We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Doc Dougherty. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Doc below.
Doc, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you scale up? What were the strategies, tactics, meaningful moments, twists/turns, obstacles, mistakes along the way? The world needs to hear more realistic, actionable stories about this critical part of the business building journey. Tell us your scaling up story – bring us along so we can understand what it was like making the decisions you had, implementing the strategies/tactics etc.
We started with making tie-dyed tees for my wife’s (then) 3rd grade class for field day. This was the first time I’d ever made tie-dye and doing so for her class certainly fit the “go big or go home” approach while having fun making a mess. We succeeded on our first attempt and received tons of positive feedback and encouragement and decided to make some more and see if we could have some fun at the Farmer’s Market and maybe make a few bucks. Again, we received more positive feedback and encouragement, so by the end of the summer in 2016, we decided to form a LLC and take it on the road to a few outdoor venues. We spoke with the mentors at Cochise College Small Business Development Center (SBDC) and they guided us on how to move forward with starting the business. They helped us get off to a great start, develop a business plan, and have been a continued source to seek advice in areas which we’ve needed assistance. We bought a used pick-up, a bigger tent, dusted off the camping gear and took it on the road during longer weekends and school breaks traveling throughout AZ and NM. We put everything we earned back into the business, and got to explore AZ and NM with the business making it possible. Our first “away” venue was the Cascabel Christmas fair. It was a blast despite the cold. The people, the experience itself and the fact that we could have fun and make some money doing it was exhilarating. It was and continues to be a side of the business we absolutely love – we currently have four outdoor venues: Art in the Park, Sierra Vista, AZ, Sky Islands Art Festival, Patagonia, AZ, July Jamboree, Cloudcroft, NM and Lumberjack Day, Cloudcroft, NM. We are looking to add two more venues in the Tucson area later this year (Catalina, AZ – Nov).
Much of our equipment remains basic as tie-dye is fortunately low-tech. A garden hose, working surfaces that one doesn’t mind making messy and some outdoor space to create in does it for us. We get to make wearable art outside with the dogs playing in the yard. The shift from making small batch to larger batch dyeing was and continues to be an area in which we continue to make progress in efficiency. We’re completely self-taught and while there are tons of videos online, not all are good, nor do they necessarily have complete information. But with watching, learning, hands-on experience and feedback we refined our techniques and were able to make more dyes, more cost effectively. Along with improved dyeing methods, we expanded our line from just tees by adding a kids line and women’s dresses. Katie did all the dresses at first until I learned to better locate the spirals on ladies’ outfits (placement counts). I used the youth dresses to refine my methodology and now I can make dresses every bit as pretty as she can.
The decision to take the business on the road was relatively easy and risk free. However, the decision to move into a “brick and mortar” was not. I’m retired Army and had recently graduated college with my AAS in Automotive Technology when COVID hit. We waited along with everyone else for things to normalize, but outdoor venues were still closed or strictly limited. So, after what we jokingly call “alcohol and poor decisions”, we decided to open a retail space, in a basement, on Subway Ave (not the main drag, but in the historic arts district). It was more successful than we could have hoped and we were able to grow and establish a presence downtown. Here we are now, another two years more experienced, and we’re now located at 67 Main St, right in the heart of the historic arts district.
We love what we do. Whether it’s making the dyes with the dogs bouncing around the yard, interacting with people visiting Bisbee, or out exploring the southwest when we’re on the road. It’s fun. There’s nothing better than seeing someone light up when they talk about their own tie-dye experience (making it and/or wearing it in the youth mostly) or how they have a friend who is seriously into tie-dye.
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?
We got into industry by first making dyes for my wife’s third grade “field day” activities. We started with hobby-grade dyes and dollar-store tees. We received tons of positive feedback and decided to take a crack at it. We were gifted some old (out in the shed for years old) and bought some new, professional grade dyes. I already had a garden hose, an old Army field-table, and an old baker’s rack. The equipment is and remains low-tech, but I’ve become awful picky with regard to the hose nozzle and that a full-swivel coupler is a must. The Army hammered home just how important safety equipment is, and while tie-dye is “safe” the ash solution does pose a splash hazard (eyes) so gloves and eye-pro are standard. I wear rubber boots, an old set of Army PT pants, long sleeves, gloves, hat (with bug netting) and eye pro. That’s fine for spring and fall, but it gets hot in the summer. Winter dyeing is more limited, but not impossible. I will absolutely suffer the cold if we get enough snow to make snow dyes. Capabilities and limitations – my Army experience helps here. We are a small company and do every aspect of our business by ourselves. That has an impact on how much we can do and/or how big (scale) for custom work that we can take on. We offer custom dyeing, limited custom logo work and/or a combination of the two. That said, we can’t do high volume (e.g; 100+ shirts) as we simply don’t have the man-hours to put against that problem set. It takes time to build up inventory, so large custom orders are a case by case basis. On the flip side, we are willing to try new things and enjoy a challenge. The most interesting thing we’ve dyed so far is a couch. That was a fun challenge! We can do linens, shower curtains and are willing to try something new as long as it’s cotton or a dyeable fabric.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
My career as an artist started after my career as a Soldier. I’d never done anything truly “artistic” in my adult life outside of art in high school, and later at Cochise College, and I’d never dyed anything before 2016. The thought of pursuing a career as an artist after the military was simply “never in a million years” until it was a reality. My retirement from the Army allowed me to pursue an education in a field I love – automotive. I’m a gear head, and I fully intended to go into that industry upon graduation and I almost did. I graduated in 2019, and had planned to go into industry after taking some time off. COVID threw those plans for a loop and we like many others, paused. As things settled I was offered a job in the automotive industry, a good one with potential for upward mobility. That came in about the same time we were considering signing the lease for a “brick and mortar” shop space in a basement location, off the main drag. It was a big decision, but I’m glad we decided to take the risk. I can and do wrench, but on my own time and my “job” is out in the sun (for the most part), with my dogs. I have no regrets making the jump to working artist.
We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.
We started by making dyes for my wife’s elementary school class simply “for fun”. We had no intention or idea that it would urn into a side hustle, then a traveling gig and now my full time “job”. After the initial run for field day, we started at our local Farmer’s Market around the corner from our home. That morphed from a small tent in the back of my Jeep to a 10×10 (now a 10×20 too) tent, and a full size truck with multiple outdoor venues. That iteration lasted about two years until COVID blew up everyone’s plans. Reset, refocus and a new location in-town helped establish us as professional dyers with a focus on becoming the premiere dyers in southeast AZ and NM. We like what we do and have fun doing it – hopefully that joy carries over to those who wear it. We like to try new things and play with color. We continue to create and plan to expand sales online through our website this summer; something we currently don’t yet offer. The website will get an overhaul this spring/summer.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.docsdyes.com
- Instagram: #docsdyes
- Facebook: @docsdyes
Image Credits
Katie Dougherty