Title: Sole Proprietor, Entrepreneur

Company: Yarn Cat Crafts

Location: Branford, CT

“You only have one life, and you want to find something that you can dedicate yourself to.  You should also love what you do, or at least the most important parts of your life.” These are the positive words of Margaret C. Ostigny, owner of Yarn Cat Crafts, a unique online retailer that motivates individuals to free their creative minds. “Through my business, I’m presenting a lot of different ways to explore one’s artistic side, and hopefully inspiring people to unleash their creativity. That’s kind of my mantra, ‘unleash your creative side,’” she recently said in an exclusive EliteAMERICAN interview. At the helm of a company that provides customers arts and crafts products for children and adults—including craft, beading and jewelry kits—along with an array of gifts and toys, Ms. Ostigny employs an abundance of creative skills.  These skills include proficiencies in web design, data management, computer and network configuration and troubleshooting, small-business management, and research and design to ensure the staying power of her company by providing exceptional products and services.

A long-standing passion for creating authentic projects prompted Ms. Ostigny to establish her own business.  At the same time, her genuine love for fashioning things out of yarn and other materials inspired her to combine her interests in crafts and her love of cats with her education in business and information technology–encompassing multimedia, visual communications, and web design–to found her company. “My education in business and IT really gave me useful building blocks for a business, but I had the creativity and determination to have my own business before that,” she said when discussing the factors that impelled her to follow her dreams of embarking on an entrepreneurial adventure and owning and managing her own business. Ms. Ostigny has garnered a reputation of distinction for being very detail-oriented and focused on optimal outcomes; she maintained a 4.0 GPA while earning both an associate and a bachelor’s degree.

Ms. Ostigny has amassed a wealth of knowledge and experience over the course of an illustrious career. She is a former quality assurance engineer for Dictaphone, where she worked for 14 years. In addition, she worked as a certified medical assistant. A strong believer in motivational adages, Ms. Ostigny has long enjoyed the maxim “Live, love, laugh and learn”, and more recently added to that the “ Unleash your creative side” which she finds to be inspirational to herself and others. She is happy to have found a niche in e-retail that enables her to be her own boss, harness her love of arts and crafts, and utilize her detail and organizational skills, learning experiences, and education.

Contact Margaret Ostigny