By hand-making masks and shipping them through Etsy, juniors Emma Wassel and Grace Myers are selling masks to the community during the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Myers, she started selling masks to benefit the community.
“I had a lot of fabric I had laying around my house,” Myers said. “ I wanted to use that for something that would help make an impact in my community, which it definitely did.”
Wassel also began selling masks in hope of benefiting the community.
“So many people needed them.” Wassel said. “I thought hey, why not sell my masks to the general public.”
Both Wassel and Myers sell their masks as well as scrunchies on Etsy. Myers products can be found at gracefullygorgeouss on Etsy, and Wassel’s products can be found at MasktiqueStudio on Etsy.
Wassel and Myers are taking precautions with their business to ensure the safety of their customers given the current pandemic.
“I always make sure to leave [the mask] in their mailbox and I have them leave the money in their mailbox,” Wassel said.
According to Myers, a lot of her customers experience a contactless delivery.
While Myers and Wassel often collaborate, they run their businesses independently.
“We do all the production on our own,” Wassel said. “We get as much out of it that we put into it”
According to Myers, while their businesses are seperate, Wassel and her are long term business partners.
“Me and Emma have worked together on things for a long time.” said Myers. “We both have an interest in selling stuff.”
According to Myers, It is important to be nice and thoughtful when communicating with customers.
“I can think of times I’ve been on a website and needed help with something or I had a question, and they either don’t answer or they’re not nice,” said Myers. “ In my own business I try to be as nice as possible and really understand what people need.”
Customer satisfaction is also important to Wassel.
“I do free shipping for my customers because I know what it can be like right now to have to pay for shipping.” Wassel said.
For Wassel and Myers, when it comes to advertising it is important to be vocal.
“I am not shy when it comes to talking about my business,” said Wassel “Be really verbal about your business.”
Myers and Wassel aslo use social media as an outlet to spread their business.
“I definitely spend a lot of time posting things on Facebook and editing my descriptions on Etsy so that they can be found,” said Myers.