Today we’re excited to interview Simona Rimkiene, founder not PERFECTLINEN. Starting on Etsy in 2014, Simona now earns over $200,000 a month selling sustainable products.
Key Statistics:
- Area of interest: Sustainable fashion
- Income: $200,000 per 30 days
- Founder: 1
- Began: 2014
Are you able to tell us about your organization’s financial development?
Remembering the very starting and the primary steps together really brings back memories!
Back then, my parents would cut fabrics for napkins, pillowcases, and aprons, and I might pack the garments and ship them to customers before going to work.
We began taking orders through the Etsy platform, and I even took the primary photos myself!
Over time, we began to notice an increasing number of orders coming in, but it surely was difficult to maintain up with the demand. Finally, after calculating the funds, we managed to rent the primary worker and from then on we steadily began hiring more people.
We couldn’t hire everyone directly because we did not have that much money, but we hired one worker every few months because we saw that purchases were increasing and we would have liked extra hands.
It has been quite a journey – we began with easy items and now now we have about 180 products to pick from!
We now have been operating in the marketplace for nearly 10 years and from the very starting we knew that we desired to have a positive impact on the environment by selecting slow fashion.
We’re very grateful that an increasing number of persons are selecting sustainable development and it’s due to people who we’re moving forward!
How did the thought of starting a family business come about?
My mother began working with textiles once I was a toddler. She is an engineer by occupation, but she immersed herself in sewing, creating and designing.
I grew up with fabrics and patches, all the time feeling that wonderful smell of name recent fabric. That is the smell of my childhood!
By some means I made a decision to pursue a serious occupation. So I finished law school and worked as a consultant for nearly five years.
But I didn’t find my way on this occupation. After returning home, I helped my mother at work. And someday I didn’t go to work…
It so happened that the entire family began working together! Now we’re a small family of creative individuals who have created a “NOT PERFECT LINEN” house stuffed with creative mood and innate positive energy. Our small, family business is predicated on creating easy linen products.
For those who love linen, linen loves you back. Linen is travel-saving and at the identical time breathable and really absorbent. Furthermore, it’s recyclable and biodegradable.
Even though it could seem expensive at first glance, it saves you money as you wish less clothes as a result of its strength and sturdiness.
That is why we selected linen products. Starting a business takes quite a lot of courage, labor and dedication. It is a rewarding journey stuffed with challenges, but with perseverance and a positive attitude, anything is feasible!
How do you ensure commitment to the sustainability of your products and processes?
Sustainable development is an important factor that determines what our future can be, what form of world our kids and future generations will live in.
Sustainable development determines not only what environment we are going to proceed to live in, but in addition what values can be necessary for people. In our company, we care about sustainable development and take steps to attenuate our impact on the environment.
We use almost no plastic, as an alternative we use cardboard tubes to roll our materials. When we want to replenish our materials, we reuse the tubes and wrap them in recent material.
We also like to scale back waste by donating fabric scraps to individuals who can use them to create amazing things like wallets, shopping bags and even clothes! We’re the proud owners of @nplcares, where we give less privileged people the chance to have interaction in sustainable fashion.
As well as, we try to attenuate paper consumption by not including paper invoices with shipments, and as an alternative offer to send them by e-mail upon request. We pack the products in 90% recyclable bags or boxes and use paper adhesive tape.
And in case you ever must return a product, you need to use the identical box or bag to send it back to us. We source the most effective European bedding available. The fabric we use is OEKO – TEX® Standard 100 certified and is produced entirely in Europe, from fields to fabric.
This also implies that the linen fabric has been tested for harmful substances and has been grown using fewer resources and energy. Our linen fabric manufacturer uses only green energy, which implies that every one the energy supplied to the weaving, softening and dyeing process comes exclusively from renewable resources.
We’re aware of environmental, social and animal cruelty issues all over the world and be sure that we produce with conscience. We give attention to ensuring quality, promoting transparency, using sustainable practices and doing all of it in essentially the most ethical way possible.
We act with integrity and honesty, adhering to high standards of non-public and business ethics, and we expect all of our suppliers to conduct their business in the identical way.
To take this into consideration, we only select sourcing suppliers that meet our social and environmental criteria or have adopted sustainable practices.
How do you reconcile family relationships with skilled responsibilities?
There may be virtually no work-life balance in our family. We speak about work during holidays, during family meetings, and even during evening phone calls. But again, I see it as a strength, not a burden.
How else would you rise up at night to assist a customer track an order? This really helps our business grow because we are able to develop recent ideas.
As members of the family, we will not be afraid to indicate our weaknesses and ask for help directly if needed.
What were the most important milestones and challenges you faced as your enterprise grew?
All stages took place in small steps, the start took place at my home, my parents cut the materials, sewed the garments, then I packed them and sent them to customers, seeing that there was a requirement, we saw that moms needed more hands to work, so we were on the lookout for employees steadily, the seamstresses we found worked from home from the start, then we found a spot, it was small, but it surely was enough for us for the time.
When sales increased, we noticed that I used to be unable to pack the garments, so we found an worker who ironed, packed and shipped packages, and even wrote addresses by hand.
In this manner, we developed in small steps, the premises expanded and the variety of employees increased. We finally decided to create our own website and my husband helped us construct it last yr.
The pandemic has presented us with some challenges. When an worker got sick, your entire department needed to self-isolate, and at one point the shipping department needed to close for a whole week. It wasn’t easy, but we persevered.
It has also been a challenge to seek out loyal employees who meet our standards, but we’re proud to say that now we have zero worker turnover. We value our team and treat them like family.
We’re grateful to every body who has contributed to our success and we sit up for what the long run holds.
How do you maintain quality and keenness in your products?
We now have top quality standards, if an item is missing a thread or has bad buttons, we is not going to ship it. We wish to make certain our customers are joyful with their purchases, so we take the time to make things right.
We receive customer orders, with adjustments, so we attempt to make as few mistakes as possible, because once we make them, we do it again, which costs quite a lot of staff time.
Some employees have been working for the reason that company opened, our team consists of essentially the most qualified and dedicated people in the marketplace. They’re enthusiastic about their craft and are all the time willing to share their knowledge with recent team members.
We imagine that in case you love what you do, it shows in your work. That is why we pay a lot attention and care to each thread and stitch.
We keep our supply chain local to attenuate our impact on the environment.
Our linen fabric manufacturer has its headquarters inside a radius of 80 km from our workshop, so long as your entire design, cutting, sewing, labeling, packaging and shipping operation takes place exclusively in our workshop.
This eliminates middlemen, significantly reduces air freight miles and helps us closely monitor your entire process.
A part of our mission at Not Perfect Linen is to offer back and perform easy acts of kindness as widely as possible; that is why we regularly participate in charity projects for our local people and check out to support various causes all over the world.
We imagine this is important, especially in times like these, when many persons are struggling financially and mentally.
How do you connect together with your customers?
We communicate with our lovely customers each day and it’s all the time a pleasure! We offer a custom clothing service, so we try to ascertain every order and personally contact our customers to make sure we are able to accommodate their unique requests.
We also love connecting with our Instagram followers, answering their questions on what people wear and giving honest and easy advice. We pride ourselves on attending to know our customers, even their measurements, and we’re so grateful for the trust they’ve in us!
Recently, now we have been receiving quite a lot of positive opinions, which confirms the standard of the services we offer. We’re thrilled to have such amazing customers and excited to see our community proceed to grow!
What advice would you give to entrepreneurs just starting out?
Starting a family business is a improbable dream!
To make certain this becomes a reality, let’s start with a well-prepared marketing strategy that outlines all of the steps required to implement your idea.
This plan should include your future services or products, sales channels, expected customer segment, and the market share you ought to achieve.
The important thing to the success of any business is constructing a joyful and motivated team. When your employees are joyful, they produce high-quality work that can amaze you!
After all, providing excellent customer support is crucial to the success of your enterprise. Make sure you train your employees to be attentive and caring when serving customers.
Where are you able to discover more?