While learning to sew might just be a fun hobby, it can also help you start a career. One woman who has turned her passion for DIY projects into a business is Leah Yahyavi, who started her sustainable and eco-friendly swimwear company Lagoon Designs when she was 19 as a side hustle. When she graduated from college, she started looking into marketing jobs but chose to spend more time on her business. Since she lived at home, she didn’t have as many expenses to worry about and was able to devote more time to growing her company.
Lagoon Designs started as a t-shirt brand, but has since transitioned to size-inclusive custom swimwear with fun designs inspired by the sea. Now, with over 49k followers on Instagram, Yahyavi has achieved incredible success.
What makes Lagoon Designs such a cool company is the ability to fully customize her bikinis. The “make your own” bikini is her highest selling product, and she’s always trying something new with fabrics and patterns. Leah sews her pieces and can make adjustments and customizations for each of her customers.
“Swimwear is a very intimate garment, so you want to make sure it fits right,” Leah said.
As a “solopreneur,” Leah loves that her business is a one-woman show. The small size of her company means that she can form relationships with her customers and make sure their needs are met. But it hasn’t always been easy.
Leah thinks there’s a misconception that you can just make a product, put it on the internet, and be guaranteed that it will sell, when there’s actually a lot more to do than just posting your products.
“It’s a lot of work,” Leah said. “I work more than a 9 to 5 job. I work on the weekends. It’s a 24-hour job, I’m always on call.”
While the workload can be a lot, she wouldn’t trade it to do anything else. Leah has learned so much about what to do when her products don’t sell like expected, and she knows how awesome Facebook ads and TikTok can be for a company’s growth.
If she would have done anything differently starting over, she said that she would focus a lot on email marketing, TikTok, and connecting in a raw, authentic way with her online audience.
When asked about advice she had to her younger self and the AskYourGirls community, Leah said: “If you feel like you’re interested in something or are curious about something, go for it! Lean into it and see where it takes you.”
As her company continues to grow, Leah plans on expanding her product line while continuing to maintain and foster her brand vision of sustainability and inclusivity.