Meet Kathryn Gniadek of Kathryn Brooke Designs in Uxbridge

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kathryn Gniadek.

Kathryn, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I went to college and got a Bachelor’s in Psychology and worked in the field for a few years before becoming a stay at home mom for my three children. I had never sewn with a sewing machine but had always wanted to. So when I learned that a friend of a friend would teach me, I went to a couple of lessons with a friend. I absolutely fell in love with sewing and became addicted to fabric! I would drag my children to the fabric store on a weekly basis and turned half of their playroom into my sewing room.

As I became more confident in my skill and design I told my husband that I thought I could do something with this….that I could start my own business by doing home parties and taking orders for custom bags. I make all my own designs, I have a hard following pattern directions so all bag designs are completely mine. I started doing a few home parties with friends and family. I had no real business plan and could only commit so many hours to it because my children were so little and needed a lot of my time.

As they have gotten older, I decided that I was going to put 100% into the business and really start growing it. It is amazing when you put your intentions out into the universe because things really do start happening if you want them to! I now do at home and online parties, I have a fully functional online store and I am working on getting my products into small boutiques in the area and will eventually expand beyond that.

Has it been a smooth road?
It has definitely not been easy. I am not a natural sales person so trying to “sell” my products has been my biggest challenge. But as I have become more confident in myself as a designer and business owner, it has made it much easier to sell my products because I know what I make is a great quality product. I have a lot to learn about getting the word about my business out there. I have been working more on my social media game but I’m not a millennial and I’m newer to these things so I still have ALOT to learn. I am working on putting a job description together for a marketing intern. I know there is someone out there that would be much better at that aspect of the job than me…

We’d love to hear more about your business.
My business, Kathryn Brooke Designs, is a one woman show! I make all types of bags, jewelry, key chains and car caddies. The only thing that I don’t make by hand are the t-shirts and tank tops that I just added to my line. I own some fun t-shirts and tank tops with sayings on them and find that they have become very popular so I figured why not do my own line… So I started off with a few for women and will be adding some for girls soon.

I am known for working closely with each customer. I have regular items that I make and take orders of but if someone likes a fabric I have but they want me to make a tote or a larger handbag that I don’t have in my regular line, I will make them a custom bag.

I want my customers to get exactly what they want. I also personalize every bag. I will either do a zipper pull with initials on it or a name plate on the front of a bag with a name, a special word or initials. I also do personalized jewelry with initials or names. Again, I want your bag/jewelry to be one of a kind. That has been my goal from the start.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
I love the Boston area. I feel like it’s a great place for my business and others like me because they celebrate artists, small businesses and creative, unique ideas.

Pricing:

• Prices range from $12-over $100

Contact Info:

• Website: www.kathrynbrookedesigns.com
• Phone: 508-397-2902
• Email: kathrynbrookedesigns@gmail.com
• Instagram: @kathrynbrookedesigns
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kathrynbrookedesigns/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/KathrynBrookeD

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