We recently connected with Chandra Harvey and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Chandra, thanks for joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

My small business, Joyful, started during the pandemic, at a time when, let’s be honest – there was not much JOY. During the extra time at home, it became clear that my career experience in leading large businesses for well over 15 years, would serve well as an entrepreneur. I have been successful for years as a minority leading complex businesses and my husband and I both want to create a lasting legacy for our kids. So, we went to work to build a business of our own. The Joyful of today is very different than the one we started back in 2020. We have faced many challenges, pivoted many times and ultimately learned so much about how to position ourselves for success. Today’s JOYful, provides a very unique approach to a customer base that is ever growing! We not only create merchandise but in a way that eliminates the headache of providing the things we all love wearing for life’s most joyous moments. As the parents of 2 very active kids, we know first-hand, there is a huge gap in the availability of spirit wear and merchandise to wear when supporting your kids and their activities. Over 53% of kids ages 6-17 participate in sports, nearly 60 million in total, each with families all looking for spirit wear to support them- yet it’s not easily found. We make it easy and eliminate the headache of bulk orders, size, money handling and distribution by taking it all online. Designs and logos are added to a wide range of merchandise on our website and when purchased, ships directly to the customer. This savvy approach, eliminates the hassle currently preventing most groups and businesses from offering merchandise consistently. Additionally, we leverage our business to help others, where clubs, teams, schools and dance studios raise funds when hosting their very own store on our website. There is excitement in all of the opportunities for growth ahead of us. No doubt, the best is yet to come!

Chandra, 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?

My name is Chandra Harvey and I led large retail businesses for over 15 years before deciding to leverage my expertise as an entrepreneur. My small business, Joyful provides print-on-demand custom merchandise for events, schools, teams, small businesses and more. Our innovative model eliminates the typical hassle of custom merchandise. We remove the headache of bulk orders, collecting money and physically handling merchandise and take everything online. All items are sold on our secure website, printed at purchase and then shipped directly each customer. With Joyful, there is no wasted time and energy or left over merchandise from last years event. Instead you share the link and each individual orders their own size and color for themselves. This new and innovative approach truly sets us apart by making custom merchandise easily accessible to everyone.

In 2022, Joyful was an official merchandise partner for The World Games hosted in Birmingham, Alabama – allowing us to provide merchandise worn by spectators attending a historic 10 day event. This was an amazing opportunity to support a large and historic event, giving us additional expertise for future events. Our convenient model allows us to support events of all sizes – truly no event is too large or too small for us.

Joyful is proud to support small businesses in growing their brand by hosting custom online stores where merchandise for themselves, their teams and customers is always available. Additionally, we offer spirit wear fundraisers for schools and sports teams and profit-sharing for our clients who are interested in hosting stores long-term.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

There have been so many moments where resilience became critical in sustaining and growing my business. Early on, when launching Joyful, I was excited about engaging with many groups and organizations who I knew personally and knew would also benefit from our services. I eagerly reached out to many of them and was left with no response and an unwillingness to even learn more about what Joyful offered. Most of this came even before having the opportunity to fully share and illustrate the benefits of the services we provided. I was surprised and disappointed. Unresponsiveness and ‘no’ became very familiar responses from much of our early outreach. Even in cases where I was able to explain our business, there was an adversity to adopt it since it was different than what most. From those experiences, rather than feeling defeated, I was fueled to succeed. I tenaciously worked to find new ways to reach and engage prospective clients. I went hard at work to uncover new leads and strategies to share my business and inevitably grow it to where it is today. It became clear that beyond every ‘no’ or unread message, were valuable lessons that have helped me continue to evolve and to prove all the nay-sayers wrong along the way.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

My best source for new clients has continued to be an extension of the communities I not only serve but am also immersed in. Because I truly understand the nuances of my customer base, I am able to continue to provide services they need to fit their needs. I have been able to network and gain insight through relationships that have yielded referrals and repeat customers. In addition, I am able to conduct lead and new client research for other geographical locations that are directly aligned with my current customers. Being able to speak directly about the specific challenges my customers face and how my business can alleviate them creates excitement and eagerness for sharing within their circles as well.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.joyfulbyharvey.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/joyfulbyharvey – handle: @joyfulbyharvey
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/joyfulbyharvey. – handle: @joyfulbyharvey
• Other: TikTok : @joyfulbyharvey