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

Chanita, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. One of our favorite things to brainstorm about with friends who’ve built something entrepreneurial is what they would do differently if they were to start over today. Surely, there are things you’ve learned that would allow you to do it over faster, more efficiently. We’d love to hear how you would go about setting things up if you were starting over today, knowing everything that you already know.

As with most entrepreneurs, we depend on our family and friends to help us to establish our business. This seems like a logical first step. However, our family and friends may not offer the support that is needed or expected. If I were to start over, I would branch out to unfamiliar territory much sooner, as it relates to where I am marketing my products and services. By participating in local pop-up shops, I have gained valuable insights, as well as encouragement, from people that I had no direct connection to. I would also join the local chamber of commerce sooner, to broaden my network as well. Most importantly, I would ask for help sooner. I was so focused on creating the best products, that I neglected to market the products in more meaningful ways. The lack of initial exposure has made building brand awareness a steady climb. Finally, secure some brand ambassadors. The ambassadors can be your friends, family, former/fellow coworkers or strangers.

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?

My love of designing and crafting has fueled my passion for starting and maintaining Jones Kid International (“JKI”). When I was in Junior High, my sister came home talking to me about a class that she was taking in high school that allowed her to take her head and put it on a super model. She also came home with an illustration of Pocahontas that she completed in the class as well. I couldn’t wait until I got to high school, so that I could take the same course. A few years later, I was personally introduced to Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and Macromedia Flash and I have been in love ever since! During high school, I also took an independent study course focusing on multimedia including videography, video editing, audio editing and broadcasting essentials.

After high school, I continued my studies at North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University where I completed a Bachelor of Science degree in Graphic Communication Systems and Technological Studies. I later became a Graduate Teaching Assistant within the department and taught classes for 2 years. Once college was completed, I began my corporate career at within the graphics department at an investment bank. I was employed there for 16 years and matriculated to be the co-head of the graphics department in the Americas’ region.

Although education was important to the trajectory of my career, it was my love for creating truly unique and specialized items that prompted me to start Jones Kid International. Ever since high school, I have created brochures, invitations and other printed materials for myself. They were so good that other people started asking and paying them to create items for them. At that time, my primary specialty was wedding stationary, graduation announcements, debutante brochures, etc. From the weddings came requests for baby announcements, house warmings, birthday celebrations and parties. As life would continue, to happen, I began to receive requests for obituaries.

I am fortunate to have some long-term clients that have allowed me to expand my product offerings as we have built our professional relationship. As they experienced new things, their graphic design requests began to change, especially as many of them turned to entrepreneurial adventures. These changes were the birthplace of Jones Kid International’s branding and marketing offerings and serve as the core service today. It was at this point that we changed the tagline from ‘simple elegance that lasts a lifetime’ to ‘designing for all life’s events’.

One recurring pain point for clients was having to go to several different places to have merchandise and other branded collateral created, so Jones Kid International solved that issue by becoming a fully integrated design house. Not only does JKI establish the brand identity through logos and style guides; JKI also creates custom promotional items such as apparel, stationary, drinkware, luggage, hats, keychains, signs and more! This is an especially popular option when it relates to branding and marketing events. JKI has been fortunate to be the leading design firm for the DownEast Music Festival since its inception over 5 years ago. We have also designed for internationally recognized sororities and fraternities.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

The greatest lesson that I had to unlearn was working hard in your business will guarantee its success. Don’t get me wrong… Hard work is definitely required, but understanding when and where to put in the work is equally important. I was spending 30+ hours a week outside of my normal 9-5 job while getting Jones Kid International off the ground. Fast forward to present day when I don’t have a 9-5 job to rely on, I am having to make major adjustments to sustain profitability. I was seeing results and some profits, but it just wasn’t enough. As I was going through the transition from part-time to full-time entrepreneurship, my business mentor gave me the best advice. “Don’t just spend time working in your business; spend to working on your business.” The hard work ON your business rather than IN your business allows for retrospective moments on your current operations to gauge what’s valuable, profitable, needs development, aligns with business goals, and opportunities for future expansion. The time IN your business allows for creating new strategies, product development, and customer feedback review. It’s the hard & smart work ON the business that allowed for the greatest increase in success, peace of mind and fulfillment.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Funding Jones Kid International has been a journey. The primary resource for funding was wages from my full-time job. I invested most of my bonus money and extra that I may have had from paychecks. My second funding source was a family credit card. My brother was generous enough to let me utilize some of his credit for larger purchases until I could get business credit established. Fortunately, I have created relationships with some of the vendors that I use most frequently, that allow for delayed invoicing, so it give me a little time to pay back. I have also received a grant from the Coalition to Back Black Business and crowdfunding activity through Kiva.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.joneskidintl.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/joneskidintl
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/joneskidintl