We caught up with the brilliant and insightful JD Nielsen a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
JD, appreciate you joining us today. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?
Honestly, it all started with being very keyed into the screen printing industry that we were and knowing its pain points— then just making sure that the business we were starting had a lot of what most other shops out there DIDN’T have (so we were filling in most of the gaps that existed in our industry right off the bat).
It became clear we were succeeding at that when we started to hear something that we never thought we would hear (something we STILL hear over a decade later); when someone calls, and we answer immediately, they say “Whoa, you guys actually answered your phone. The last 10 people I’ve called didn’t”. I ask myself, “HOW is it possible to be a business with an online presence, yet you refuse to answer your freaking phone?” I have no idea why, but that seems to be a regular complaint in our industry, and addressing it has allowed us to really take our business concept and make it a reality.
Knowing what we needed to do from the very beginning to set ourselves apart from the rest, allowed for immediate growth. For the first few years, we had a steady upward trajectory, because people could count on us to be there for them when they wanted to either place their order, ask questions about something, check to see if their order was done, make sure we were going to meet the deadlines we promised, etc. Making sure we continue to meet the promised deadlines is a KEY element in satisfying our clientele.
JD, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
It honestly started with me watching my friend, Joe Wall, cut out stencils with an X-acto blade. We were sitting watching some stoner TV show on Adult Swim or something while he was taking the existing art that he had painted and cutting stencils out of it. I told myself, “That would look really cool on a shirt”.
That thought took us to the next level: complete deconstruction of existing apparel (mostly 2nd hand / vintage wear that we could find), and spray painting, stenciling, cutting and sewing, then screen printing onto those garments to create hand-made one-of-a-kind pieces.
Those years were key– learning machines and how to print for ourselves, how to work with clients in a different way (since this required us to sit in the creative chairs), and really figuring out what those clients wanted and expected. Once Joe decided he had to get a “real” job and his girlfriend made him give up on our clothing line, I had a garage full of screen printing equipment I didn’t know what to do with. I had never printed for anyone else but myself, but since SO many friends of my friends were in bands and were pleading with me to help them print their band merch (since they were small and didn’t want to pay someone to do it for them), I decided to help them with this seemingly simple request. After the first month of helping these friends and friends-of-friends bands print their merch, I realized, “Wow, I literally just made more money in that 1 month than I did in the entire last year of selling my own clothing line”. The future was obvious. Duh, what are you going to do next, JD? Well, I’ll probably let the universe take me to where this train is clearly taking me…
Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?
I think my story of funding is different than many others because I had 2 things different to my story than a lot of people who are starting their own businesses: #1, I was single, no one to worry about other than ME, and #2: Im resilient when it comes to financials (I’ve essentially never had to work a real W2 job in my entire life, for a decade in LA I figured how to just 1099 my way thru life, not making a ton but working for myself and getting by). I think because of these things, I was able to keep putting all the money back into the business, like 100% of it (since I didn’t need to pay myself). And I was able to work year after year after year, continuing to do this. Although this might start slow, when you are doing this for yourself all day, every day, not doing anything else, and not taking out a single dollar for yourself, this story snowballs quickly and will become some good capital over time.
That’s pretty much it; no external funding was required. Just really being able to pay my bills with other jobs (yes, it is harder than you think since sometimes you do have to prioritize doing other jobs over this, your hobby, since you aren’t paying yourself and paying your bills is clearly a priority for one to survive in this life we live). But if you can stay focused and keep your eye on the prize (which is “yeah, I’m not paying myself, but everything that the business makes IS mine since I’m the only one part of the business,” it all is the same thing and can continue to fuel itself since yeah, maybe you aren’t taking it OUT of the business but it is still yours), things will grow. And that growth will give you more power than you can imagine: being able to own 100% of a company that has a lot of equipment and assets, money in the bank, employees, and a badass shop, and we owe not a single person or company a single dollar. It’s pretty invigorating, to say the least!
Have you ever had to pivot?
I think the tell-all pivot of most people is probably when Covid hit March 11, 2020 (I’ll never forget the day), my employees asking me what we were going to do (as if I knew the process of what to do during that shit), and watching sales tumble down and down (without our monthly costs changing much), and how that was undoubtedly a “PIVOT OR DIE” type scenario for sure.
Looking back, I honestly don’t feel it was difficult for me in the least, mainly because of how I had started my business, how I funded my business, and the “survive or die” type mentality that I had with business in general. I feel that most all other entrepreneurs during that time finally got a taste of how I ran my life and my business (to really scrape by sometimes, to truly live what you are doing with everything on the line), and to me, that wasn’t anything different than how I had lived the first few years of my business. Yes, maybe there was some time since starting when things became easier (since we were living pretty sweet since maybe 2016/2017), but that doesn’t mean I forgot who I was and where I came from, and going back to that was pretty easy, I’d say.
I just went back to my roots, knowing that we have what it takes to survive and also knowing the true essence of survival, to me, is that if you NEVER give up, no one will ever tell you to stop. Chances are, you will never have to close (it’s only yourself, closing the business or getting in too deep with things that will force you to do something that drastic), but the more you continue to persevere and keep on living, the more you see how easy it is to stay at least straight-lined (the business is “going” and continues to make just enough to get by), and that was enough to push us through. (I won’t forget that having a team that is like-minded and can also think that way also helped a TON because I didn’t have to train them on how to think and how we needed to switch up our mentality, since they were already on that same level).
Contact Info:
- Website: www.printrenegades.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/printrenegades
- Facebook: facebook.com/losangelesscreenprinters
- Linkedin: linkedin.com/printrenegades
- Twitter: twitter.com/printrenegades
- Youtube: youtube.com/printrenegades
- Yelp: yelp.com/printrenegades
- Other: anyothersocialmediaaccount.com/printrenegades
Image Credits
Edgar Sarmiento @idntfd