2024 Year-End Amber Grant Awarded to Moy Studios

WomensNet is pleased to announce the recipient of its 2024 annual $25,000 Year-End Amber Grant.

Mónika Reyes Maldonado, based in San Juan, Puerto Rico won the October 2024 Amber Grant, and is the founder of Moy Studio.

Take a few minutes to be inspired by her interview with Marcia Layton Turner about her business growth this year and her plans for the year-end grant.

Video Transcript

WomensNet: We are speaking today with our 2024 Year-End Amber Grant winner Monika Reyes of Moy Studio. I’m Marcia Layton Turner and I’m one of several WomensNet advisory board members. Monika, thanks so much for taking the time to talk about your business.

How about if we start with a quick recap of what you’ve been able to accomplish with your Amber grant from earlier this year?

Monika: Well, I’m very grateful for this opportunity to let Moy Studio Sustainable Sewing School to keep achieving our goals. So, thanks to the October grant, we achieved three things: 3,000 new followers between Instagram and Facebook, more than 200 newsletter subscribers for the email marketing strategy, and more than 35 subscribers on our new membership program.

These results came from our ad funnel campaign, which uses different online content to turn leads into loyal customers through three key stages. And this strategy focused specifically on guiding people through a personalized journey, building trust along the way, and helping them make a purchase at the end.

WomensNet: I’d love to hear some highlights, or other things that you are proud of from this year that you’d like to share.

Monika: Well, this last year a lot of things happened besides winning our first grant. That was a pivot point for Moy Studio.

We also experienced the effect that an influencer has on people when they are just talking and sharing organically information about your business. That had a huge impact on our following. Now we’re considering collaborating with more influencers, but specifically in our industry.

Also, we launched a new in-person workshop about upcycle sewing to extend our sustainable sewing offerings and we produced a clothing alteration course as our third online course with a local filmmaker. Those three things, besides the grant, was like a pivot point for Moy Studio.

WomensNet: Wow. Those are big. Congratulations.

Monika: Thank you.

WomensNet: So now that we’ve talked a little bit about your business, what’s one thing that you learned this year that you could share with our community that might help them in their businesses?

Monika: One thing, well, actually two I’ve learned is: 1) the importance of patience and 2) consistency. Patience with my own process has taught me to trust each stage of building my studio, understanding that every phase of the business brings new lessons and growth.

And consistency, inspired in part, by the insights from the book Atomic Habits has shown me that even small intentional efforts like sharing knowledge, developing new courses, or connecting with others, can compound into meaningful progress over time. So, yes. I think patience and consistency through not just this year, but the sixth year we have been with Moy Studio, it’s like the résumé of all this hard work.

WomensNet: Now that you have won an additional $25,000 to invest in your business, how are you going to use it to help your company grow?

Monika: Well, the grant will be allocated evenly across key areas to support Moy Studio’s online growth, specifically — so we can generate a passive income to achieve other bigger goals eventually. For example, 25 percent will be for marketing efforts to expand our reach that today is a really big important part of businesses. Twenty-five percent will be invested in online course production, to develop high-quality content and expand our offerings in the online school. Twenty-five percent will be used to hire new team members so we can enhance our operation and so that I can nurture students more than as just like a virtual teacher. I’m with them through all the process and create more confidence with them. And the last 25 percent for tools and development to innovate and improve our services. Specifically, we want to create a new e-sewing learning tool for education.

WomensNet: Excellent.

Monika: So while things may change as we go, we’re confident that this approach will help us grow sustainably and keep inspiring and empowering our community that it’s so important.