How a young woman used a $100 sewing machine to turn her side hustle into a six-figure business

Using her skills, creativity, and a $100 sewing machine, a young woman started a side hustle that eventually brought her a six-figure income annually.

Two weeks before her side hustle’s launch party, Olivia Cleary did the math and realized she was short on time.

With each inch of fabric taking five minutes to sew, she faced a tight deadline to complete 20 polyester scarves.

To meet the challenge, Olivia worked late into the night, from 7 p.m. to midnight, and then resumed early in the morning, from 5 a.m. to 8 a.m., before heading to her full-time architectural design job.

In her New York apartment, which she shared with two roommates, she finished the edges of her “crappy little scarves” using a $100 sewing machine set up on a folding TV table.

Since June 2022, Olivia’s business, The Clearly Collective, has made impressive strides.

Today, the company sells silk scarves featuring iconic architectural landmarks. By October 2023, it had achieved six figures in annual revenue for the first time, and its sales had stayed steady since then, CNBC Make It noted.

Olivia left her full-time job in April to dedicate more time to her business.

She recently finished a startup incubator program at the University of Virginia, her alma mater.

Since then, The Clearly Collective has created scarves for corporate events hosted by St. Regis Hotels, McLaren Automotive, and Bacardi.

Olivia’s scarves were also included in donor gift bags for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

She attributes her success to her skill in creatively showcasing iconic landmarks, whether it’s the Eiffel Tower or a college campus archway.

“[My style] is an intersection of architecture, design, and marketing,” she says, adding: “The designs are a translation of how I understand what a community means to people.

How did Olivia start her business?

After earning her architecture degree from the University of Virginia in 2020, she returned to her parents’ home in Boston.

There, she turned wooden pallets into two five-foot-long tables, crafting a space to host friends safely during the pandemic.

After her mom’s friends began requesting table rentals, Olivia turned the opportunity into a side hustle, expanding her offerings with placemats and glassware. She named the venture Backyard Banquet and carried it with her when she moved to New York for an architecture job that fall.

Olivia found running Backyard Banquet challenging and unprofitable, as she had to carry the tables to her sixth-floor apartment and couldn’t afford help.

Nonetheless, the experience gave her confidence that she could eventually turn her creative ideas into a successful venture.

After closing Backyard Banquet in 2021, Cleary started painting custom designs on white jeans to supplement her $45,000-a-year job.

Despite earning around $20 per pair, the time commitment made the project unsustainable.

Olivia then decided to print her designs on polyester scarves for their stylish and affordable qualities, adding a personal touch by sewing the edges herself.

She launched The Clearly Collective in June 2022, and the business took off in the fall after she shared a UVA-themed scarf on TikTok.

The viral success of Olivia’s TikTok post, which gained over 40,000 views, led to a significant increase in her audience.

The following month, another video surpassed 200,000 views, resulting in orders and pre-orders from across the U.S. for scarves featuring architectures from universities such as Duke University, Georgetown University, and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The pre-order surge allowed Olivia to enhance her scarves’ quality by switching to silk fabric with hand-rolled edges.

She then raised her prices to reflect this upgrade, leading to profitability by late 2022. The scarves now start at $135, up from $45.

In February 2023, Olivia was contacted by a McLaren dealership in San Francisco, which found her on Instagram and asked for scarves for a car show.

This opportunity marked a significant turning point for her business, even though it wasn’t her first corporate deal.

Brand deals now account for about 65% of Olivia’s revenue, though she hasn’t disclosed exact figures.

Her small team includes herself, a contractor, and an intern. She plans to hire part-time help for design work as she seeks to grow the business while managing her full-time job.

“When I started, I had no idea this was something I could do,” she said, reflecting on her surprising success, noting that she began as an ordinary person from Boston with no connections to fashion. She never expected to become a luxury brand designer.

Watch as Olivia tells the story of The Clearly Collective, a business she started with a $100 sewing machine:

You can follow Olivia’s The Clearly Collective on TikTok and Instagram to learn more about her brand.