I wrote what is below last fall, and I was ready to publish it but things were looking up and I would much rather not ask for help and pull myself up by my own bootstraps. This last winter I could really see the business turning a corner and recovering from Covid. Then with the unknown of the tarrifs, the economy changed again and going foward without help is near impossible. Thank you for reading, and whether you donate or share our story, thank you for your help.
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23 years ago, my hobby turned into a business, what I called my side hustle. Anzula has evolved, as I became more focused on dyeing yarn and less on crocheted goods and hand spun yarn. In 2008, I lost my full time job, but that brought me the opportunity to grow my side hustle into something greater than it already was.
I'm so grateful for how we have grown through the years , and I've always told people Anzula is my retirement plan. We're going to be here for the long haul.
January 2020, I suffered a brain injury that changed my life, and then COVID hit. I believed the world would rebound, and I put everything I had into keeping my business alive and keeping my employees employed. In doing so, I used up all of my savings, maxed out my credit cards, and acquired a lot of debt. I believed that if we could persevere until the fall of 2023, we would recover.
What I didn't anticipate was my long time employees moving onto other things. I totally get it; they all had great opportunities and had been going to school to eventually work in other fields, but I didn't expect them to move on in a 6 month period.
So even though we had lots of orders and were set to do great in the fall of 2023, everything went kind of sideways. I took on all of the things and had hired two new members of the team to train. Needless to say, the fall of 2023 was a rough patch for us.
I have needed to ask for help for a while, but my pride and determination to do it on my own and "just make it work," kept me from doing so.
We're a small team; there are just 4 of us, and it took some time for us to find our groove together.
With my head injury, I get fatigued very easily. I can only do one thing at a time. I have constant headaches. Flying to events is very difficult. Reading and doing math is even more difficult, and there is a lot of math in the yarn industry. I've been fortunate enough that my balance has greatly improved, and I can now drive for multiple hours at a time. but everything is harder and takes a lot of recovery time.
My new team and I have found our sea legs, and we all love working together. I am so thankful for that.
Your support would allow us to continue to grow our operations and keep sharing our love of all things yarn and fiber with the world! We are currently a small operation, and we get to share our love of crafts, and yarn and fiber is what ties us all together. Your help would mean that we get to do what we love and be in a community of people who share the same love and interest that we do.
We are so grateful for your help and trust in us.
-Kalliope and The Anzula Team
