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

Christopher, appreciate you joining us today. Being a business owner can be really hard sometimes. It’s rewarding, but most business owners we’ve spoken sometimes think about what it would have been like to have had a regular job instead. Have you ever wondered that yourself? Maybe you can talk to us about a time when you felt this way?

Being a business owner makes me happy. Of course, there are days when I wish things would move a little more quickly, but I also work a regular job. I appreciate my regular work as well since it forces me to think like a business owner. Yes, it reduces the time I spend working on my actual business and expanding it, but that’s the sacrifice I chose to make. I think that having a regular work gives me a way to keep the skills I need for my everyday tasks useful and sharp. These skills also come in handy when working on my personal brand, Artifaxx.

I know that creating Artifaxx is going to be difficult endeavor, so as I accomplish that, I think it’s essential for me to keep developing my personal brand through the work I do from 9 to 5. I’ll admit that there was a period of time when I thought it was OK for me to follow my dream full-time, and while I think it was enjoyable, it was also very stressful. It was stressful because I was a new business owner and had to handle everything that made the business run. I could have hired some people, but my finances were not where I wanted them to be as a new business owner. I was also trying to maintain a certain way of life and that alone required an income solely dedicated to that.

In fact, going back to work and pursuing a corporate career were good things for me. Even though I don’t have the biggest name in the city, I can still say that having something to back up my assurances about my home and way of life. This makes me less stressed. Despite the fact that my regular job is quite demanding, I think it also motivates me to want to put more effort into Artifaxx. I have been able to invest so much more on my own brand because I have developed such a strong set of talents in corporate America. I enjoy going above and above to spread the word about Artifaxx.

Christopher, 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?

I am Christopher Carter, the owner of Artifaxx,  a company that is committed to helping individuals  appreciate the beauty in all forms of art. We provide many different types of personalized art in our store. The majority of these items, including T-shirts, joggers, coats, backpacks, shoes, etc. They’re wearable and fashionable. Recently, we began to create home-goods related items. This includes bathroom essentials like shower curtains. I make the digital art myself and add it on the fabric before printing it. Sublimation printing is always used to make our products by a number of suppliers.

Being able to build Artifaxx alone is, in my opinion, what makes me most proud of this adventure. Building a business is challenging, and one must be invested enough to excite their audience. I believe that through Artifaxx, we have engaged and developed an audience who truly values our objective. Since 2018, Artifaxx has been in business, selling its products online and through pop-up stores as they become available.

I think the most important thing my audience should know about Artifaxx is that it aspires to improve people’s lives. Despite the fact that we work in the fashion and art industries, our motto is “Stay True to the Dream.” This is crucial since it allows for the possibility to set aside time even if one works a 9–5 job to pursue their dreams. This requires a lot of faith in my environment that I am on the path that is intended for me. To apply the work that will lead to my accomplishment also takes a lot of willpower. So our message is to maintain a positive outlook while staying committed to the dream.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

The lesson that I had to unlearn the quickest is that “It’ll all fall in my lap”. Before one can actually achieve success, they must understand how unrealistic it is to anticipate the benefits of their labors before they have even begun.

When beginning a business, the wrong mindset to adopt is one of expecting things to just be given to you. There are already so many people in the world that are putting their best foot forward to succeed and they know what it takes to make it happen. They can also advise you to keep learning in these fields because high-quality knowledge is not available for free.

I’ll admit that there are times when someone sincerely wants to share knowledge with you, but in order to maintain that knowledge valuable and useful for your path, you must continue to put it to use. If the skills are not exercised properly then expect for the knowledge learned to be forgotten.

Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?

I do manufacture my products. I’ve been luck enough to do research on sublimation printing and have found a variety of vendors that product my products with a quality that I respect. In the beginning I had no idea how to product a product for my company. As a matter of fact I was begging people to show me their process. Although I did pick up a lot from my friends, their approach was not what I needed. My method was a bit more elevated and needed a different set of talents in order to generate the outcome that I was seeking to create.

I did have to find vendors through the internet and finding the right one was challenging. Mainly because I produce a variety of items for my shop and different vendors create different things so I had to use different vendors to create different products. Challenging since I have a particular level of quality that I require in order to produce the goods appropriately. So I am required to order samples of the items that I want to sell and normally these came from China. So with the long shipping/production timeframes one must be quite solid on the designs that are sent for production before ordering because you have to realize that it will probably take 30+ days or longer for you to acquire the product.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.artifaxx.com
• Instagram: carterology82
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-carter-44970645/

Image Credits
Headshot: Photographer – Robert Shaw Extra Images: Photographer – Christopher Carter Models – Jai Okoli, Mario Barnes, Cordero Hale, Brandon Bell