1. What’s the company’s background? Family business, start up, operate out of home or facility, how many employees?
Great question to start with! Polish Pops is a small family business run by me and my husband, Paolo. We also have three amazing warehouse team members and five temporary fulfillment employees. For a few things, like Email Marketing, Social Media Video Content, and Accounting, we’ve brought in some outside help. We did try outsourcing Customer Service, but we’re still looking for the right fit for our brand. As for everything else—Marketing, Operations, Purchasing, Design, and Customer Service—Paolo and I take care of it ourselves.
We’ve never taken outside investments to fund Polish Pops, so every decision we make is focused on growing our brand in a way that we can manage financially.
We started Polish Pops in 2020 out of our home and then in 2022, we moved out of our home and into our first office and mini fulfillment space. Since then, we’ve moved two more times to bigger spaces as we continue to grow.
2. What is your design process like? Do personally you design the nails? Or do you outsource that? The designs are cute! Also, if you do outsource design. Do you send the design day inspo picks to designers with your personal twist and ideas to them?
When it comes to our design process, it’s a mix of both! I’m super hands-on with brainstorming and coming up with ideas. I love drawing inspiration from trends, colors, and even things I spot in everyday life, plus special design requests from our VIPs. Once I have a vision, I share it with a designer who helps bring it to life. I personally select every color and adjust the designs before sending them off for production. It’s a fun collaboration where I get to add my personal touch and make sure everything still feels true to the Polish Pops vibe.
About a year ago, I started outsourcing designs to free up some time, but for the first few years, it was all me! So, while I don’t create the design files myself anymore, planning and managing the design process is still one of my favorite parts of the business
3. What was the hardest part of creating your business?
The hardest part of creating Polish Pops has definitely been finding the balance between family life and building the business. With little ones at home, there are so many days when I feel like I’m being pulled in a million directions as a mom, all while trying to grow a business. It’s a constant juggling act, and most days feel like pure chaos… but I like to call it "beautiful chaos."
But honestly, it’s also incredibly rewarding. My family is my biggest motivation, and knowing I’m building something for them—and for other families—keeps me going, even on the toughest days. It’s not always easy, but it’s always worth it!
The second hardest part of creating a business is keeping emotions in check. When you pour so much of yourself into building something, it becomes like a piece of your soul that you’ll do anything to protect—much like your kids. That unconditional love can make it especially tough when things don’t go right or when you make a mistake. It’s hard not to want to please everyone (and let’s be honest, a lot of customers expect you to). One of our big goals for 2025 is to work on managing our emotional attachment to Polish Pops and staying grounded through the ups and downs.
4. Did creating Polish pops feel risky? Or were you pretty confident in starting it?
We started Polish Pops as a Covid hobby, and it’s been amazing to watch it grow and show us its true potential. Paolo and I didn’t go full-time with it until we were really confident it could support our family. That being said, we’ve definitely had our share of ups and downs that made us question if it was all worth it. But we never gave up, and by the grace of God, we came out of each challenge stronger.
5. How do you balance owning a business and being a busy mom of almost 4! (Congrats by the way!! That’s so exciting!!) Does Polish Pops take all of your time or are you able to work a little each day and still spend lots of time with your kids? How does that look?
Thank you so much! It’s definitely an exciting time with almost 4 kiddos! Balancing owning a business and being a busy mom is definitely more like a teeter-totter than a perfect balance. Some days, I feel like I’m on top of both, juggling work and family like a pro, and then other days, I feel completely defeated. But at the end of each day, I’m so thankful that I get to make the choice to focus on what matters most to me, and that choice isn’t made for me.
Most days, we try to work part of the day and then spend the rest of the time with the kids. Polish Pops could easily take up all our time, 7 days a week, if we didn’t set clear boundaries. So, it’s all about finding those pockets of time where we can be present in both areas, even if it’s not always perfectly balanced. It’s a constant dance, but it’s one I wouldn’t trade for anything!
6. What do you find is the most challenging part of running your Polish Pops business? What do you find the most rewarding and fun?
The most rewarding part of Polish Pops is definitely seeing the excitement and enthusiasm you all bring to it. We started the VIPs community to connect with you and share the love for Polish Pops, but we never expected the joy it would bring us in return. This Christmas, I surprised Paolo with a few gifts from some of the DTC brands he's been following, and he was so excited about them—his reaction made me feel pretty great. Then he said, “Do you think anyone felt like this unwrapping Polish Pops today?” That moment really hit me and brought tears to my eyes, thinking that we might have brought at least one person pure joy with their gift.
I also really enjoy the days when design samples arrive. After waiting for months to see how they’ll turn out, it’s always so exciting when they finally show up. I’ve always had a passion for creating, so that part is especially fulfilling for me. Seeing an idea come to life in such a tangible way never gets old.
For Paolo, he loves digging into digital marketing analytics to figure out what’s working and exploring new strategies to try. He’s always focused on refining and improving, and that continuous process of learning and adapting keeps him engaged. At the end of the day, it’s all about finding ways to grow and connect with you all, and that’s what makes everything we do worth it.
7. How are the strips produced/made? How did you make sure that the quality was different/better from those already sold by others?
Our strips are made in a factory in China, and I’ll ask them if they can create a video of the process so we can share it with you all! As for quality, we’re all about persistence and never settling. I have really high standards for our printing process, and I won’t compromise on them—even though it costs a bit more and our manufacturer often asks me to change things with each production run. Earlier this year, we did have some defective products, but we worked closely with our manufacturer for several months to fix the issues, and we never gave up. It’s all about making sure you get the best quality possible!
8. advice for running a company with a family member while maintaining a healthy personal and professional relationship with that family member
Running a business with a family member is a lot like parenting—you learn as you go and figure out what works for your unique relationship. For us, the key is trust. We trust each other to handle our own roles, and that makes it easier to make decisions and avoid conflicts. As a husband-and-wife team, making decisions about life and family comes naturally, but in business, letting each other take the lead in our areas of responsibility has really helped. It’s important to respect each other’s strengths and expertise, and know when to step back and let the other person shine in their role.
Equally important is supporting each other through the ups and downs. We all make mistakes—especially when you’re learning how to run a growing business—but facing challenges together and learning from them builds a strong foundation. It’s all about rolling with the punches and growing stronger as a team. Sometimes, that means stepping in to help when things get tough, and other times, it means giving each other space to figure things out. The key is open communication and understanding that we’re in this together, no matter what.
9. How did you start this wonderful company?
Back in April 2020, when salons were closing because of Covid, we decided to start a little hobby. We picked a name, created a website, designed a package and ordered about 200 nail wraps. We launched Polish Pops on June 1st (National Nail Polish Day!). We ran a few Facebook ads, and to our surprise, there was a lot of interest in what we were doing. From there, we created our first custom designs for Halloween. The custom designs were a bit of a leap because they required a much higher minimum order, but we sold through them quickly. That success gave us the confidence to quit my full-time job and focus on Polish Pops and being a mom, and a few years later, Paolo followed suit. And here we are, continuing to grow and do what we love!
10. Why don’t you feature different skin tones on your website or social media? You primarily feature white or Caucasian skin in your advertising. As a Black customer, I love the quality and ease of use of your nail product, but I question whether you have an inclusive brand.
First off, I really appreciate you asking this—it's such an important question! This has been on our radar, and we actually tried to incorporate more diversity when we launched our Gel Pops in 2021. For a long time, we only featured my hand in our social media and product photos, but eventually, one of our babysitters who loved Polish Pops started helping with photography and social media. Her nails are goals, so she became our go-to hand model. As a small business with three young kids, sometimes things fall into your lap in ways that make life a little easier, and I’m grateful that she stepped in to help with product photography, which was taking up a lot of my time.
When we rebranded and launched the Gel Pops, we tried to feature two different skin-toned hand models (one Caucasian and one Black) through a service, but unfortunately, the photography and application of the models didn’t meet the standards we wanted, so I ended up going back to doing it all myself. That said, finding more diverse hand models is definitely a project we want to focus on in the future because we want everyone to feel represented and included.
Thank you for bringing this up, and know that we’re committed to making sure Polish Pops is a brand that feels welcoming to everyone!
11. What are your next big goals for polish pops?
Our big goal for Polish Pops this year is to grow enough that we can bring on employees to help run the business. That way, we can focus on what we’re best at and continue growing the brand.
As we grow, it would be amazing to randomly meet someone out and about wearing Polish Pops (this has yet to happen to us)+. We’ve had a few fun moments already—like when one of our cousins met someone at a wedding who was wearing Polish Pops, or when Paolo’s mom went to comment on an influencer’s post suggesting they try Polish Pops, only to find there were already comments about us! It's those little moments that show how far we've come, and it’d be awesome to have even more of those in the future. We're excited to keep growing and seeing where this journey takes us!
12. Does it ever offend or discourage you when customers don't seem to like one of your designs? Or don't buy very many of a particular design?
It doesn’t offend me, but I’ll admit, it used to be discouraging when a design didn’t do well or didn’t sell as much as we hoped. My favorite designs are never the most popular, which is totally fine, but it’s easy to get in your head and let emotions take over. When we first started, we released a variety of designs to see what resonated with the market. Thankfully, the ones I thought were "a bit out there" didn’t sell, and we started to really get a feel for what our Polish Pops customer loved.
What I’ve found is that the Polish Pops customer is pretty similar to me, so designing is a fun process for me. I also did a lot of research on branding and how it shapes who connects with your business, which has definitely influenced who our customers are (but I’ll save that TED talk for another day!).
As we continue to grow, I’m starting to step back a bit from designing for myself. I still sprinkle in a few designs that I love, but I’m shifting to focus more on what our customers want. Polish Pops is about them now, not just me, and that’s an exciting part of our brand’s growth.
13. In all of your wildest dreams, did you ever think Polish Pops would take off the way it has and continues to grow every day?
It’s honestly been a dream come true! I’ve always been a glass half full kind of person, and even though I couldn’t have fully imagined what life would look like four years after buying those 200 nail wraps back in 2020, I did know we’d be able to be present for our kids when they needed us. No more worrying about being out of town for work or stuck in long meetings.
The other day, my oldest, Mia, was listening to Cinderella in the car, and when the song “A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes” played, she asked, “Mommy, is that true?” The lyrics said, “If you keep on believing, the dream that you wish will come true.” And I told her, “Yes, Mia, if you believe in something enough, work hard for it, and put your heart into it, your dreams can come true.”
Now, I won’t say it’s been an easy journey—we’ve made mistakes, faced obstacles beyond our control, and had our share of challenges—but we’ve worked incredibly hard to get to where we are. So yes, in my wildest dreams, I see us reaching our five-year goals. Do I know exactly how we’ll get there or what the path will look like? Not yet. But every day, we’re turning our dreams into reality.
14. I just recently started using your product a few months ago and am in awe of how great the product and customer service is. How do you manage to do the majority of work for the company, maintain quality and good service, and still make time for family? With how much the following has grown, do you forecast hiring a larger staff or do you prefer to keep the company smaller and more like a family?
Thank you so much for the kind words! We truly appreciate your support. To be honest, I’m not sure how we manage it all some days—it’s definitely a bit of a juggling act! We take things day by day and prioritize tasks based on what the business needs at the time. We have roles that focus on working on the business, but we’re also ready to jump in and work in the business whenever it needs us.
It’s not always easy to switch gears and focus on family, especially when there’s so much going on in our heads, but we try to strike a balance. We have a lot to do, but we also want to make the most of our time with our kids and loved ones.
As for expanding, we will be growing our team this year, but we’re committed to keeping it small and maintaining that family-like feel. At the end of the day, Polish Pops is more than just a website selling products—it’s a brand with a soul. And that soul is nurtured by a team who genuinely cares and puts their whole heart into what they do.
15. How was the idea for Polish Pops born?? And how do you do it so much better than everyone else?!
The idea for Polish Pops actually started when our oldest was about 6 months old. I was craving a manicure to feel like me again, but I didn’t have the time to go to a salon. So, I told Paolo about this "million dollar idea" I had, and he was really intrigued. After some research, I found out that there were already manufacturers making something similar—but even better! So, I ordered samples, and after careful consideration, I picked the manufacturer whose product I thought could make it into stores like Target.
As for how we stand out, thank you for saying that! We definitely keep an eye on the competition, and we’re proud to be growing quickly here in the US—it’s honestly so humbling. Without giving away any trade secrets, I’d say what sets us apart is that soul factor. I recently heard someone talk about it on a podcast, and it really stuck with me. I always thought of us as just a strong brand, but "soul" feels like a more fitting word. Everything we do—every decision we make—is centered around what’s best for our brand, even if that means we’re still working in the business every day. Creating a brand with soul doesn’t happen overnight—it takes time, passion, and a lot of dedication.
16. Another question! How soon after starting your business did it take for you to start seeing a profit? And what advice do you have for people starting their own business worried that it won’t turn a profit??
We were fortunate to see profitability right away, but timing also played a huge role in our early success. When we started Polish Pops, Covid had just closed nail salons, and Facebook ads were incredibly affordable compared to what they cost now. This combination gave us a unique opportunity to reach customers who were looking for at-home nail solutions, and we were able to grow quickly as a result.
That said, we made the conscious decision to reinvest everything back into Polish Pops for the first 3.5 years to fuel our growth. It wasn’t always easy, but it was a choice we felt was necessary to build the foundation for something bigger. I quit my job in tech consulting early on, and Paolo transitioned to part-time work to support the business. Even now, we still live modestly and prioritize putting a lot back into the company.
A quote that really guided us during that time (and still does) is from Dave Ramsey: “If you will live like no one else, later you can live and give like no one else.” It’s a reminder that sacrifices now can lead to incredible opportunities later.
For anyone starting their own business and worried about turning a profit, my advice is to believe in your vision and trust yourself to weather those early storms. It’s not always easy—it’s definitely not for the faint of heart—but if you keep pushing and stay focused on your goals, you’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish. And when you feel like giving up (which we’ve all been there), ask yourself: If this were my child chasing their dream, what would I tell them? That perspective can be so powerful in keeping you motivated and moving forward.
17. With all the packing and shipping, do you even get to wear the pops?
Great question! Thankfully, we have an amazing fulfillment team that takes care of packing and shipping at our warehouse. On super busy days—like our Black Friday Sale—you’ll definitely find Paolo and me jumping in to help get as many orders out the door as possible. But day to day, they’ve got it covered, which is such a blessing.
As for wearing the pops, I’ll admit, life gets so busy that I don’t change my mani as often as I’d like! My last manicure lasted a solid 4 weeks, and my pedicure held strong for 8 weeks. So while I may not switch them out as frequently anymore, I’m still rocking my Polish Pops (and loving how long they last)!
Thank you all for the thoughtful questions! We answered as many as we could!
xo - Monique & Paolo
