Today we’d like to introduce you to Jane Smiley Skinner.
Hi Jane, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My husband and I had just moved to a new house when I was pregnant with my daughter and wanting to create her nursery in our new home. We were fresh out of college and didn’t have much money, so I knew that most of the decorating for our home would come from making things myself. I decided I wanted to sew a felt banner of the abc’s to hang in my daughter’s room, but I wanted them to be soft and something she could play with as she got older and started to learn her alphabet. I had taken a sewing class in 8th grade, but didn’t have a machine, so I made the letters by drawing the letter on the felt, cutting it out, stuffing it with some craft cotton I had on hand, and hand sewed shut all 26 letters. It took forever and I regretted it once I was about halfway through, but am a stubborn enough person that I had to finished it. Fast forward to being one month away from giving birth, and my church was offering a “Starting and Growing Your Business” class. I wasn’t working at the time and decided that taking that class would be a good way to distract me while I eagerly waited for my daughter to arrive – and I based my business off of my abc banner because so many of my friends and family had asked how I made it. The class was a 12 week program, and I finished it two months after Lottie was born. I didn’t have the full intention of starting a business immediately but one of the requirements to “pass” the class was to have sold one of your products. My grandma was my first customer.
After taking the class, I realized that I was practically finished with all the difficult stuff, and now would just have to find a way to make and sell these banners. My main problem was that I didn’t want to sew with a sewing machine. It always took me longer than hand sewing, and I consistently was getting frustrated while trying to figure out how to work a family member’s machine. I looked back on my book from my class and realized that I could hire someone to sew for me. I would pay them the same amount as I paid myself, but they would do a better job, and be much faster than I was, and therefore it wouldn’t cost me as much if I paid by the hour. This is where a high school friend came into the picture. Sage Holman was my saving grace. The business truly couldn’t have happened without her. Lucky for me, Sage LOVES to sew, and was absolutely interested in a part-time job of this salvaged fabric banner business that was just barely taking off. Sage was my second customer and I will always love her for having faith in me and in Sunny Daie.
Sage and I were both stay-at-home moms while Sunny Daie was starting, so a purchase every 2 weeks or so was perfect for both of us learning how to balance our children and this business. For the first year of Sunny Daie I was trying to figure out how to market on Instagram (without having it turn into a 24/7 job on social media). I didn’t want to spend all day everyday learning the algorithm, or making reels, or liking, sharing, and commenting. Sage had dabbled in some social media influencing, and recommended I try sending a banner to an influencer on Instagram. She knew of an influencer @BallerinaFarm who had 7 children – therefore 9 opportunities a year to use a “Happy Birthday” banner. I sent it to Hannah and about a month later she shared about it and my business literally exploded overnight. I woke up to a new order thinking it was a friend of mine, then checked to find out not only did I have one new order from the night before, but I had 42 and they were still pouring in. I had DM’s on Instagram asking if I would ship to Australia and Spain, and so many texts from friends saying they had seen my product on Ballerina Farm’s page. That next week I was equal parts thrilled and terrified. I now had so many customers expecting their products, and Sage and I were used to going at turtle pace. The next several months were filled with family members taking on customer service roles, book club meetings turned into fabric cutting meetings, with nap and bedtime hours heavily sponsored by caffeine for both me and my husband.
I ended up hiring on a few new seamstress’s and another young woman to help me with cutting and stuffing fabric. I closed orders for a few months to allow us to catch up on the 100+ orders we had received in 6 days. The orders that all came in from Ballerina Farm’s one Instagram story with my handle attached to it were finally fulfilled and shipped in October 2023. The next few months I only allowed for limited orders so that we wouldn’t get backed up like we had been for those few months.
In 2024 I have replaced my parent’s fold-up card table for an actual desk in our spare room turned Sunny Daie office. We have received orders from all over the United States, and have purchased hundreds of yards of salvaged fabric. We have most recently worked with Audrey Roloff – an influencer who was excited to share our banners after purchasing one in July and look forward to working with many more social media influencers. I’m hoping eventually Sunny Daie will be big enough to be able to pay Social Media Influencers instead of simply send them product. For now, the influencers that will work for our product give us enough orders, but not too many that we are drowning. Sage now uses an upgraded sewing machine from the one that she started our first banner on and has added another baby to their family. Lottie is now 2.5 and can sing most of her ABC’s and my original hand-sewn banner still hangs above her crib. I now have friends who work at the post office, and a business that I didn’t even plan to start. We’re still small, Sage and I are still stay-at-home moms, Sunny Daie is still a business from my home and even one new order still makes me do a little mid-day kitchen dance party.
Alright, 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?
Of course there have been struggles. I’ve had to figure out how to keep customers happy while still holding my ground on what I believe my business and my employees need. I’ve had to learn how to balance finances and how to make social media work for what I want my daily life to be like. I’ve had to ask for a lot of help and advice. I’ve had to learn to set boundaries for myself and I’ve had to think about what is truly best for my family when it comes to my business. Mostly I’ve had to wait. I’ve had to give time to myself and my business knowing that a business doesn’t grow overnight. And even if it did for a few months, that doesn’t mean that it can’t shrink again.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Sunny Daie is a custom, reusable, letter banner business. We are female owned and female run. We sell cotton-stuffed letters made out of vintage and salvaged fabric to reduce waste in our community landfills. People buy our banners to celebrate any occasion in their lives. Our most popular banners are our “Happy Birthday” banners as well as our name banners. Name banners are typically used to celebrate weddings or new babies. One of the most unique parts of our banner business is that because our fabrics are sourced sustainably, there are no two banners that look alike. Our sustainable fabrics are not our only way of reducing waste. Compared to paper celebratory banners, our fabric banners last for generations and can be used over and over again further reducing waste. In addition to our unique and rare fabrics our alphabet font is designed completely in-house. You will not find our font of letter patterns anywhere else, because it has been based off of my own handwriting. Not only do our fabric and font choices make us stand out, but each and every banner is completely customizable. We have both upper and lowercase options as well as options that distinguish color tones and pattern styles which allow our customers to receive exactly the banner they are looking for.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
The biggest change we are hoping to see in our industry is people working toward more sustainable options. We are grateful to see this in many industries, but believe the home decor industry is just beginning when it comes to sustainable options. In the next 5-10 years we will look for ways to introduce even more sustainable options to our business and hope to be able to be an example for other small (and large) businesses to do the same.
A current trend is color-heavy and maximalist home decor and we try to follow that in our fabric choices. When the trends change and our customers interests change, Sunny Daie fabric will continue to be sustainably sourced, but may change in its current color and pattern based focuses.
In our industry of small business home decor, we also hope to be able to serve our international customers with all the banners their hearts desire.
Beyond that, we are excited to grow our business in friendships, customers, and products. We are thrilled to be doing what we are doing and want to continue on this Sunny Daie journey for many more years.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.sunnydaie.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/sunny.daie
- Other: sunnydaiebanners@gmail.com
