We recently connected with Asia Mathews and have shared our conversation below.

Asia, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

Ever since I was a child, designing and drawing was a passion of mine. When I was younger I was obsessed with “That’s so Raven”. I wanted to be a fashion designer just like Raven. Because I didn’t have access to an actual sewing machine, I would draw on, cut up and sew my clothes with a plain old needle and thread. As I got older I actually started to wear my clothes. Fast forward, I got pregnant in high school but I knew that wasn’t going to stop me from begin a successful person. I went on to college and my daughter and I actually graduated at the same time. Her from Kindergarten and me with my bachelor’s degree in finance. This was in 2015, social media was becoming a thing. So when I posted the graduation picture of me and my daughter, it went viral. I began to gain thousands of followers by the hour. A friend of mine told me I needed to capitalize off of the attention and start selling something. After thinking for a few days, I realized I wanted to sell apparel. But not just any apparel, custom apparel. People were already relating to me as being a mom so I began selling personalized kid’s clothing. Eventually I got into kids birthday shirts, then shirts for the whole family. After a few years it blew up and now I cater to businesses.

Asia, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Being in business has caused me to niche down and now I am very particular about my ideal client As of now, I create apparel for small businesses, corporations, groups and organizations. I print and embroider anything from polos to t-shirts to duffel bags to hats.

Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?

In 2022 my business went viral on instagram. I went from $3,000 months to $12,000 months overnight. And while that may sound amazing, I became extremely stressed and overworked. I began pulling 18-20 hour workdays and eventually it started to affect my health. I went to the emergency room one day because of dizziness and faint feelings. I thought I was just tired but turned out I had high blood pressure and it was BAD. Because I was the only person working in my business, I had to slow down and focus on myself. This plunged my sales temporarily but checking in with myself has now become my normal now. My sales are back up and thriving and so is my health.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Initially I was outsourcing everything. After the graduation picture went viral, I had to think quick on my feet if I wanted to start making money. I didn’t have time or money to buy machines. So I’d post products on my website and once they were purchased, I’d go on Etsy or another custom site and buy it. Eventually I started buying machines one buy one.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.mathewsandco.com
• Instagram: MathewsNCo
• Facebook: Mathews & Co. Printing and Embroidery
• Youtube: MathewsNCo