We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Bito Sureiya. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Bito below.
Bito, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?
I would have to say yeah I am happier, but it’s like a I’m happier I tried rather than just said “nah don’t think I can cut it” and never tried at all type situation.
I’ve always had a 9 to 5 even when I was just doing music. Like Idk what Dame Dash was talking about, trying to make a living off of something you love to do while being your own boss is not cheap. So unless you really willing to get out there and lose 92 bricks having a “ Regular Job” is more than necessary.
But yeah, I have that thought all the time like frfr I don’t dream of work but I don’t see embroidery or music as work so it’s really big labor of love energy. But breaking your back all day at ya “govment job” can make them seem like just labor sometimes. But it’s really up to you how you carry it frfr.
Nick , 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?
I am Nick AKA Bito Sureiya AKA HippuHoppuOtaku AKA BigNickPearlCity AKA TheNASA8Customs and I am probably the very first Emcee/Professional Embroiderer.
I really got into the business through sheer spite haha nah just playing. I really just needed to get merch made and really couldn’t bare to spend the arm and leg they were charging for even the simplest of designs. I figured that doing it myself couldn’t really be that hard so I came to Open Works and really got the hands on experience to start embroidering things myself.
It was super rough starting out, it’s not really easy to just pick up a machine like the Melco. I really had to sink or swim, but now I’m miyagi sensei with it and I offer these services to the good folk of the community.
From 1 offs to small quantity orders, we specialize in embroidery for artists and small business’s, really just people that aren’t trying to deal with minimums and restrictions. I just love the fact that I can see the work I do actually circulate in the community. That’s pretty important to me to be able to offer people an alternative to the traditional experiences.
Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?
Ok so this was legit my very first order. It was a order for a custom embroidered turtleneck with this like ballerina design that went on the turtleneck flap thingy idk sweater anatomy lol. So I do the embroidery just in time before open works closed for the night so I’m rushing to finish up so I’m cutting the backing off the turtleneck when BAM! I cut right through the turtleneck fabric. So now there’s a huge hole right next to the embroidery. I freak out I’m hyperventilating and everything and I’m trying to get it together and figure out what to do when BAM! I get a vision of the butter cookie tin filled with sewing stuff everybody moms got somewhere in the house so I immediately call my mom and explain what happened. She’s like “oh that’s nothing” I pull up to moms house fish the tin out of a closet and moms proceeds to save my first order and frfr the start of my business. The customer got the turtleneck and LOVED it. Shot to moms can’t do it without ya lol
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
So I founded TheNASA8 in 2012 as a international music collective. We have been making music and performing for more than 10 years now. So when it was time for us to let people know we have a service to offer it wasn’t like we had to start from square one necessarily. We have been engaging with our fan base for years so it wasn’t that hard to get started business-wise. And even though we had the head start there is still a long way to go for us. We have lots of content planned for the new year. From new music, Embroidery videos, and streaming. We have a lot planed so now it’s time to execute.
Contact Info:
- Website: TheNASA8
- Instagram: @TheNASA8Customs
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheNasa8/
- Twitter: @TheNASA8
- Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC_aym85rfYSoOzxtsYkLf1g
- Other: https://nasa8.bandcamp.com/music https://m.soundcloud.com/the_nasa8
Image Credits
@TheNASA8 – Maurice McBride