Today we’d like to introduce you to Jenn Hutt.
Hi Jenn, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I have been a creative person my whole life, into arts and crafts, music, and writing my own stories. I was medically retired from the US Army December of 2015, and I moved back to Fayetteville (I was overseas at the time). Once I got settled in a new path in life, I resumed my creative hobby as an outlet. I was poking around on the internet one day in 2017, looking for crafting groups near me, when I stumbled upon a lady up in Raleigh that did a monthly crop, which is a get-together each month (usually over a Saturday) where crafters can get together, craft, and hang out with like-minded people. I quickly joined her crafting group and was introduced to the art of making handmade greeting cards. It was such a nice and easy format that I really enjoyed, and I ran with it. I was so inspired to make all these different cards and I just loved how they looked and how quickly I was able to turn out finished products! Crafting became a source of therapy for me that I didn’t have to pay for in the traditional sense. I was able to focus on my projects and ignore the world around me for a little while. I was able to complete a small project but gain a huge sense of accomplishment and satisfaction from what I was doing, which does wonders for anxiety and depression when you can manage it.
The thing was… I was building up quite the stash of cards and didn’t know what to do with them all. I don’t have THAT many people that I can send cards to, and there is rarely a rhyme or a reason to the theme of the card that I make. So, my crafting business was born. People were actually interested in my cards; strangers wanted to purchase some of the cards that I made, friends wanted to order custom cards to fit their needs. That’s how The Dreamer Creative was started. Over the years, I have expanded my business from just word of mouth to signing up for vendor fairs in 2020 (starting with the Farmers Market at Dirtbag Ale’s that happens every Sunday during Spring-Fall timeframe in Hope Mills). I started gaining repeat customers and my product offering expanded as I learned how to make table favors, coffee and tea treats, post-it note holders, Boxes of Sunshine, and other little gifts that people seem to enjoy. I’ve since created a website, social media platforms, and even an Etsy shop where people can purchase my products from anywhere (as long as I remember to keep the thing updated). Even more recently, I’ve added additional products to my shop to include t-shirts, custom keychains, stickers, and acrylic ornaments.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
When you start a small business on your own, with no formal guide, there is always a lot of struggles. Understanding what you need to do in order to be a LEGAL business is not something that everyone understands the importance of. I ran my business as a hobby until I started my current “day job” at the FTCC Small Business Center, where I quickly learned all the legalities of starting a business. There is so much that goes into starting a running a business that people don’t realize, and it can be several hurdles after another if you don’t do it right. It’s as simple as paying $26 to register your business as a Sole Proprietorship/ Doing Business As and filing your taxes with your personal taxes.
Learning how to do taxes as a business… now that’s a struggle all on its own! Luckily, I have been able to take webinars through the Small Business Center to expand on my knowledge and make sure that I am doing things the right way, as well as having access to experts who can answer questions as they arise. The same with bookkeeping (which seems a little more difficult and overwhelming when you’re just getting started) and the proper way to market your business so that more and more people see your business. There is always more to learn, especially as technology changes. You have to adapt as things happen, as well as learn when you can’t do everything on your own and acknowledge when you need help from someone else.
The hardest part of running a crafting business (or any handmade business in my opinion) is getting customers and staying motivated. Sometimes, I feel like those two go hand-in-hand. When you don’t have customers purchasing your products, it’s hard to stay motivated and keep creating. Especially when you have a chronic illness or two to go with it. When your business depends on your ability to come up with ideas and new designs, things can get difficult when you’re feeling down and discouraged. Learning how to overcome that is always a struggle. I’ve learned to keep an idea notebook and a Pinterest board full of ideas, so when I have the motivation and the creativity to design, I know where to start!
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about what you do?
As I mentioned in the last question, my current “day job” is working as the Assistant Director for the FTCC Small Business Center. This was actually by coincidence, through a dear friend of mine that I met while going through the MBA program at Fayetteville State University. During my time in college, I had started my crafting business like I mentioned before. During my MBA program, I met another small business owner who quickly became friends with me based on our military experience and love of running our own businesses. He helped me get into the Farmer’s Market at Dirtbag Ale’s to start expanding my business in 2020. He also is someone I credit for helping me get my current day job. He was a client at the FTCC Small Business Center and knew that the Director was looking for an Assistant Director to help with the workload. With my background in Marketing and having completed our MBAs together, he put in a good word with the Director earlier this year, which helped me get my current job. Lucky for me, one of the unofficial requirements of my job, is to have experience running a small business, so I can better assist my clients in starting/running their small business.
Working in this job has given me the knowledge I have needed to make sure that I am doing my own business the right way, as well as giving me the ability to meet and assist other small business owners in the same way. I love being able to take what I have learned at work and apply that knowledge or share that knowledge in order to make sure small business owners are on the right path.
The beauty of this all is that both aspects of my life tend to overlap frequently, my crafting business brought me to where I am today in the professional world (through who I knew), and a lot of our clients have become close friends. There are some that were even friends before I knew they were clients of my job. It’s fun to be able to interact with them, and bounce ideas off both my boss and other small business friends to gain outside perspective and encouragement. It’s great to learn new things through my job that I can either apply to my own small business or pass on to other people to benefit them. It also motivates me to keep moving my business forward.
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
I will always recommend services like the Small Business Center like where I work (SBC), the Small Business Technology and Development Center SBTDC), or the Veterans Business Outreach Center (VBOC). These offices (and several other resource partners in the community) can provide FREE assistance to small business owners. They can help you start your business or take you from your idea to an actual business. They can help existing business owners when they get stuck with something as well. We have business plan templates, can help prepare you for Pitch Contests; there are 58 Small Business Centers around the state of North Carolina, 15 SBTDC offices across the state, and only 1 VBOC located in Fayetteville; there are also services such as CEED, Women’s Business Center, and SCORE that are also available… I am just familiar with the first 3.
There are tons of free Webinars and Seminars offered all across the State of North Carolina that are beneficial to small business owners that are right at your fingertips. You can never go wrong with free resources; you just gotta put in the time and effort to do it. Check out the Small Business Center website (https://www.ncsbc.net/) for free webinars that are available on a daily basis.
Networking is both easy and hard. I am naturally an introverted person who has been trained to have extroverted moments, especially when it is something that I am passionate about. I talk to a lot of people about my business. Get involved in local vendor markets, if possible, join your local Chamber of Commerce. You have to talk about your business to have a successful business. Be a good person and make a lasting impression that people remember you and want to share you or your business with other people. It’s not about what I can sell to other people, it’s the other things that I can do and who I am as a person. I share my knowledge, my resources, I recommend other businesses to people when they are looking for things. I make friends with other vendors. People know that I am helpful and dependable and that I like to volunteer when I have time (I am not sure where I find time with everything I do… but helping others is important to me).
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thedreamercreative.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/thedreamercreative
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/thedreamercreative
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thedreamercreative
- Other: https://www.etsy.com/shop/TheDreamerCreative
