It's the beginning, the start of something new, something big. This is my first time blogging...actually this is my first time creating a business from scratch. This could grow to be something bigger than I could ever imagine, or just be some sort of fad that is short lived. Whether this succeeds, or fails, this first day will always be my greatest day, because this day, I stepped out into the unknown to try...
Every good story has it's origin, so I'll attempt to tell it the best way I can.
This is the origin of Inspire Wear.
Before I go into it, I would love to first give a shoutout to my niece Codi, because today is her birthday. I know it sounds so corny to open a business on a birthday, but you know, it's about first loves. Happy Birthday!
Now...origin.
My background is in fine art, and I've been drawing since I was 5 years old. It has been a natural talent turned open door, turned friendship starter, turned influencer, turned therapy, turned business opportunity. So, art has been everything to me. As I got older, I developed a listening ear and mock therapist during my time drawing caricatures at a local amusement park. How do these two things turn into starting a business? It's probably obvious by now.
Well, I got pretty good at it that even today complete strangers will come up to me and tell me their life story and it's problems. Maybe I have that kind of face, or maybe i have "Unlicensed Therapist" stamped on my forehead. I've always had this desire to be my own boss while toiling in the financial world. My thing was about making money for someone else, and only seeing a small fraction of it. Why work for "The Man", when you can be "The Man"? Entrepreneurs are risk takers, creatives, that make moves, changes, and ultimately make their way prosperous through their efforts. Pretty glamourous. So I thought to myself, "Why not me?"
So I started a small business called Kartoooonz Caricatures. After drawing caricatures for over 5 years, I thought I could do it myself, so I built my own website, a pretty ratty one by today's standards, and signed up for an e-commerce account. Mind you this was the early 2000's, so e-commerce was nothing more than "Hey, let us help you process credit card payments and we'll charge you a lot of money to do it". Tbh, word of mouth worked better for me than a website. I did it off and on for a few years until business was showing a little promise to the point where i thought i'd give this thing another go, until...
Covid. (I'll fast forward through those years)
So this desire to break this cycle of staring at a computer screen and collecting for yet another financial company became stronger, I was asked by someone to design a t-shirt.
The person was my wife, who was (and still is) a big fan of those inspirational t-shirts that may have one small word written on it, but makes a big statement. I told her that I would try, especially designing t-shirts wasn't really my "thing". Now mind you, i didn't know how lucrative a business designing and selling t-shirts was at the time, so i tried my hand at it...and I actually liked it.
Now I was putting anything on a shirt and seeing how good it looked, but I had no idea on how this would become a business. I'm still doing research, and discovering how the more successful companies do it.
Side Note: I never told my wife that she inspired all of this, so let's keep this between us, because if she found out, i'd never hear the end of it. LOL!
So that is the story in it's most condensed form. So if you Tl:dr'd it, i understand as it's my first thoughts on my first blog.
Now comes the question...
For all you dreamers out there, and i know there are still many...How did you discover your first love, and did you discover that it became bigger than you ever imagined? How did you handle it? I'd really like to know, because on this first day of my business, I'd like to hear from the people that I dedicate Inspire Wear to...the dreamers.
Thanks again, and I hope to hear from you soon.
-Don