ADVERTISING FEATURE
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"I have been operating as a hobby from home for 12 years and have very recently opened a shop front in town," says owner-operator Sandra Stephenson.
"I still work full-time as a prison officer in Goulburn. The shop is my escape plan; next year I'm 30 years in jail," she quips.
"As an owner-operator I am a Jack-of-all-trades. I plan to be able to employ people in the future, offering training in retail, embroidery and other forms of printing."
In terms of what her new shop offers, "I stock apparel, ready-to-wear off-the-shelf clothing, but the main focus of the business is commercial embroidery. Business, tradies and individuals who require their logo or image embroidered, heat pressed, etcetera, can choose from what I have on stock or order in. I can design logos, etcetera, to suit," Sandra explains.
"Embroidery as a fashion statement goes in and out of fashion. Branding your sports team or business will never go out of fashion. The way in which work and sports wear is branded has changed with the introduction of heat press and dye-to-garment, which compliments embroidery, which is why I offer my clients a range of ways in which they can get their message out via their clothes."
Looking ahead, "I would like to think that my business is going to grow into the future. Within a year I will also be offering screenprinting in-house. People will be able to come in and participate in workshops and print their own designs."
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This financial year has seen this rather big step of Sandra making herself more accessible to the public, and she says "It has been a wonderful experience to open in town. The local support and interest has been overwhelming."
Something of an advocate for local business, Sandra's observations are that this is also a growing trend in the Crookwell region.
"I think the shop-local philosophy is seeing an increase in the number of people interested in being able to source their needs locally."
In conjunction with that, Sandra believes that we should all make more of an effort to shop locally, and "We need to attract other diverse businesses to the main street. I'm not offering services or goods offered by other businesses in town, so if I don't have it someone else will."
Just as importantly, "Don't buy off the internet. Apart from running a risk of not getting what you want, you're not doing our local economy any favours. When local business does well, we all do well," Sandra concludes.