to the every day kitchen work. An added bonus is the aprons are really cute as well as being a bit naughty!
What is the most stressful aspect of your job? Right now, we only have one embroidery machine, so I’m the only one doing that portion and most of the sewing , so when we have a bunch of orders, it can get a little stressful. We hope to add another embroidery machine for one of my sisters; and they are starting to do some of the aprons on borders on the towels so that helps quite a bit.
What is the most rewarding aspect of your job? The finished product is so cute and hearing from our customers how much they like it is very rewarding.
What is the craziest thing that’s every happened at work? Well, I have pictures posted on Flikr and belong to different apron groups on there. It seems that there a lot of “men” that like to wear aprons and take nasty pictures of themselves wearing women’s aprons doing nasty things, and it’s all just a little too icky, so I have had to block them. I don’t know, maybe I shouldn’t, but I just don’t want to think of them wearing one of my aprons for their photo shoots and extracurricular activities. They call themselves sissy maids.
Descibe a typical day at work for you. Well… I work full time at my other job…this is more on the weekends and nights that I’m not working there. I enjoy trying a new apron pattern and bringing a new embroidery design to life for a towel, although that can take hours and hours to get it just right.
What advice or tips would you give to someone who wants to do what you do? Well, we have definitely been flying by the seat of our pants here with none of us knowing anything about web design or running an online business, so I would say to definitely do some research or take some classes on that. We have been doing some marketing on Twitter, MySpace, Flikr, Facebook and Etsy so finding all you can about these and/or other social networking sites would be beneficial as well.
Finish this sentence: This is the career for you if__: This is the career for you if you have small children at home and you want to be able to stay home with them and you don’t need to make a lot of money. We are a fledgling business here, and it takes a while to get your name out there and gain some recognition before the orders really start pouring in.
