For a year, the secret to Abby Price’s success sat covered in dust in her shop’s basement.

Price started her company Abbode as a graduate student at Parsons School of Design, selling dried floral arrangements to New York locals on Facebook in 2019. By March 2022, she sold bouquets and home decor from a storefront she rented in the city’s Nolita neighborhood — and had enough cashflow to finance a $15,000 embroidery machine, which Price bought “on a total whim,” she says.

Without the expertise or space to actually operate the 100-pound machine, she stored it in her shop’s basement. But when consumer spending dropped after the ensuing holiday shopping season, Abbode started to struggle — until Price hosted a two-day embroidery event at her store in March 2023.

On the event’s first day, Abbode brought in five times the sales of the previous Saturday, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. “That weekend, I knew I had something special on my hands. I knew that nothing was going to be the same,” says Price, the company’s 29-year-old CEO and co-owner. “I was just really early [to a trend].”

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Over the next year, Abbode shifted its business to offer customizable embroidered products and embroidery services, both in-store and online. It brought in $1.59 million in total 2024 sales, up from $719,000 the year prior, documents show. The company projects it’ll end 2025 with $4 million in annual sales, as of Sept. 30.

Events are responsible for roughly 25% of that revenue, documents show. Abbode has hosted pop-ups around the world — in England, Spain and Italy — with brands like L.L. Bean, Ritz Carlton and Charlotte Tilbury. Pop star Sabrina Carpenter wore an Abbode-customized yellow T-shirt with red stitching that read, “Live From New York,” during her Oct. 18 performance on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live.”

Despite its high sales, Abbode is essentially operating at breakeven levels — it’s profitable by a small margin — says co-owner and COO Daniel Kwak. The company is prioritizing brand recognition and expanding its revenue streams before trying to grow its profitability, he says.

Here’s how a once-barely used embroidery machine changed Price’s life, and how she hopes to make Abbode a household name:

Price’s initial decision to turn her Facebook-native business into a New York storefront was simple. Rents were low during the Covid-19 pandemic, and she could spend $20,000 — between her savings and a gift from her parents — on a security deposit and a couple months’ rent to test the waters of running her own retail shop, she says.

When her six-month lease expired, she doubled down — moving into Abbode’s current location, a space roughly twice the size and monthly rent, in November 2021. She took on $60,000 in loans from friends and family to cover the expansion, and saw quick returns, she says.

Amid the holiday season, customers packed the buzzy retail neighborhood’s streets and bought enough of Abodde’s home décor to push the company’s sales to $60,000 per month, says Price.

Feeling financially secure, Price splurged on the embroidery machine, paying off its financing in $1,000 monthly payments, she says.

Then, the holidays ended. Abbode’s sales leveled off at roughly $45,000 per month in June 2022, Price estimates. “As the business grew, I feel like the problems also grew,” she says. “I was constantly investing in things, more employees, more inventory, this embroidery machine. It all just sort of started to catch up with me.”

The ebb of sales caused Price uncharacteristic anxiety, and she cried in the store’s bathroom on its second anniversary, she says: “Not many people came. I was feeling so overwhelmed and stressed because I knew something had to change here.”

In March 2023, the embroidery machine needed to be professionally serviced, to ensure it was working properly — so Price and her team hauled it out of the basement. To make the physical effort worthwhile, she hosted a pop-up event where customers could buy Abbode items and get them embroidered for free, she says.

Within a few hours, flurries of yellow sticky notes covered the checkout counter, documenting the high volume of custom embroidery requests. It took weeks to get through all of the orders, Price says. She started buying more machines and training employees to use them, and by the end of the year, embroidery was responsible for 50% of the store’s revenue, she says.

Kwak, a friend of Price’s boyfriend, had worked for Abbode part-time since 2022 and transitioned into full-time work and co-ownership of the company starting in late 2023. He helped convince Price to shift Abbode fully into embroidery, he says. Specifically, he saw potential with more limited-time embroidery events, he says — and as Abbode hosted more of them over the following year, including some in partnership with other brands, its revenue doubled.

Price and Kwak rented a second location, a $5,000 per month office in Chinatown, in July 2024 to house its machines and embroiderers, and take on more orders. That September, L.L. Bean cold-emailed her to ask if she would host an L.L. Bean a pop-up event to sell Abbode-customized Boat and Tote bags. Customers waited in line for up to four hours, and the partnership brought in over $100,000 in sales that weekend, says Price.

The company now has 10 embroidery machines and 25 employees, a mix of full-time and contract. It partnered with a fulfillment center to complete some of its embroidery projects offsite earlier in 2025, Price says.

Customization-focused businesses — like embroidery, needlepoint or knitting services — all have the potential to succeed right now, says Marni Shapiro, a co-founder and managing partner of research and consulting firm The Retail Tracker.

Nostalgia thrives in uncertain political and economic climates, Shapiro says, and businesses offering hands-on services can be attractive to shoppers who may feel exhausted by their phones and the rise of artificial intelligence.

Personalization searches are rising on Etsy, for example: Searches for personalized clothing have doubled over the last three months, and searches for personalized decor are up 240% compared to the same time period in 2024, according to the platform.

Etsy sellers aren’t Abbode’s competition, Price notes, because they can’t offer in-person experiences. Instead, she compares Abbode to medium-sized brands like Stoney Clover Lane — which has seven storefronts mostly along the East Coast — or Mark and Graham, which is owned by home goods conglomerate Williams-Sonoma.

Abbode isn’t currently as large as those brands. But if demand keeps growing, Abbode will be able to spend on expanding its revenue streams without needing any external investments, says Kwak.

“You just don’t know what’s going to happen with people’s spending, the economy,” Kwak says. “Being bootstrapped, we have to have a significant amount of cash to be able to weather that … We’re going to keep investing right back into the business, and I don’t see that changing for a long time.”

Price declined to share how much she makes per year, but has kept her salary consistent since opening Abbode’s first storefront in 2021 to help maximize the amount of revenue she can reinvest into the company, she says. Short term, she hopes to add more licensing deals — for properties like sports team logos, or popular brands and characters — and work with more wholesale partners, she says. Longer term, she hopes to open Abbode storefronts worldwide.

“We can take any ethos and emotion behind anything and turn it into embroidery,” says Price. “Really just sky’s the limit.”

Disclosure: NBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC and NBC, which broadcasts “Saturday Night Live.”

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To stand out in today’s job market, it’s crucial to go “one step beyond” other candidates by polishing your personal narrative and preparing for tricky interview questions.

Candidates who are able to provide clear, calm and thoroughly researched answers will stand out to hiring managers, according to Madeline Mann, founder of career coaching business Self Made Millennial and author of “Reverse the Search: How to Turn Job Seeking into Job Shopping.”

In her experience, one interview question that frequently trips up job seekers is: “Where do you see yourself in five years?”

It’s “kind of an impossible question,” Mann says. Nobody really knows what their future career will look like, but the question “gets so many job seekers rejected — and they don’t realize it.”

Your response should demonstrate to hiring managers how your goals and experience “fit into this role,” she says.

Here’s her best advice for job seekers on how to tackle this interview question.

From a hiring manager’s perspective, the purpose of this question is to figure out if candidates are sincerely interested in the job and whether it aligns with their career ambitions, according to Mann.

Many job seekers inadvertently “prove that this role isn’t in their trajectory” by sharing future goals that have nothing to do with it, Mann says.

“They’ll say things like, ‘I hope to open my own business in five years,’ or, ’I hope to get married in five years,” she says. Answers that focus on entrepreneurship or personal milestones can “give the impression that this person might be a flight risk,” Mann says.

Companies are looking to hire employees who will stick around for the long term, according to Mann, not ones who are already planning their exits.

Finally, don’t tell the interviewer, “I want your job in five years,” Mann says — you’ll seem arrogant and unrealistic.

Mann recommends focusing on tangible career outcomes instead of on job titles or promotions in your answer. She recommends thinking of the question as: “How is this role favorable to my trajectory?” she says.

Rather than saying, “I expect myself to be the director of this department” in five years, candidates should focus on the steps they would take to achieve that, she says.

“Maybe I’d say, ‘I’d like to be taking on more direct reports,’ or, ‘I’d like to be owning bigger accounts, and I would like to be the go-to person in the organization for expertise,’ or, ‘I’d like to be speaking on bigger stages,’” she says.

All of these examples are “the product of excelling to the next stage,” Mann says.

“Instead of just saying, ‘I’m chasing a title,’ you’re saying, ‘I’m chasing outcomes that are going to be beneficial to the business,’” she says.

Overall, your answer should be “in flow with the role,” Mann says: It’ll show the company that you plan to stick with the job, but continue “achieving at higher and higher levels.”

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As a mom, a researcher, and a writer, I’ve spent more than a decade diving into the science of happiness.

Along the way, I’ve collected what I call “Secrets of Adulthood” — the lessons I’ve learned, with time and experience, about how to create lives that are happier and more meaningful. Many of those insights come back to one of the most important roles we play: raising happy kids.

So I’m sharing 12 simple parenting rules I always live by.

If you have big plans for the day but your child isn’t cooperating, be willing to adjust your activities to suit your child’s needs in the moment. Sometimes I have to remind myself, “This is supposed to be fun.”

It’s no good visiting the zoo if my daughter is throwing one tantrum after another.

When I interviewed parenting expert Aliza Pressman on my podcast “Happier,” we talked about the fact that by working to stay calm ourselves, we help our children stay calm. Children don’t want the pressure of feeling that a parent’s mood or outlook depends on their behavior; they want to be able to rely on a parent’s steady support. 

This small action makes a huge difference for kids (and partners) by boosting the atmosphere of tenderness and attentiveness in a household. Say hello and goodbye with genuine attention and warmth, and if possible, add a hug or some kind of physical touch. I want my kids (and my husband) to know that I’m just as happy to see them as our dogs are. 

My silly April Fool’s Day pranks and my “holiday breakfasts” for Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day are a big source of happiness. They’re quick, fun, and make a day feel special and memorable.

Wear a bright red shirt with bright orange shorts? Sure. Sleep with your head at the foot of the bed? Fine. Samuel Johnson said, “All severity that does not tend to increase good, or prevent evil, is idle.”

For instance, figure out whether your child is an Obliger, Questioner, Upholder, or a Rebel, and adapt your parenting style to suit that particular child. Read more about my “Four Tendencies” personality framework here. If you want suggestions about how to apply the framework as a parent, look here. If you want your child to practice the piano, for instance, you’d take a very different approach depending on your child’s Tendency.

This includes being willing to laugh at yourself. I remind myself of the Secret of Adulthood that “Mishaps often make the best memories.” Instead of yelling when I saw that my daughter had scattered every single pot and pan across the kitchen floor, I laughed and reminded myself that one day, this mess would make a very funny memory.

“You’re so resourceful,” “You have such an original imagination,” “I wish I had your ability to remember names and faces.” For children and adults alike, it can be hard to identify our own strengths. Parents can help children recognize areas of excellence in themselves. 

It can be tempting to say, “That person was just joking, it’s not a big deal,” “You won’t have any trouble memorizing the multiplication tables once you focus,” “You’re not afraid of clowns.” We may think that we’re being encouraging, but in fact, when we deny children’s feelings, they feel frustrated and ignored.

It’s more helpful to respond with empathy: “Last time we went to the circus you thought the clowns were very funny, but right now they seem scary,” or “That comment really hurt your feelings,” or “It’s hard work to memorize the multiplication tables.” 

I recently discussed this principle on the podcast “Laughlines with Kim and Penn Holderness.” Sometimes when talking to our kids, we ask questions that prompt them to focus on the negative aspects of their day. “Was that class still boring?” “Was that kid mean to you again?” We want to respond with compassion if a child wants to discuss a tough topic, but we don’t want to encourage them to focus on the worst parts of their experience.

Tasks that are easy for adults can be frustrating and difficult for children. Try to make things easier: Use hooks rather than hangers, store useful items on low shelves, keep a lightweight stepstool next to the kitchen counter and in the bathroom.

When your child is driving you bonkers, keep your sense of perspective by recalling that soon, this phase will retreat into the past. It’s easier to stay serene and good-humored when we remember how fleeting the days of childhood were. One of the best ways to make your child happy is to be happy yourself.

Gretchen Rubin is one of today’s most influential observers of happiness and human nature. She’s the author of many books, including the bestseller ”The Happiness Project.” Her books have sold more than 3.5 million copies worldwide, in more than 30 languages. She hosts the award-winning podcast Happier with Gretchen Rubin, where she explores practical solutions for living a happier life. Her new book, ”Secrets of Adulthood,” is out now.

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Furloughed government workers began returning to work on Thursday, but for many, especially those who will not receive pay for the work missed, there may be no return to normal.

In 2018, it took 65-year-old security officer Audrey Murray — who works for a third-party federal contractor — two years to pay back money she borrowed from family members to cover her bills during the 35-day government shutdown, she told CNBC Make It in October.

After this year’s 43-day shutdown, Murray says she is back in debt with family. On top of that, she may soon face higher health insurance costs if Congress fails to pass a separate vote in December on Affordable Care Act tax credits set to expire at the end of the year.

Higher insurance premiums come January could potentially leave Murray, and others in similar positions, even further behind financially, says Jaime Contreras, executive vice president of the Service Employee International Union’s 32BJ Capital Area District, representing 2,400 federally contracted workers, including Murray.

“The one thing I want to be clear about is that this deal — frankly, a weak deal in my opinion — to reopen the government, is no cause for celebration,” Contreras says.

While federal employees who work directly for the government will begin receiving back pay owed from the shutdown as soon as next week, Murray, a federally contracted worker, will not.

That’s because federal contractors are paid hourly for the services they provide, such as security, meal prep or office cleaning. If a government shutdown prevents those services from being performed, contractors do not receive pay, Contreras says.

It’s unclear how many low-wage federal workers are affected, but it may be in the thousands, Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) said in an October statement. As of 2021, there were 327,000 federally contracted employees who made under $15 an hour, according to the Department of Labor.

Going forward, “federal workers, who have gone without pay, need to figure out how to repair all the damage that has been done to their finances and their families,” Contreras says.

A representative from the Office of Management and Budget did not immediately respond to CNBC Make It’s request for comment.

Murray, a single mother to two teenage sons and full-time caregiver for her 12-year-old granddaughter, says she almost had her electricity shut off during this shutdown, and she is worried she won’t have the funds to pay her $2,200 mortgage in December.

Though she’s back at her full-time job at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery that pays $20.22 an hour, she says she was told by her supervisors that it could be another week or two before she gets her first paycheck.

She was never furloughed from her part-time job at the State Department, but the money from that job won’t be nearly enough to cover her bills, she says. So, in the meantime, she might have to ask her sister for more money.

“People get their own bills; it hurt me to have to ask them,” Murray says. “They will help me if they can because they know I will pay them back, but why should I have to go through that? I have a job. I’m a 65-year-old woman who has two jobs to take care of my children.”

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With the U.S. Mint striking its final batch of pennies in Philadelphia last week, the 232-year production run of the one-cent coin has effectively ended.

Much of the shift is driven by rising production costs and declining cash usage. Over the past decade, the Mint’s cost to produce each penny has climbed from 1.42 cents to 3.69 cents, according to the U.S. Mint.

The penny isn’t discontinued and still counts as legal tender, and the final batch is expected to enter circulation in early 2026. But with no new coins being made, the circulating supply will shrink as older pennies drop out of use. Some retailers have already reported penny shortages as production has scaled down, according to Reuters.

And with fewer people using cash for purchases — especially coins — spare change is playing a smaller role in everyday transactions as more people pay with cards or their smartphones. Cash now makes up 14% of consumer payments, down from 31% in 2016, according to Federal Reserve data.

“Now is a good time to cash in [your coins],” says David Rosenstrock, a certified financial planner with Wharton Wealth Planning. “The primary reasons relate to practicality, as coins have an eroding purchasing power, take up space and are becoming less convenient to use or exchange.”

Here’s a look at why.

One of the most reliable ways to turn coins into cash is through your bank, which may accept rolled coins or, in some cases, use in-branch counting machines for account holders. Another common option is coin-counting kiosks commonly found in grocery stores, but they often charge a fee.

But those services aren’t as widely available anymore, with many banks reducing the number of lobby coin-counter machines, according to Bankrate. With fewer places willing to process coins, jars and bags of change are harder to turn into usable cash.

While pennies remain in circulation, expect businesses to use them less. As happened in Canada after it discontinued the penny in 2013, many retailers are expected to round cash transactions to the nearest nickel.

Some retailers are already doing this, including Wendy’s, certain McDonald’s locations and Midwest convenience chain Kwik Trip, according to CBS.

There’s also no federal law requiring private businesses to accept any specific form of U.S. currency, which is why some storefronts post “we don’t accept pennies” signs.

Some states do require exact change, however. Even so, with most purchases now made by card or smartphone, the need for cash — especially coins — continues to decline. As such, coins are becoming less convenient to use or exchange as more businesses move away from handling low-value cash.

Coins stashed in your home don’t earn interest, so their buying power erodes over time as inflation rises. 

Those coins add up, too: The median household was estimated to hold $60 to $90 in coins, according to a 2022 Federal Reserve report.

Assuming you had about $100 in coins sitting in jars in 2020, that money today buys roughly $20 less than it did five years ago, based on inflation as measured by the consumer price index.

By contrast, a high-yield savings account would have helped limit the loss in buying power, since coins don’t earn interest on their own. Currently, you can find annual percentage yields for these accounts above 4%, which is higher than the current year-over-year inflation rate of 3%.

“After you convert your coins, toss that into a high-yield savings account and actually make money from it rather than gathering dust,” says Alvin Carlos, a CFP with District Capital Management. “This is low-stakes money, but it’s still money. Little habits like cleaning out change, consolidating old accounts or selling unused stuff can add up surprisingly fast.”

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