A teenager who spends time practicing embroidery has quit her job at a supermarket after using social media to promote her tote bag designs and can now earn more than five figures a day.
Maisie Crompton, 19, who lives in Cambridge, explains that she works one day a week at Waitrose during the lockdown and started embroidery as a hobby to avoid feeling bored.
She noticed other people’s interest in her design after using TikTok to document her learning.
After buying material from Amazon for £25 from her grandmother, Maisie launched her best-selling series on Depop and now makes up to £12,000 a day on her own site, offering both personalized bags and design her own embroidery.
Maisie Crompton, 19, (pictured) who lives in Cambridge, launched Totes For You after making embroidery a pleasure during the lockdown
Maisie, who boasts more than 176,000 followers on TikTok and nearly 7,000 on YouTube, admits she didn’t expect to be able to quit her supermarket job just months after launching Totes For You.
In a YouTube vlog, Maisie said: ‘During my first lockdown, I just finished my A-Levels. I’m working in a supermarket, so I count as a key worker and I get really bored in my spare time. I had an idea to start embroidery.
‘I started a series on TikTok where I basically just shared the journey with people and it went smoothly, better than I expected. I document the process from ideation, idea generation to receiving documents to launch the website. Everything.
‘I don’t know how to run a business let alone a successful one. I know the basics that you should make more money than you spend, and that’s about it. ‘
The teenager insists her GCSE business studies didn’t help, so she focused on researching and creating her own designs.
She revealed her first TikTok video of her embroidery that has racked up over 60,000 views within a week.
Maisie said she spent £25 on materials to start her business, including needles, embroidery hoops, thread and tote bags. Photo: Maisie’s embroidery on the tote bag
Maisie revealed that she started her hand embroidery business after her grandmother gave her £25. Apparently I have since changed my provider.
‘When I was around 10/11 I really enjoyed sewing, then when I was in my teens I didn’t really do much but I still had the skills to do it.
‘It came to me quite naturally when I started. Also, A I’m a perfectionist, so if I can’t make it, I’ll work until I can.
‘Each one will take me about one to three hours but I have time, can’t do anything else during the lockdown. ”
Maisie (pictured) said her website started hitting sales of £4,000 a month when it first launched and she hadn’t made much money in a year at Waitrose
Maisie said she chose Depop as her first sales platform because there aren’t any initial startup fees.
Rated five stars, she decided to start her own website by having friends model her products and buying a used embroidery machine to speed up production.
Maisie said: ‘The day we launched, I sold 13 of them. I’m so happy, go. We make around £4,000 in a month, I’ve never seen that come in.
‘In a word, I worked a year at Waitrose and didn’t even make four dollars that year. It’s sales, not profits, but it’s crazy to me. ‘
Maisie (pictured), who is saving to buy a home, admits it’s been hard to stay motivated since starting her business
Maise’s website has since expanded its product range to include sweatshirts for £36, t-shirts for £24 and stationery from £1.40 – in addition to her tote bags priced at starting at 15 pounds.
The 19-year-old admits that due to the popularity of her business, it’s been difficult to do everything she wants to do, including uploading to YouTube regularly.
She said work can be ‘overwhelming’ and revealed that she often has to go out of the house to find motivation.
Maisie revealed that she is currently saving up to buy a house of her own, saying: ‘I don’t want to rent because I see it as a waste of money.
‘I’m financially stable enough to be able to live somewhere nice, but it’s not money I really want to spend.’
