We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Samantha Silva a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Samantha , thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

So one of the biggest risk we took, was creating this business. It all started two years ago when I have talked to my boyfriend about creating a business that I can own, make my own schedule, and have a little bit more of freedom. He had gifted me equipment to start my own business for Christmas the year of 2021. Flash back to end of 2022 I said I finally need to take off in this business and make it legit. Me and my boyfriend have been together for 41/2 years going on 5 and he has been my best friend and biggest supporter and most of all the biggest help. I couldn’t have done it without him so of course I wanted something unique at the time creating the perfect name for our project. So after coming up with many names we found the perfect one. LabelsbyJ&S which stands for Sam and josh. So after that, we went on full throttle, and already made it a LLC, created a business account, and put ourselves out there.. I’m talking tons of vendor markets , events we have put together, lots of paid content on instagram to get us out there. And just talking to so many people to expand. It didn’t take long until we started getting orders after orders. But like everyone there was a time we slowed down and felt like we were lost. During this process of building our dream business from the ground up we have spent a lot of tears into it, long nights of arguing and going to bed at 4 in the morning , wasting a lot of money that we felt like we were never gaining back. And just feeling overwhelmed and not knowing if we made a mistake or if we started it up to fast. It had put a lot of strain and stress on us and messing up sooooooo many orders that I can’t count where we had to redo it and spend more money on supplies. It was all trial and error which we are still going through now but every step of the way we are growing and getting better. I think with everyone starting up there business it’s not all rainbow and sunshine and immediately getting the cash. It’s about commitment and to never give up. I have always looked up to everyone around me that started a small business and I feel like In todays day and age a lot of people want that freedom and to be there own boss so a lot of people are taking that risk. Now it’s about giving up or not . I have seen people do this for a year and instantly give up. And it’s not about that every business is going to have the good and the bad moments you just need to fight through it and fight for the ending result you want . I couldn’t be more blessed to have my business and grow every month in it and create new things for my customers. Sure there is times I want to give up and it gets risky putting yourself out there and not making the money or even making everyone happy. But it’s the fact that your still trying and taking that risk and making it to reality. Just put yourself out there and always show your personality and true self is the one thing I learned. Cause if I’m being honest the one scary thing that scared me from creating this business is that there is ALOT of people that do the same thing as you. The one thing that makes it different is YOU and how you show up to your customers. They like to see the real you, and make connections with you. That’s how you build your client tell. And I give a big shoutout to small business babes that has helped me and josh with this business and building it with us . And most importantly my boyfriend for doing it all and create the most gorgeous designs that make our customers want to come back for more . And just remember it takes a company usually 8 years to make a multi millionaire. So never give up.

Samantha , 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?

So my name is Samantha I have been doing my business for about 6 months under a LLC but we started a year ago. We have created a business that does all sorts of amazing customizable gear. We make customizable clothing as long with pre made trendy clothing I have on the website, we sell cute customizable cups and have the customers all time favorite the glass beer can. We make customizable labels for small business or events. And then my favorite part about this business is our party decor. We have created back drops for example one of them is a champagne wall for events, we create cute signage and posters for weddings and any type of events. The one thing that makes us different is that we are open to suggestions and make all sorts of things . We wanted to expand and give a variety for our customers . So if that’s giving them bulk orders of shirts for the company or designing our boards for an event or just making a cute to go cup for your daily coffee. We wanted to do it all. We also are very open and communicating with our followed down we like to share our journey and create a bond. I feel like that’s what makes us difference is that we don’t always try to just sell we like to create friendships and make everyone happy.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

Honestly, this was the biggest point of our business. Because we were still young kids with normal jobs. So we really couldn’t afford for this business. But like hell everyone says you have to start somewhere so we would button money into the business whenever we got a check so let’s say like if we got paid $400 we would take 100 out. And honestly it was very rough because at times we were very tight with money but we still manage to but money and your business so we can create custom orders for our customer so we can grow and make that initial extra income.. and it just felt like it was never catching up and we were just putting a lot of sweat and tears into our business and just money was running out for us. And it was a big headache until we saw progress when our small orders became bulk orders from companies.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

We have had a lot of great opportunities in this business, which I’m super blessed and proud from where we started. I think one of my favorite part of this journey is when we partnered with the American cancer society and was invited to be at the fork cancer event that we knew we did something big and reached our goal to help out in the world as well. We were able to make shirts on the spot at the venue and took half of the proceeds and donated to the fundraiser where they were testing for a cure in cancer. We wanted to not only create this business but also give back and be apart of these events.        

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.labelsbyjs.com/
• Instagram: LabelsbyJS
• Facebook: LabelsbyJS
• Youtube: In the making …..
• Other: TikTok is in the making as well ❤️

Image Credits
Fork cancer event , Jenny she’s a hairstylist that I made gear for her spa .