Take
Treat customer service as the engine behind your reviews
Smithy attributes her near-perfect ratings to obsessive customer service: replying to questions immediately, being honest when she can't fulfill a request, and even pointing customers to competitors when she can't help.
“So I really try to maintain a relationship with my clients. I treat them the way that I want to be treated. So I respond to their questions right away. If there's a— they request something that I cannot do, I make sure that I express it. I'm, hey, I can do that. So let's try something else. Or maybe I might even recommend somewhere else for them to find a product that they're looking for. So customer service is really important to me because I want to be treated well. The reviews are a reflection of that.”
Number
Started the pillow business with $10,000, never reinvested
Smithy launched her decorative-pillow company with a $10,000 starting investment and says she has never put another penny into it since.
$10K
Startup capital invested · USD
“It was so simple to start this business in terms of financial investment. I started it with $10,000 and I've never invested another penny in it.”
Number
Started the pillow business with $10,000, never reinvested
Smithy launched her decorative-pillow company with a $10,000 starting investment and says she has never put another penny into it since.
$10K
Startup capital invested · USD
“It was so simple to start this business in terms of financial investment. I started it with $10,000 and I've never invested another penny in it.”
Story
COVID launched a pillow business from $300 to thousands a month
Smithy opened her Etsy store in January 2020, selling ~$300 the first month and ~$500 in February. When COVID hit in March 2020 and people stayed home, demand exploded to multiple thousands of dollars per month — more than she could make alone.
“I started my business in 2020, in January 2020, I opened my Etsy store and March 2020 we shut down for COVID. So COVID really helped launch my business. I think the first month in January I sold about maybe like $300 of pillows, February maybe about $500. But by the end of March, April, I was selling multiple thousand dollars of pillows. And then the issue was I couldn't keep up the demand.”
Story
COVID launched a pillow business from $300 to thousands a month
Smithy opened her Etsy store in January 2020, selling ~$300 the first month and ~$500 in February. When COVID hit in March 2020 and people stayed home, demand exploded to multiple thousands of dollars per month — more than she could make alone.
“I started my business in 2020, in January 2020, I opened my Etsy store and March 2020 we shut down for COVID. So COVID really helped launch my business. I think the first month in January I sold about maybe like $300 of pillows, February maybe about $500. But by the end of March, April, I was selling multiple thousand dollars of pillows. And then the issue was I couldn't keep up the demand.”
Story
Matched a 30-year teaching salary in year one of pillows
Smithy paid herself ~$60,000 in the first year of the pillow business — essentially matching her peak teaching salary of ~$67,000 — after starting the company in her early 50s.
“I think the first year maybe I made like $60,000. It wasn't a lot.”
Number
Pillow revenue grew 100% in 2025, now 7 figures
Smithy says her pillow business revenue grew by 100% in 2025 and is now in the seven figures, with a healthy profit margin.
$100
Year-over-year revenue growth (2025) · percent
“So I can tell you this, in 2025, my business, my revenue grew by 100%. So we are in the 7 figures now in terms of like profit. I mean, we have a, I make a very healthy profit. I'm very happy with what the income that I make.”
Framework
Learn any new skill by breaking it into daily small chunks
Smithy taught herself Photoshop, Canva, website management and photography in her 50s by never doubting she could learn, then breaking each skill into small pieces and learning a little every day until it compounded into mastery.
“I never doubted myself that I couldn't learn things. So you just break it down in small chunks and you learn a little bit every day. So at the end of the month, it's like all of a sudden I know how to use Photoshop.”
Steal thisBreak any intimidating new skill into tiny daily chunks; in a month the cumulative learning makes you competent.
Take
Immigrants go all-in because they feel they have nothing to lose
Smithy argues immigrants take bigger risks because, having left their homeland for a foreign one, they feel displaced and feel they have nothing to lose — so they're compelled to fully seize the opportunities in front of them.
“Immigrants kind of feel like they have nothing to lose. They have have to give it their all because you, you're displaced. You feel displaced all the time anyway, like you're not fully from one place or the other. So you really have to go for it because the opportunities are— they are here.”
Take
Staying small on purpose to keep the one-on-one work
Asked whether she'd push to a $100M+ company, Smithy declines because scaling would kill the one-on-one client work she loves and force her off the made-to-order model into stocking inventory. She's weighing only a limited wholesale program.
“I, I don't know. I think I really like working one-on-one with the clients. If it were to be really big, I, I think I would lose that aspect of it. So I don't know. I am considering a wholesale program though. So stores will contact me, they want to buy the pillows, and I've done some business with some smaller local stores.”
Tactic
Offer 'ship me your own fabric' labor service for designers
Beyond selling her own fabrics, Smithy lets interior designers and clients ship in their own fabric, and she charges purely for the labor of sewing the pillows and shipping them back — capturing customers who can't find what they want in her catalog.
“So we allow clients and interior designers to ship their own fabrics if they can't find the fabric that they like on my website, they ship their own fabrics and I provide the labor to sew the pillows and ship to them, ship it back to them.”
Steal thisAdd a labor-only service tier so customers who bring their own materials still buy from you instead of going elsewhere.
Tactic
Offer 'ship me your own fabric' labor service for designers
Beyond selling her own fabrics, Smithy lets interior designers and clients ship in their own fabric, and she charges purely for the labor of sewing the pillows and shipping them back — capturing customers who can't find what they want in her catalog.
“So we allow clients and interior designers to ship their own fabrics if they can't find the fabric that they like on my website, they ship their own fabrics and I provide the labor to sew the pillows and ship to them, ship it back to them.”
Steal thisAdd a labor-only service tier so customers who bring their own materials still buy from you instead of going elsewhere.
Tactic
Offer 'ship me your own fabric' labor service for designers
Beyond selling her own fabrics, Smithy lets interior designers and clients ship in their own fabric, and she charges purely for the labor of sewing the pillows and shipping them back — capturing customers who can't find what they want in her catalog.
“So we allow clients and interior designers to ship their own fabrics if they can't find the fabric that they like on my website, they ship their own fabrics and I provide the labor to sew the pillows and ship to them, ship it back to them.”
Steal thisAdd a labor-only service tier so customers who bring their own materials still buy from you instead of going elsewhere.