MEET THE CRE8TOR IN CHIEF
Back on March 29th, 2020 Susan was furloughed from her job in fashion. She’s always been creative. She spent over 25 years in the fashion industry after majoring in fashion/textile design in college and she even designed her own prom dress!
Once on furlough, Susan was able to spend lots of time with her 6-year-old daughter Jessie who takes after her mom with a love of arts and crafts. Together they did art projects every day based on themes Jessie picked. One day was crayon theme so they read the book “The Day the Crayons Quit”, drew pictures with crayons and then made crayons. Jessie wanted to give the crayons they made to her friends and they all loved them.
Over the next month or so Susan’s head spun thinking about her career and what might come next if she left the fashion industry. One morning at 2am, she woke up and thought “I can make crayons!”. She immediately sketched a logo and started to write down all her ideas. When her husband woke up the next morning and heard about her plan, he thought she was crazy but was also fully supportive!
Jessie was also excited and eager to help when Susan told her about her new venture. She immediately said “Mommy, I want to pick the molds for the crayons!”. She dove right in earning her role as Cre8ive Director by picking out molds and color combinations, popping the crayons out of the molds and even styling the product shots.
After months of experimenting, trial and error and lots of early morning creating sessions, Susan was finally happy with the quality she was producing. She was eager to start building her brand and knew that her hometown of Hoboken, a VERY family friendly and supportive community, would be the perfect place to launch.
Susan began by selling to Hoboken residents, friends and family. Everyone was so thrilled with their Crayonz, they started recommending them to THEIR friends and Cre8ive Crayonz went national. Then, at the end of October, Susan launched on Etsy to allow for easy on-line transactions.
Changing careers and starting a business at the age of 47 was SCARIEST thing Susan has ever done. But seeing the demand for her product and watching her company flourish makes it all worth it. And then almost a year after Susan’s business was born from a quarantine craft project, Cre8ive Crayonz was featured in its first TV segment. Proof a leap of faith, passion and hard work really do pay off.
Susan is so excited to see what the future holds!
