A STITCH IN TIME
BEREA, KY
The Mobile Incubator arrived in central Kentucky for the 2018 Artists Thrive Summit. As we were installing in a quaint brick plaza behind Berea College and getting set for visitors, a young woman exclaimed “What is this?!” and walked straight into the camper trailer.
She said she LOVES vintage and that her name was Samantha Shepherd, but most folks know her as "Miss Monogram". She and her husband Dustin run a shop in Richmond KY and their new location "The White Stitch" just opened in the brick plaza we were sharing.
Samantha and her husband Dustin grew up in two different worlds that have threaded themselves together. Samantha is the front end of Miss Monogram and The White Stitch, she’s the creative eye, the one who comes up with ideas and quotes, who performs or oversees the custom work. Samantha grew up in a dry cleaning business, and one day her dad brought home an embroidery machine. As a young mother she patched together enough embroidery work to start her own creative business.
Dustin is the back end, the finance, the sourcing. Dustin’s experience as a business partner at a liquor store chain taught him a great deal about teamwork and working through frustrations. He explained in detail how he’s financing the second store and also dealing with intellectual property.
Samantha and Dustin have had to deal with blatant rip-offs of their designs. For a year straight there was an account that would repost photographs of Samantha’s work, claim it was their own designs, and take commissions. The account would even cover up the Miss Monogram watermark with their own. They had to hire a lawyer to send “cease and desist” letters to several entities.
Justin’s approach has been proactive but simple. “It’s happened so many times at this point… I at least give them a chance to delete it.”
The frustrations of intellectual property go both ways. A bogus claim came out against Samantha falsely accusing her of ripping off other’s designs. That claim was eventually dismissed but their Instagram account had to be paused until it was remedied. Meanwhile they weren’t able to advertise their store opening during that time.
Samantha and Justin’s story is about the balancing act that we see in a two person creative business. It hasn’t all been easy in a mom and pop embroidery shop, for example Samantha signed the lease to their new store even though Justin said no. You can hear how Samantha and Dustin have different visions, and together they create a more comprehensive balanced business. They’re two very fine young Kentuckians who’ve woven their talents together.
Samantha says, “No matter how big we grow we want it to feel like a small business”.
DOCU-SHORT
PODCAST
DISCUSSION
Samantha has dealt with her work being ripped off and also been falsely accused of ripping off another creator’s work. She doesn’t copyright most of her work since many of them are small batches and not worth the time of copyrighting. Yet, you never know what might become a big hit and be worth protecting.
Q: How will you protect your work? How will you respond to someone copying your work?
“Founders fit” is crucial. Samantha and Dustin have different strengths they bring to the business. Dustin handles the back end and Samantha handles the front end.
Q: Would you have a business partner? If so, what would it look like?