Passion to Profit

During the school year, Abbey Wolin was a teacher in Passaic, New Jersey. But every summer, as a creative outlet, she’d spend time doing arts and crafts.

One summer, she learned how to paint on glass. She got so many compliments on her hand-painted glassware, she decided to turn her craft into a small side business.

“I was teaching in the afternoon and painting in the morning and at night,” Abbey remembers. “It was super overwhelming.”

After three years, Abbey was ready to take the leap into full-time entrepreneurship. “I quit my job as a teacher when I couldn’t keep up with the number of hand-painted products the stores were ordering,” she says. “I had to hire a staff and move into a studio.”