Meet Ashley Minetti | Owner of Monogrammin’ Mom

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ashley Minetti and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ashley, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
Monogrammin’ Mom was born when my husband bought me an amazing and thoughtful Christmas gift in 2015… a vinyl cutting machine. At the time, I was working for a public IT company in sales, covering 7 states and traveling entirely too much. On my son’s second day of Kindergarten, he fell and hit his head on the playground. The nurse called me concerned that he may have a concussion and I could hear him crying in the background. I was 3 hours away in the middle of Pennsylvania and felt helpless. That situation was the straw that broke my corporate ambitions’ back. I decided driving home from that business trip that I leaving my corporate job to turn my passion into a business.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Monogrammin’ Mom is a one stop shop for thoughtful, personalized gifts. Whether you need a wedding gift, a graduation gift, teacher gift, Father’s Day gift or a just because girlfriend gift, I have you covered. Some of my favorite items are the one of a kind gifts like my recipe tea towels or engraved boards where I convert handwritten recipes into a digital file that I heat press on kitchen tea towels or engrave on wood serving boards.

Some of my other favorite items are the marble and acacia serving boards which I have engraved multiple variations: a script last name, new home coordinates, wedding dates or anything at all. I also love helping with fundraisers and have done engraved stainless-steel cups, winter beanie hats with leather engraved patches and flannel pants with team names. One of my best sellers is the LED lights which are personalized and kids love them. I started doing sports and based on requests, I have added Irish Dance themes, names with rainbows and animals and even a Jester light for an adult band to use during shows.
I encourage my customers to come to me with ideas and have been blown away over the years with their creativity. I even highlight “Recent Requested Projects” every Thursday on social media. I recently sourced and engraved the memorial name and dates into a large wooden box for someone which was filled with organic fruits and vegetables. I hope the recipient places that thoughtful and meaningful gift on a shelf and looks at every day to remember his mother. I have also done a number of windchimes engraved in remembrance of a lost one. On the fun side, I had a customer looking for a gift for someone who “already has everything.” After brainstorming, we decided I would engrave 12 wine glasses with a recent photo of the recipient hugging the artist, Pink. He absolutely loved the one of a kind gift. I also try to offer a variety of price options from earrings (like the ones I am wearing in all the photos) to Christmas Ornaments to engraved pencils which are all under $20.

I refuse to sell anything that I wouldn’t buy, and I try very hard to stay in that lane vs. deviate to the latest trends. I truly want all of my items to feel special and personal vs. something you could pick up in a 20-minute trip to Home Goods or the mall. Thoughtful gifts are the ones we treasure and hold onto and anything personalized or monogrammed just ups the gift caliber even more.

I did a lot of business planning at the end of 2021. I wanted to give back and decided that I would donate 10% of website sales to a different handpicked charity each month. I am so proud to be able to support organizations that I am passionate about. I also designed orange shirts with the word “Enough” which is a nod to gun violence prevention and have donated all the proceeds to The Sandy Hook Promise and Everytown for Gun Safety. I have made almost 50 of those shirts which means I have been able to donate more money than I imagined helping prevent gun violence.

At the end of the day, I want my business to help support my family and to show my children that you can take a passion and make money while doing good in the world. My job is flexible so I am very present with my family. I was President of the PTA of their school, continue to volunteer, never miss a minute of ALL their sports activities and yet they know that I run a business. My shy daughter has worked with me at craft shows and I love seeing her come out of her shell to talk to strangers and sell my products. I am also proud that my business profits funded a recent trip to see my college girlfriends and are contributing to my family’s summer vacation in Hawaii. I also choose to reinvest in my business – last year I bought a laser engraver which was a fantastic purchase to set me apart from other similar businesses. My next purchase is an embroidery machine which marries my love of sewing with anything monogrammed!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
My mom likes to describe Ridgewood, New Jersey as a town out of a Norman Rockwell Painting.  It really is a cute small town with wonderful shops, restaurants and people. When my best friends visit, I take them to Roots for a cocktail and then Blu Sushi for dinner.  Some of our other favorite restaurants in town are Café 37, La Lanterna and LaTour.  When friends visit, we also get takeout from Puzo’s, a local Italian Pizzeria.  Anyone who is visiting will likely be brought to some sporting event for my kids like football, softball, baseball, golf, etc… My favorite shopping spots are Kristen Dahl which is a great women’s boutique, or just strolling through downtown and supporting the local businesses. Ridgewood is also about 45 minutes by train outside of New York City so I would also take the visitor into the city for a Broadway show, shopping and dinner.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would like to dedicate my shoutout to my husband, Ryan. He is an extremely thoughtful gift giver and bought me a Cricut in 2015. It was something I had never asked for but was absolutely the catalyst for Monogrammin’ Mom. He was very supportive of my plan to leave my corporate job even though I was walking away from a very good salary and commission plan. He joked that it was going to be more of a hobby than a business but I have surprised us both with my success.

Website: www.monogramminmom.com

Instagram: monogramminmom

Facebook: monogramminmom

Other: monogramminmom – TikTok

Image Credits
Ash V Bergen County Photographer working in the greater NYC area. www.ashvphotography.com