Maddy Bach

Posing for a picture, seniors Claire Folkins and Lauren Beach wear their handmade hoodies from their small business @sundaymorning_stl. Folkins and Beach knew their target market and saw the opportunities from starting their own business. “We want [our customers] to feel like they are living like their Pinterest board,” Folkins said. “We found a way to make the sweatshirts many teens want, affordable and customizable which is different from a professional online shop.”

With Instagram inspiration and COVID-19 boredom, seniors Claire Folkins and Lauren Beach noticed their friends’ desire for Shein prices and put their digital cutting Cricut machine to work. Customers reach out to Folkins and Beach with the design requests. The duo may need to design with Adobe Illustrator, depending on the demand.

“We’re only on Instagram. When the customers see our sweatshirts and want one, they DM the design they want to our account, @sundaymorning_stl,” Folkins said. “A lot of our friends have the hoodies. When people ask about them, they learn about our business, and it grows through word of mouth.”

Folkins and Beach set up their production process and supplies in the extra bedroom in Folkins’ house.

“We cut out the shape, break up the text into the sections that we want, then do this thing called ‘distort.’ We save it all, and we upload it to my Cricut machine, which is on my laptop, and then cut it out, peel back all the letters and iron it onto the sweatshirts,” Folkins said.

The whole process can take 20 minutes if Folkins and Beach work together, or about an hour when accomplished alone. Overall, Folkins and Beach have made a profit of around $150.

“When we first started, we bought vinyl from a local store. The price was five times as much as the vinyl we get now and smaller. We were spending a lot of our money on supplies that we needed. We didn’t get very much profit from actually selling the sweatshirts,” Beach said. 

Beach and Folkins began making sweatshirts about four months ago and have sold around 20 sweatshirts so far. 

“During the Covid-19 quarantine, many people weren’t motivated to do things or were not in the best place. So a lot of the quotes we do are very uplifting, and it brings our customers joy when they read them,” Beach said. “We made them in hopes of bringing motivation and inspiration to difficult times.”

As often as possible, Folkins, Beach, and their friends wear sweatshirts to inspire others in the community. 

“People like the tan sweatshirt with the brown letters. It says, ‘It is all part of the process.’ The words are wavy, and it has their birth year on the sleeve, which I think is cute,” Folkins said. “My favorite says ‘Good days on my mind’ except the word “Good,” has smiley faces for the O’s.”

Beach believes one of the most valuable lessons she has learned through her small business is the importance of trying new things and learning from mistakes along the way.

“I’ve learned it’s important to start something you have an idea about and you enjoy doing. It took perseverance to learn from our mistakes and [to]keep going. Claire and I have lots of fun doing it, and it’s something we are both passionate about. We haven’t made the most profit, but I think we could get there if we work hard,” Beach said.