Midnight Trinkets has had it’s first birthday not too long ago in the beginning of March. Now seems like a good time to take a look back at everything that’s happened and really dive into it.
A little over two years ago, Kristen and I were at a housewarming barbecue for our friends. At some point in the night, we began talking about how much we were all struggling. Times had been tough for us and all of us were experiencing some level dissatisfaction with our lives the way they were. I had brought up that I was thinking about starting a business to have something to do on the side. Something that I would have fulfilled me creatively, brought in a bit of extra income, and maybe become something that I could do full time instead of working in an office (and from home, lest we forget COVID) like I had been for the last four years. Kristen and two other friends loved the idea and all together we started brainstorming things that we would have loved to do and sell. Ideas from that night included things like polymer clay jewelery and tarot cards. While I don’t think jewelery will ever grace our store, it was a good night and really got our spirits up just dreaming about what it could be.
We started a group chat, and began throwing names and other ideas around. Eventually it became clear that Kristen and I were the most gung ho about starting our own business. It was true, all of us were starting to get a bit burnt out and something like working on a business was definitely a time commitment that I don’t think any of us at that time really could have given ourselves to. At that point Kristen and I started doing research, picking the name Midnight Trinkets, making sure that we would have been able to make a legal business out of it, and planning what we were going to sell.
Unsurprising in hind sight, but shocking at the time, Kristen had gotten laid off from her job at a children’s apparel company that she had had for the last five years. It was an emotional time for her, and I tried to be supportive, but we joked that it was a sign to maybe take our dream idea of a side hustle more seriously. Then two weeks after Kristen lost her job, I had also gotten laid off from the financial firm I had been working for for four years. Deciding to laugh through the pain, we took it as a sign to turn this side hustle into a full time hustle. Hopefully.
So one night, Kristen and I got together and did all the leg work to get started. We got the business registered with the state of New Jersey, the federal government, purchased a domain and website host, and began to design and select products. We worked well into the night, letting the delirium take over with the lack of sleep. Some of our Tik Toks from this time reflect just how silly these late nights made us. And that was the official beginning of Midnight Trinkets.
In the year since, we’ve sold our stickers in person at a vendor fair, learned about social media marketing, and content creation. Really learned that creating a content strategy and coming up with content in general are way more difficult than we ever thought possible. Really learned to dig into the analytics of our store and how to interpret that data into usable next steps. We’ve even more recently learned just how difficult doing taxes could be when a small business is included. It’s definitely been a roller coaster that we have loved being on (most of the time. The tax thing not so much.)
Now a little over a year after our official launch, we’ve had a lot of things change. We once again have full time day jobs that keep us stable while we figure out how to navigate our business in a changing economy. We want to have Midnight Trinkets grow. We want it to become the business that we have always dreamed of and as such we are making plans on how we want the store to change as time moves on. We are excited to see where this road takes us, and I know that we will keep growing, learning, and evolving as we go.