Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Barrah.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I am a married mom of 2 young boys and also work as a consultant for a non-profit organization from my home-office. suspend.it is my side hustle — my creative outlet and has been both life-giving and has financially supplemented our household income as we’ve navigated through a tumultuous three years.
In 2015, my family’s life changed dramatically! My husband was struggling with health issues along with being ‘stuck’ in a soul-sucking job. We had a toddler and were extremely sleep deprived and in the thick of being first-time parents and our marriage was suffering as a result. We saw a marriage therapist for months that year and then two amazing things happened:
1. My husband was let go from his soul-sucking job which allowed him to think through a new career path during his unemployment and spend some precious time with our family (his previous job did not allow for much of this)
2. Our marriage therapist encouraged us to dream a bit and take risks.
My husband’s unemployment became the biggest blessing of our lives. It allowed him to reflect on his future and go back to school while also being a stay-at-home dad for a time. Having him home more also gave me the freedom to be creative again.
Around the time, my husband was unemployed, my sister gifted me some family photos printed on wood slices by Photobarn. I loved the rustic look of the wood picture suspended by twine over a screw, but I could not get over the exposed screw head next to my beautiful art!
Which is how this idea of an embellished screw head cover came about. suspend.it was born!
I believe that good ideas are often birthed out of necessity. So, I decided to embellish interchangeable screw-head covers with some of my favorite things. I’ve always had a fascination with geodes, so that’s what I started with, but I now use all sorts of natural elements to attach. Suspending/tethering art also allows for a larger margin of error, which is great because I am not a measure twice cut once kind of girl… I usually just wing it when decorating. So, win-win!
Now, I can switch out the screw head cover in a snap whenever I want to change things up and my art is elevated by the suspend.it!
Doesn’t get much easier.
Screw. Snap. Suspend.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I am both a complete rule follower and gypsy soul with a wild heart. The spontaneous side of me allowed me to open an Etsy shop without really having a logo or a business name in place — I simply had the idea and the entrepreneurial spirit! The drawback to being spontaneous and impulsive is that I did not do my proper market research. I did enough research to know there wasn’t competition in the way of “screw/nail covers,” but I am so embarrassed to admit that I failed to google my prospective business name before impulsively naming my Etsy shop. Always google your prospective business name first! See if anyone else is using it… and almost equally important — see which images are associated with your google term! Let me just say, “snap it on” has some sexual connotations that I didn’t want to be associated with my product… I very quickly put in a request to change my shop name with Etsy!
Secondly, once you decide on a business name, make your business legal! Get a business license with your local municipality, file for your DBA, sales permits, etc. Once you find out if the name you’re doing business as is available, develop a logo. If you aren’t graphically inclined, hire someone that is — this is worth spending money on! This will help you visualize how you want your business to be perceived by other people. A logo tells a lot about a business. You need to take your business seriously if you want it to succeed!
Thirdly, don’t set unrealistic expectations for yourself! Luckily, I did not depend on the income from suspend.it for survival, so I didn’t really put any unnecessary pressures on myself. But at the same time, I really didn’t set any big goals for myself that first year. Frankly, I didn’t have time to achieve any big goals because I was still traveling a lot for my f/t job. Slow, organic growth has been the perfect place for me and my business. The customers who I’ve connected with and my social media followers are all through organic reach. I have personally connected with many of the individuals and I take great pride in that. If suspend.it was an overnight sensation, I think it would have been doomed to fail. That first year I participated as a vendor in several markets and fairs to put a face to my product, hand out business cards and demo my product. This was especially key because suspend.it is the first-to-market concept, so nothing like it has existed thus far so people didn’t know there was a need for it… until I showed them!
My last piece of advice would be to not allow your “followers” to define you. I know some accounts with massive social followings, but that does not necessarily translate to sales. It’s so hard to not get wrapped up in the comparison game, but as Theodore Roosevelt said, “Comparison is the thief of joy.” Stay in your lane and focus on your goals, staying true to “you” and enjoy the ride. Connect with other makers/doers in your space and build a community around yourself. You need to find people that will encourage you and push you and inspire you. One of my favorite hashtags is #communityovercompetition.
Please tell us about suspend.it.
I am most proud of and honored to have my suspend.it screws covers hang in your spaces! I love seeing them paired with the most beautiful handmade weavings, tapestries, macrame wall hangings, photos, and even plants! My customers are using them in the most creative ways and I love seeing my suspend.its in the wild!
What advice would you give to someone at the start of her career?
Find out how you define success and keep your focus on that. You will often catch yourself trying to define your success by how other people define it, but that may not be true for you. Study other people you admire and find success and try to figure out how they got where they are. And be bold — even reach out to them and ask them questions! I have made a few really great connections by stepping out and being bold.
Pricing:
- voyager20 use this code for 20% off purchases in my shop!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.suspendit.store/
- Email: suspenditproducts@gmail.com
- Instagram: @suspend.it
- Facebook: @suspendit
Image Credit:
@seamerias, @sunwoven, @salvagedior, @cleverbloom
Getting in touch: SDVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
