Today’s featured IMAHustlerPreneur is Brenda Detwiler, a tenacious hustler whose HustlerPreneurship journey is comprised of a wide array of achievements including overcoming alcoholism, raising four children, mastering a makeup brand, and domesticating chickens in an urban milieu. Brenda’s current hustles include working Younique cosmetics as a makeup artist, raising chickens, and her most recently added hustle, running Designs By Brenda D, a clothing and crafts shop, operating through Etsy (https://www.etsy.com/shop/DesignsByBrendaD). Brenda is also currently working on adding her own independent clothing and crafts shop called A Wink and a Smile Shop (https://www.awinkandasmileshop.com/).

Brenda Detwiler is a rousing IMAHustlerPreneur based in Southern California. Brenda deeply cherishes her four kids, one boy and three girls. But once they grew up, moved out of the house, and had kids of their own, Brenda knew that she needed to fill her time with something else.

Initially, this ‘something else’ was direct sales. She began working for Cookie Lee, a jewelry-based multi-level marketing company and, soon afterwards, started working with Miche purses. After these two experiences, Brenda realized that with her tenacious nature, she could just create her own brand. With her experience in direct sales and the fact that she went to school for makeup design, Brenda knew that pushing herself into the makeup industry would be the best way to make her mark. She started as a distributor of Younique (https://www.youniqueproducts.com) but since she injured her back in 2010, Brenda was not able to practice makeup artistry, making her direct sales suffer.

In 2016, Brenda stumbled upon another hustle, raising chickens. Brenda stated that the chickens came with her house when she bought it and since then, she has acquired quite a few more chickens. Now, Brenda is raising 17 chickens in her backyard for their eggs as a part time, recreational hustle. Chickens are not the only animals that Brenda is raising though, she also takes care of five dogs!

Brenda began her Etsy shop in March of 2020, with her first sale transpiring on March 26, 2020. The idea of selling clothes online originated from a shopping trip with her husband. Brenda discovered this hustle in a surprisingly casual way. For as long as she can remember, Brenda has always loved creating crafts. She recalls one instance in particular as being significant on her journey.

When Brenda was shopping for golf clubs with her husband, Alan, she was aimlessly looking at the nick knacks in the shop. She stumbled upon a Cricut: a relatively inexpensive, computer-based fabric cutting machine.

The Cricut fascinated Brenda, so she purchased it and brought it home, with no idea how to use it. Within a few weeks Brenda was crafting kitschy tee-shirts for her close friends and family. Her friends and family loved the tee-shirts and implored Brenda to create an online store. On a whim, Brenda began her Etsy shop. Not even a year since her first sale, Brenda has sold over 675 clothing articles to date. Now, Brenda is celebrating her Etsy success with her up-and-coming independent online shop called A Wink and a Smile Shop. (https://www.awinkandasmileshop.com/). 

Initially, for Brenda, the hardest part about becoming a successful Etsy seller was presenting and creating her brand. Designing her Etsy shop, taking the perfect photo of a product, using the Etsy interface, and keeping a consistent theme throughout her shop was a time-consuming and frustrating task for Brenda, who wanted it all to be perfect.

Brenda was able to make her shop look phenomenal with a lot of diligence, a bit of perfectionism, and some trial and error. Another issue that Brenda faced as her business grew was keeping stock of shirts. Brenda stated that some months she receives orders for 10 medium shirts, while other months she may only be contacted for one order. This inconsistency makes it hard to know how much stock she should have on hand at any given time.

Another common business owner hurdle Brenda cleared was learning time as well as money management.  To solve this problem, Brenda is continually scaling up and reinvesting in her business: she is devoting more time and financial resources to her stock as her business continues to grow.

Brenda credits Alan, her husband of 19 years, who is always cheering her to continually go forward. Alan has consistently encouraged her to love whatever career path(s) she chooses to pursue. As a self-described crafter, Brenda couldn’t be happier that she is running an extremely successful Etsy store; she’s making money by creating crafts! Without the enjoyment that Brenda receives from making crafts, it would be considerably more challenging for her to never give up and continue reinvesting in her business.

Adding to her business success, Brenda is also celebrating the receipt of her 12-year Alcoholics Anonymous chip!From us here at IMAHustlerPreneur you go girl! Keep up your GREAT work, rather hustles!