At Two Funny Girls, we love our local Dallas sense of community, especially when it comes to women in business! Though Dallas is a big city that is only continuing to grow, one can still get that small-town feeling where community members and fellow female entrepreneurs continue to lift each other up.
We were honored when Advocate Lake Highlands approached us for a profile story on the company and how it’s grown. It was wonderful to take a look back, reflect and tell the story of Two Funny Girls through the eyes of our amazing co-founder, Kristy Crawford.
Photo by Danny Fulgencio
Katie Pohlman thoughtfully interviewed Kristy in the profile, available in digital form here, while Danny Fulgencio shot beautiful accompanying images of Kristy, her workspace and some of her favorite personalized products.
Pohlman details in her article how Two Funny Girls got its start 18 years ago in 2001, with Kristy and her mother, Sara, at the helm. These “funny girls” started the company as a personalization business, with Kristy leading the way in design through digital programs like photoshop while her mother specialized in more traditional embroidery. A perfect pair, they started small, with a simple business permit and word-of-mouth recommendations. However, the mother and daughter duo knew they were on to something after making $1000 in sales in a single day out of a tent at a Park Cities art fair.
Photo by Danny Fulgencio
In no time, Kristy and Sara were slammed with orders and experimenting with new products. Throughout the next 17 years, Two Funny Girls would continue to grow into the thriving business it is today. While Sara sadly passed away in 2018 after a battle with breast cancer, Kristy has grown her passion for the business the two spent so much time together working on. After seeing Kristy’s optimistic spirit and drive to learn and grow, it’s easy to see that what began at a local arts and crafts fair is now an international e-commerce business. In the little free time she has, you can often find Kristy churning up new business ideas alongside her spirited Boxer Clyde, whose energy alone could fuel a TFG embroidery machine. With a big heart that bleeds maroon, you can also find Kristy donating to her favorite charities or persuading the TFG team to add one more Texas A&M product to the lineup.
In the remainder of the article, Pohlman goes on to interview Kristy about her favorite products and her design process. Be sure to check out the article online to read more.
Photo by Danny Fulgencio
Kristy may be heading up the company alone since the passing of her mother, but she’s in good company. While Two Funny Girls has grown steadily through its Texas-based operations, we’re not the only ones to experience growth in our home state – and we have a study to back it up. Recently, dallasnews.com, the digital sister of The Dallas Morning News, came out with an article that had some great news for Texan women in business. The article by breaking business news reporter Dom DiFurio details how the top state for female entrepreneurs isn’t tech-saturated California or New York – it’s Texas.
According to a study from Fit Small Business, Texas moved up from number eight to number one for female entrepreneurs in the span of only a year. Female-friendly business culture and that sense of community we mentioned earlier are likely to thank for this, along with the business-friendly tax rates and low cost of living. Petya Edwards, founder of Dallas Women Entrepreneurs, is excited about this obvious win for Texas women in business.
“Although there are still some challenges…it is going in the right direction,” notes Edwards on the Lone Star State’s opportunities for women in business.
While we’re thankful for this support from our Texas home base, we’ve also noticed a rise in the demand for personalized products among shoppers across all states. An ApparelMag.com article by Yamarie Grullen of ShopKeep said it best, detailing how “in the midst of mass-produced products and cookie-cutter retail shops, personalized products have emerged as a popular choice among shoppers and businesses alike.”
Photo
A revealing study by Deloitte concludes that “one in four consumers are willing to pay more to receive a personalized product or service,” and even big companies are taking notice. Coca-Cola had outstanding success with its personalized “Share a Coke With” campaign, while new and successful brands like Uber were born out of a consumer preference for personalization and customization when it comes to transportation. In other words, the “little touches” that make Two Funny Girls products so popular are based on the same principles that have fueled multi-million dollar marketing strategies for publicly-traded companies worldwide.
Photo by Danny Fulgencio
Kristy and Sara Crawford were two early adopters of the personalization trend businesses today are attempting to harness, and it’s largely paid off. Even though Two Funny Girls is a small business, it’s brimming with big ideas for growth in the future. Personalized products are thoughtful, tasteful and in demand in a big way. Kristy’s use of technology through programs like Photoshop help bring to life whatever the consumer may dream up, from personalized Bitmoji-emblazoned napkins to cutting boards with family recipes laser-etched right into the surface. A trailblazer for their industry, Two Funny Girls hopes to lead the way in both creativity and technology, always keeping the customer’s individual needs and ideas at the top of mind.
What’s up next for us at Two Funny Girls? As a tribute to Sara, Kristy has plans to incorporate more of her mother’s passion for embroidery, so be on the lookout for some new personalized items on our site. With summer in full swing, we’ve been putting more custom cups than we can count into production! We’re rolling out tailgate essentials too, as many of our southern shoppers are gearing up for SEC football. A much appreciated walk down memory lane reminds us of the amazing journey Two Funny Girls had to reach their goals today, and fuels us for all the exciting things to come. Gig ‘em!
