Designs By Kim Owner Talks Unique Services and Store History Writer / Julie Yates Photography Provided
It all started with one machine and a dream. Nearly 20 years later, Kim Hettler’s business, Designs by Kim Embroidery and Gift Shop, can produce 40 to 50 logo-embossed shirts per day. Although she fills orders for small businesses, Hettler attributes the initial success of her Warsaw-based business to individual customers. “When I started out, it was the people who bought one thing at a time that made this business,” she says. “They still come in today, and we stand around and chit-chat and ask about each other’s family. I have quite a lot of small items, or people can bring in their own. The majority want a name put on. At Christmas I’m swamped with things like towels or blankets. I can personalize one piece or 50. There’s no limit.” For several years Hettler worked at Kimble Glass and R.R.
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Donnelley, and even tried selling real estate for a year before she began considering opening her current business. She started selling items at craft fairs, but didn’t like having to pack all of her merchandise up and haul it around. One day she was at Lowery Sewing and Vacuum Center in Warsaw in search of inspiration for a craft project, and saw an embroidery machine. “I found the machine and started the shop,” Hettler says. “For four years I continued to work second shift at Donnelley’s because when you first start a business, people don’t exactly swamp your door. Even after the business was built up, it took another seven years for me to feel comfortable. Now I’m busy all the time. The first machine I bought had only one needle and could do only one color at a time. It was 10 years before I got another one. Now I have three machines and each has four needles.”
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TheLakesMagazine.com / APRIL 2020 / THE LAKES / 41
