There isn’t much of a story behind the name, Project Vinyl, mainly because the real story is about the girl and the idea that she turned into a reality. 

For those who don’t know about Project Vinyl, it is a small business centered around custom, handmade items that can have any logo or design printed on them. But more importantly, not many know about the girl behind it all. Hailey Purcell is a creative and driven Senior at North Penn who juggles everything from a job, to school work, to her own business. Purcell has always had a passion to share her creativity with others but wasn’t exactly sure how she wanted to go about it.    

“I have always been into drawing and stuff like that so I knew deep down that I wanted to do something creative with my passion,” Purcell stated. 

She first got the idea to start her own business from Tik Tok. Seeing people’s businesses blow up across the platform was the first nudge towards entrepreneurship.    

“During COVID I would watch Tik Toks where people’s businesses were blowing up. I never necessarily wanted my business to blow up but I thought it would be beneficial to not only have a creative outlet, but something that I could do on the side to make money to save for college,” Purcell explained.  

Now that Purcell knew that she wanted to start her own business, it was time to navigate some of the more challenging tasks. Not only was she still unsure of what she wanted her business to be, but she still had no idea how to get it started. But one day, a lightbulb went off in her head.   

“On Tik Tok I saw all these people had Cricuts, which are used to print designs on things like T-shirts. I was really debating whether or not I should buy one because they are so expensive, but I figured why not just go for it. I knew that if I kept waiting it would eventually be too late to get started,” Purcell said.   

From that day on, Purcell’s idea began to come together into what she can now proudly call Project Vinyl. There isn’t much behind the name, in fact, she didn’t even like the name that much at first. 

“The name for the business was really random. I just put a bunch of words into a word generator and just kept pressing the button until I found one that I thought I could use,” Purcell said with a chuckle. “I wasn’t even really sure about the name at first but it has grown on me”.  

As she went about building her business, she didn’t necessarily have the smooth start she was hoping for. 

“Once all the supplies came, I started playing around with Cricut and doing random stuff. It was really frustrating because the first time I tried it, it didn’t work and I started freaking out and screaming at my dad who was trying to help. But once I calmed down and practiced more, I eventually got the hang of it,” Purcell explained.  

Purcell shared that her parents are incredibly supportive of her and her business from her mom sending her new ideas, to her dad letting her completely take over his computer. Although they show a tremendous amount of support in her journey and dreams, it hasn’t always been this way. 

“At first my mom wasn’t necessarily all for it,” Purcell shared. “She just felt that it was the wrong time for me to start this because I had so much going on between school and work. But now seeing everything come together both my parents are super supportive.”   

Purcell does find even now that she has her business up and running, it is still challenging to balance everything. She finds it especially challenging this year with her busy senior year schedule as well as taking a demanding chemistry course at Montco. While it can be challenging, she is learning everyday and slowly beginning to find the much needed balance she has been searching for. 

“I find it’s just really hard to balance it all because I love working on Project Vinyl so much and I find that sometimes I put that before school and then am struggling to get done my school work. But I think I am slowly starting to figure it out and learn how to divide my time,” Purcell revealed.  

Purcell plans on going to college to become a nurse but she hopes to keep her entrepreneur work on the side. She is aware this is a large task and will be very tricky to take on, but she has ambitious goals to take her business to the next level. For now though she knows she needs to focus on college and her career first.   

“Since the day I turned fourteen I have been working a job on the side of school and when I go off to college I won’t really have time to work a job. I hope I am able to continue Project Vinyl in college so that I can still create an income and have that creative outlet I need,” Purcell explained.  

Although she isn’t looking too far ahead in the future, Purcell did go as far as to give us insight on what she anticipates for her business after college. 

“I am just taking it one day at a time, but I think it would be cool to have my own boutique or something. I do hope that I can get my name and business out there as much as possible now so that once I graduate college I can maybe start an Etsy store,” Purcell explained. “I want to have something I am doing on the side as well as another source of income”.  

Purcell is excited to continue creating and exploring what she can do with her Cricut. She did mention to be on the lookout for a possible sweatshirt release. 

“I just made my first sweatshirt and my goal is to start selling those, but I want to put it through the wash first to see how it holds up,” Purcell shared. 

In the end when, I asked her what her favorite part is about her business and her creations she said, “I like that there are no boundaries to the Cricut. You can truly do whatever you want”. 

Although there may not be much of a story behind the name, she hopes that as the years go on and her business hopefully grows, there will become a story for everyone to know about Project Vinyl.  

“I knew what my starting point was, but I want to take it further than that. There are endless possibilities to what I can do,” Purcell said.