Today we’d like to introduce you to Cathy Twitchell.
Hi Cathy, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’m a creative person and a tinkerer by nature and I love to learn all sorts of different things. Some of the skills I have learned over the years are drawing, hand lettering, and decorating sugar cookies. When I was a kid, my dad would give me broken toasters to take apart and then fix. With each toaster, I developed new talents that all combined into building this amazing small business. I draw, design, and create all of my own cookie cutters.
In 2018 after being a “cookier” (someone who makes and designs sugar cookies) for a couple of years, my sights turned to cookie cutters. I learned all the programs and skills needed to run multiple 3D printers and create my own cookie cutters to initially make my own cookies. I then discovered that others liked my cutters and designs as well.
My tinkering skills came in handy when the printers would need repairs and I would problem solve to find a solution. Utah is filled with many amazing cookiers and a big cookier community. The cookie cutter shops at the time were all outside of Utah so all of the local cookiers had long wait times for their cutter orders. One of my biggest advantages for the Utah cookier community is my location and the ability to pick up their orders very quickly, many times on the same day!
Once word spread that there existed a local cookie cutter shop, business escalated rapidly. In the past 4 years, I’ve sold over 82,000 cookie cutters and stencils all over the world! I appreciate each of my customers and give them the best product with the best service a mother with 5 kids can manage. It can be a challenge some days, but in the end, it’s all worth it and a lot of fun.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Being a stay-at-home mother of 5 kids, it’s tough to run a business out of your home. Finding and learning the skills to manage my time between being a wife and mother and also a solo business owner at home has been a difficult task.
I design in the evenings after dinner, load printers before bed, wake up early in the morning to load new prints, clean and package many of the orders, weigh them for postage, and finally print the labels to make an afternoon post office run. It’s a continual cycle with little rest.
I’m also an introverted personality, so having to field customer service questions and concerns has been a challenging process for me. However, the more I do it the easier it’s becoming.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I specialize in cookie cutters and stencils for cookies and am known for my unique, cute, and creative designs. My proudest achievement is that I started this business with no 3D printer experience and only a couple of years of cookier knowledge. I learned all of the skills needed through personal research and implementation.
There were many days of trial and error and tweaking my methods to find a simpler solution. My business is differentiated from my competitors through my hand-drawn original designs, my own created font from hand lettering, great customer service, and quick manufacturing and delivery process.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
Initially, my husband and I purchased five 3D printers and all the material I needed with personal credit cards. We knew it would take several difficult months to recoup our investment, but we both believed in my talents and skills. I trusted from my previous experience that I could learn a new business and hone my craft into something people would find both valuable as well as convenient.
It took about six months before I saw a profit. Many small and large business owners would tell others that without risk comes no reward and I would agree. It’s scary at first, but if you believe in yourself and you have a good product or service that the market needs, success will come in time.
Pricing:
- Cookie cutters range from $4-$8 depending on size.
- Stencils $5
Contact Info:
- Website: oquirrhmtncookiecutters.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oquirrhmtncookies/
