Pandemic opens up new business opportunities
Janine Inselmann, 36, started making masks about two weeks before lockdowns were enforced. She said she donated around 300 masks to hospitals and hospice care providers. But in May, she decided to start selling those masks under the name TELA by Janine.
“People are aware of the need of masks,” the Alexandria, Va., resident said. “Some people … are using it as part of their daily accessories. They will order a couple of masks that they will wear when they’re with their grandkids, a mask they’ll wear then they’re in the office.”
Now, she sells them at local fairs, on Etsy and on NextDoor, an app for neighborhood goods and information exchange. She said her custom masks are in demand because masks have become a staple of the pandemic.
“Now that there’s a need it’s hard for them to just buy it online because they know it might not fit their face and it might not be the most comfortable for them to wear,” she added, “and they know we’re probably gonna be wearing it for a while.”
Inselmann, who studied fashion for one semester in the Philippines, creates cotton masks using patterns she mastered after combining patterns she originally found on Pinterest and YouTube.
“The cotton are more breathable and more comfortable. … Like CDC guidelines and stuff, they will always recommend to use cotton fabrics,” Inselmann said. She also customizes masks and uses different fabrics inside and outside to make the patterns reversible.
She typically makes 15 to 20 masks per day, or 40 to 50 per week. “I’ve experienced people who are very resistant, who don’t like the idea of wearing a mask, but then … they still buy, they will still follow the rules,” she added.
But she knows masks may not be a sustainable business forever.
“Tela means fabric in Tagalog and I love fabrics,” Inselmann said of her company name. “So if in case that I wanted to have a business, if masks is no longer needed, I can still make something.”
For Sade Castro, a nurse in Columbia, Md., the start of the pandemic was a scary time. She took off of work for two months because she didn’t want to work in a hospital. “So I was just baking,” she said. “When I got back to work, people encouraged me to sell them.”
That’s how CakeOutMD got started. She started baking Filipino cakes that she couldn’t find anywhere else, like caramel, ube, frozen brazo de Mercedes, mango, yema and sans rival cakes.
“We can’t really find good ones here so we had to make it for ourselves,” Castro, 31, said. After posting twice on local Filipino Facebook groups, she said, “it spread like wildfire.”
When she first started baking, she order 100 cake boxes from Amazon. “My mom was like, ‘What are you gonna do with that, that’s gonna last you a year!’ It lasted a month.”
She wears a mask when she bakes or delivers cakes, and keeps her distance from customers who pick up the cakes. Because of her quick success, her family has taken part in the business: with her husband and father aiding in delivery, and her mom and sister helping with baking or cleaning.
On a weekend with many orders, Castro said she spends a minimum of 12 hours baking. Her maximum is around 20 hours.
Sometimes orders of seven cakes come in from one person. “Surprisingly they’re people who just likes to eat cake like it’s dinner. I’ve got people that ordered it just because,” she said, adding that some people drive the cakes to their friends. “I got people who came from far away who bought a lot to store them.”
Though the work is labor intensive, Castro said she plans to continue the business. “I’m standing making the cakes, but you know it’s fun for me, and I like the reviews,” she said. “I did profit. Not a lot but it’s pretty reasonable, I think it’s sustainable.”
