- Keida Dervisi, 21, chose to start an embroidery business with her mother instead of going to university.
- She started selling embroidered products on her Etsy shop at age 17, but orders stopped coming.
- With constant posting and customization on TikTok, her business finally took off.
This spoken essay is based on a conversation with Keida Dervisi, 21, founder of Soulmate Customs. Earnings are verified by Business Insider. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
When I was young, I never thought I would follow in my parents' footsteps. They immigrated to the United States from Albania before I was born and owned a fashion line. I grew up traveling to exhibitions all over Europe.
I was always interested in my parents' business, but my passion was singing and acting. When I was nine years old, I competed in Geniu i Vogel, a televised Albanian children's singing competition. As a teenager, I appeared in TV shows and movies such as “Fresh Off the Boat,'' “The Wrong Husband,'' and “The Council.''
When the pandemic hit, I knew it was time to try something new. When I was 17, I saw other teenagers starting their own businesses on TikTok. I bought a $300 embroidery machine with my parents' help. I was thinking of earning some income as a side job. I didn't think it would explode. Soulmate Customs has generated over $1 million in sales in less than a year.
It wasn't always easy. There were times when we failed to grow because of us. But even if we fail, we have learned from our mistakes.
Some early success was achieved thanks to TikTok, but sales quickly dried up
I got this machine in December 2020, six months after graduating from high school. When I unpacked it, opened YouTube, and searched for “how to embroidery,” I learned how to use it in one day. After a few weeks, you can confidently start selling your designs.
Before founding Soulmate Customs, I started an Etsy embroidery shop. I drew the design on an old iPad using an app called Procreate. Once you've created a design you like, save it to USB and connect it to the machine, which will automatically digitize and embroider your design.
At first, she received a few orders, but when she posted a design inspired by Olivia Rodrigo's song “Driver's License” on TikTok, orders skyrocketed. This video has been viewed about 4 million times and my shop has had over 300 orders in 3 months. “I did it!” I thought.
When the hype for this song died down in 2021, I was stunned to see no more orders from my Etsy shop.
A birthday present for my mother was the inspiration for Soulmate Customs.
When orders started to decrease, my mother's birthday was approaching. I thought, “Why not take a picture of me and her, draw her outline, and embroider it on the embroidery machine she already has?”
When my mother opened the shirt with our outlines embroidered on it, she started crying. She said it would be a great idea for business.
Later that year, in July 2021, I launched Soulmate Customs, which produces custom embroidered clothing with a soulmate theme. My mother is very involved in this business and she is the co-founder as she helped prepare all the legal documents.
Thanks to TikTok, I got my first order in 4 days and made my first $100,000 in 4 weeks
After experiencing a significant drop in orders with our first Esty shop, we knew we needed to continue promoting Soulmate Customs on TikTok.
I created a vlog-style video of me embroidering. About 4 days after posting, I received my first order. I created a mini video blog about making and shipping my first order. About 30 minutes after posting the TikTok, she was flooded with new followers and supportive comments. The video was blowing up. In the end, it recorded 3.7 million views.
I started hearing a repeated “cha-ching” sound coming from my cell phone. I was sitting on the couch with her mother and we looked at each other in shock. In her first month, she had over 1,400 orders and over $100,000 in sales. It was a huge leap forward.
Business quickly became a family affair
When these orders came in, my parents still had one $300 embroidery machine. It was impossible to fulfill all orders on time. I told her mother that we had to close the shop.
My mother said she wasn't closing the store. She sent her father to look for office space. She rented the second office she could find and has since moved twice. We invested in four commercial embroidery machines and hired someone to help us fulfill all our orders. Thankfully, I was able to finish it safely.
Business became a family affair. My mom runs the production and backend part of the entire business. We call her the “Kris Jenner” of her family.
My father is in charge of the surgery. He repairs the machines, buys the necessary new machines, and trains the staff. My brother Kenny handles all the marketing, including running advertising, email, and SMS campaigns. A big part of his job is also accounting. We are completely family-run.
If you post continuously, your momentum will not decline.
We knew from Olivia Rodrigo's success that it's hard to keep the fire going after your business explodes on social media. So we found it important to create a lot of content.
When I get into the office, the first thing I do is post a video. I post on TikTok and Instagram 5-8 times a day. It's the most important part of my day.
I work with trending sound and video formats. Look at what's popular and copy that trend. Dramas are also selling well. For example, I've created a lot of drama videos that incorporate customers providing stories. In one video, a customer contacted us to say that one of the custom orders she saw on our page was one that her boyfriend had ordered for another girl.
Posting a lot of content on TikTok has been the key to making our business thrive. In 2022, his revenue reached $1 million in just 11 months.
It's hard to rely on virality
We've been through big ups and downs because we rely on virality, which can be difficult at times. Due to inconsistent views, I am looking for more stable ways to grow my business this year.
We're still figuring out how to continue to scale at all times of the year, not just during virus outbreaks or seasonal peaks. Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, and Father's Day are the times when orders spike.
As a young founder, I haven't always made the right decisions
When we hit $1 million, our team was very small.
One of the mistakes I made growing my business last year was overhiring. We initially grew so quickly that we thought more team members would help us continue to grow. We hired a graphic designer, additional content creator, and videographer. We overhired and it quickly became very expensive. That was a big lesson. Now I've found a better balance.
My focus is on growing the business, not the university.
School was never a priority for me. My parents didn't force me to go to college. Just as I was planning to apply to college, my business took off and my life took a different direction.
I didn't start my business with this endgame in mind. Now that I'm at seven figures, I'm fighting as hard as I can to keep it that way. It was very stressful. There were times when I was so devastated that I didn't know if I could keep going.
Reaching out to others on social media has been very helpful. Instagram is a great platform for me to connect with business people and people who are doing great things in life.
