A Letter To You on Small Business Saturday

Dear lovely reader,

I wrote a letter to you back on Small Business Saturday in 2017. As I went to write this letter, I was reflecting on the words I wrote over 2 years ago. Yes, some things have changed, but the most important thing -- our mission of making those who come in contact with our gear - those who design, make, sell, buy, gift, and wear it - feel encouraged and empowered remains exactly the same.

I want to express just how thankful I am that you are reading this letter and are interested in learning more about our small business. From the bottom of my heart, I am SO grateful.

I want to give you a brief background on who we are and why I started the business / what we aim to do on a daily basis, so you have a better idea of what and who you're supporting when you shop with us this holiday season!

I'm Skyler - owner of SugarSky. I started SugarSky back in January 2015 (blown away that that was almost 5 years ago?!) with $200 dollars I had in savings.

The goal wasn't exactly longterm... it really was to offset daily expenses and bills for the next several months. In my 300sf apartment, while having a few glasses of wine with my then very new husband, I sewed prototype after prototype until I figured "Hmm, this should be good enough..." and with only 5 headband patterns, the shop went live.

I seriously wondered if ANYONE would order, but thanks to family and friends and several loyal customers that found us day one (y'all know who you are!), orders starting slowly trickling in... and boy has it been a wild, fun, emotional, educational, life-changing roller coaster since.

I'm not going to sugar coat this. Starting and successfully running a business is HARD and not as glamorous as it may appear. You think: "oh I get to work for myself", "....in my pajamas all day", "take vacation when I want", "make all the money".... when, in reality, all of that actually translates more like this: "oh my gosh, I'm doing EVERYTHING on my own... SEND HELP", "I'm showering today and putting on real clothes and going to Starbucks so I can have some interaction with humans", "Am I really sitting here on Thanksgiving Day making sure all of the weekend sales are going to go live at the right time?", and "Ummmm the company bank account is seeming reallllly low because I had to invest in X, Y, Z to keep the company healthy and growing!".

...BUT, then there's the other side. The beautiful side.

To further understand this beautiful side, let me tell you a little bit about our process.

Our products are through and through handmade in the USA. This means, we employ + empower those right here on our turf. In a day where off-shore manufacturing is made easy, it has never been an option here at SugarSky. 

All of our patterns (and other things like packaging, web services, stickers, etc.) are designed here in the USA by local-based designers. Our packaging is printed right in our home-state of Colorado and all of our products themselves are printed, cut and sewn by highly-skilled and well-paid USA sewers.

Though a lot of things have changed over the past (almost) 5 years we've been in business, it has always been and will continue to be our mission to employ + encourage + empower those right here in our local community and in our country. 

You should know that when you purchase a product from SugarSky (whether during this holiday season or not), you're not only receiving a very high-quality, one-of-a-kind, versatile product, but you're also putting food on people's tables, helping pay their power bill or buy that particular Christmas present for their child/spouse, allowing them to exercise and share their amazing skillset(s), talent(s) and creativity with the world, and most importantly, you're allowing them to continued to feel empowered in what they do.

It is from the depths of my soul that I thank you for reading more about who we are and potentially choosing to shop with us this season! If you have any questions at all, please feel free to reach out to me directly by shooting me an email here.

With all of my love,