Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jim Jones. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Jim thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

The concept all started with the name “Freak House”. My wife, Ana, and I have been interested in starting a business for a while and have discussed a variety of options over the last few years. Somehow the name “Freak House” popped into my head and I was able to secure a dynamite web site name www.Freak.House.

I was convinced the name was worth developing and I was also able to trademark it. Our first concept for putting the name to work was to offer a variety of macabre and freak gift items such as skulls, skeletons, mythological creatures, zombies, and other monsters. That was received very well and our customers immediately started asking for apparel, accessories, shoes, and other fashion items.

The concept received an incredible amount of support from the alternative and gothic communities, and it took on a life of its own. Now we are working to launch our own fashion line.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am approaching retirement and my wife and I have been looking for ideas for a business to help supplement our retirement income and keep us busy. My background is primarily Information Technology. I’ve been learning fashion and retail on-the-fly as we have been building “Freak House”. We feel like we’ve always had a solid customer-first mentality because that’s the way we like to be treated as customers. We try every day to be sure we are applying that thinking to our own customers.

By pure good luck we have found an underserved market that has provided a massive outpouring of support and appreciation for what we’re doing. Our customers range from goth/emo/punk people to LGBTQ people, to ravers, cosplayers, steam punk afficionados, renn faire fans, and what you might call the “scene” crowd all the way to over-40 people that might look like their parents, aunts, and uncles. Even some grandparents! This crowd does not have any other shopping opportunites in our area where they feel at home and they love our store.

 Our proudest moments come when our customers walk in our store and immediately fall in love with everything we’re trying to do. We try very hard to make our space safe and inclusive and our customers appreciate it very much. We have had people walk into our store, take a look around, and burst into tears. One customer told us with tears in her eyes that “I never thought I’d ever see a store for us!”.

Some of our favorite times are when entire familes spanning 2 or 3 generations all come shopping together. IT happens more than you might think!

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Our entire business was bootstrapped from the ground up using personal finances and credit cards. It has been a very difficult journey and we are constantly juggling revenue and expenses to make ends meet. Neither one of us is getting paid and we’re not really expecitng a paycheck any time soon. For now, we’re happy to jsut keep the doors open.

We have been working hard to establish a corporate credit profile and we’ve recently started having some success opening trade credit accounts and securing come small finacing opportunties from other areas. This is also a learning experience every stop of the way.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

On of the things my dad drilled into my head as I was growing up was “measure twice, cut once”. I’ve learned that this can often lead to analysis paralysis and you wind up doing nothing. Sometimes it’s better to measure once and cut twice if needed. Depending on the circumstances, making a mistake can be better than doing nothing. At least when you make mistakes you are learning. (Hopefully).

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.Freak.House
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/FreakHouseMiami
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreakHouseMiami