Julie and Katie Steller, entrepreneurs whose businesses have been turned upside down by the coronavirus pandemic, are on their way home.

Steller Handcrafted Goods and Steller Hair Co. each employ over 15 people at decent wages. And mother and daughter operate out of recently expanded rented space in separate buildings near the intersection of Central Avenue and Broadway, bustling with small businesses.

Julie Steller, 64, the wife of a semi-retired inner-city minister who raised six children, started making mittens years ago to generate income instead of large retirement savings.

“We’ve grown organically in the eight years since I started making mittens,” said Steller, who surpassed $250,000 in revenue last year from sales of mittens, hats, scarves, bags cloth handbags and vests sewn from old sweaters and blankets.

“Our products are useful and beautiful Scandinavian ‘repurposed and locally made,'” she said of her brand credo. “One of our fast-growing businesses is ‘memorial work,’ making products from beloved sweaters.”

She pivoted in 2020 and 2021 to making masks, especially for neighbors, homeless shelters and nonprofits who paid what they could. She was honored in 2020 by WomenVenture, which lent her $30,000 years ago, for her resilience and determination.

Last year, she made a small profit from an expanded office, workspace and showroom in the refurbished Waterbury building. The Guthrie Theater Shop began selling her mittens, and she landed a booth at the Minnesota State Fair’s International Bazaar.

“She really is an entrepreneur,” said Scott Lastine, her business advisor. “She thinks about the products, her employees and her customers. She needs to focus on profitability and a better salary for herself. »

Steller pays 16 contract sewers $20 an hour to work mostly from home.

She’s a creative used to working long hours and credits Vision Bank and the Small Business Administration for helping her survive the COVID-19 shutdowns and roller coaster of income.

“I’ve always loved doing things,” she said. “I just didn’t realize it would extend to 16 women’s jobs.”

She plans to take her “retirement job” in her 70s, hit $1 million in income, pay herself a regular salary of $50,000, and offer profit sharing to women who sew.

“It fits perfectly with my faith as well,” she said. “We take things that are damaged or no longer wanted and give them new life. My work is a parable of my life; hope, redemption and the future. I try to love God with my gifts and to love my neighbors with jobs and beautiful products.”

Katie Steller, 32, recently received the Professional Beauty Association’s ‘North American Hair Award’ for her long-standing commitment to providing free haircuts for those in need through non-profit organizations local money-makers and people its stylists know needs a boost.

Entrepreneur for 10 years, she is an empathetic woman struggling with a chronic health problem from a young age. She quit her first stylist job on low pay to establish a “sustainable salary” plan for her employees at Steller Hair, 10 Chairs.

Her banker at nearby Northeast Bank helped her secure $215,000 in pandemic protection loans to cover COVID-related disruptions and restrictions. Half of the chairs had to be taken out for a while to create a safe distance. His understanding landlord also reduced the rent for a while.

“My business was hit hard when we were closed or at 50% capacity and reduced hours,” said Katie Steller. “I struggled to pay my rent and my salary. But I didn’t lose any of our team members.”

She typically pays her stylists about half the price of a haircut, or minimum wage of up to $18 an hour, plus tips. Steller Hair charges between $40 and $95 per haircut, including a free trim between cuts.

She also survived a divorce and split from her business partner over the past decade. “I’ve never had an easy year in this business,” she said. “There were always risks and we were never ‘prepared’ financially.”

The decade-old business peaked in 2019 at around $720,000.

“We’re growing again,” Katie Steller said. “And I think we are sustainable.”

The Steller women started, borrowed and worked long hours to survive – all the while laughing a lot and thinking of others.

Julie Steller helped her daughter through tough times when her health declined in high school.

She took her for her first professional haircut when Katie was a teenager suffering from a bad streak of ulcerative colitis. Realizing how nice the haircut was helped launch Katie’s future business.

She also welcomed her daughter home during a long lean period, when Katie ditched her apartment, sold her car and took two buses to work.

She never questioned her daughter’s entrepreneurial dream. And she turned to her daughter for advice during her downtime.

“We also have businesses built on similar values,” said Katie Steller.