4 minute read
Business Today
Every once in awhile a business opportunity can land in your lap. That’s what happened to the women-owned business Make Your Mark, which is owned by Emily Wright and Lenae Greenwell. Emily bought the business five years ago, which once was Flip Flop Embroidery shop, started by Jennifer Riley. Emily had been doing the accounting for the previous ownerss. Lenae Greenwell had been working for Dr. Neuhoff, local optometrist who retired last year. She was looking for something part time to balance life with children. The two combined forces late last year. Neither had any formal training in making T-shirts or doing embroidery but learned as they went. It helped that Emily had been around the business for three years on the accounting side. The business started with embroidery work, then expanded to transfers for Tshirts, and now to custom silk screen shirts. Some of the most popular embroidery work is names on baby blankets, back packs and logos for businesses on hats, shirts and uniforms. The retail shop is located on West Street in Princeton, where the Bureau of Motor Vehicles used to be near the Princeton Theater. That’s where they stock a variety of school spirit apparel, which are their most popular items. They have everything from hats, to sweatshirts, T-shirts and basketball jerseys. While some businesses start online and then
Screen prints for shirts
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Owners Emily Wright and Lenae Greenwell
expand to brick and mortar storefronts, Make Your Mark has always done most of their business at the shop by selling ready to wear apparel and taking custom orders. They have now expanded to online sales as well. By going to their website, you can browse a selection of items whether it be clothing, or an assortment of business apparel. These can all be customized, and the ladies strive for a two week turn around. By having their own in house graphic designer, they have the tools to customize logos and designs on whatever is needed. When it comes to transfer orders,
The ROQ screen print machine
The drying machine
they save the designs on paper so that they can easily make more when needed. Although COVID was hard on many of us, it hit Make Your Mark as well. There were no team sports, activities or groups ordering much of anything. However, these ladies have not only bounced back but have now expanded. When RPM Tool moved to Holtzmeyer Tool and Die, the ladies were able to take part of that space to open a production facility. They were able to start moving equipment into the new building in April and just had a screen printing machine delivered April 27th. With only two days of training, they are rocking out large orders of T-shirts for local events. The annual Cruzin for Critters held by Gibson County Animal Services was one of the shirts that the Lenae and Emily demonstrated at their recent open house. When they do a custom screen print shirt there are nine different steps from design to finished product. The graphic is printed on film, much like a camera negative onto a screen, and then it has to be processed so the image on the plate can be put onto the big machine. The squeegies push ink through the mesh image onto the cloth a color at a time. Their new machine has eight stations of color and then goes through a drying process where the image is cured onto the material. The ROQ press rotates all eight stations in just one minute thereby allowing them to make large quantities easily. When asked about their favorite part of running this woman-owned business, Lenae replied, “Everyday brings a new challenge.” Emily answered that she “likes meeting the people and hearing their different stories of why they’re getting the custom shirts.” What’s the most difficult part of the job? The ladies replied, “Maintaining the balance with two locations and keeping everything organized.” What plans are in store for the ladies at Make Your Mark? Their newest goal is to do expand their online services. They can reach more than just Gibson County and would like the tristate area to know the variety of customized products they have to offer. Here’s to helping small businesses in the community. Pass the word.
Family, friends and Chamber members came to celebrate the expansion.
