We recently connected with Dominique Mitchell and have shared our conversation below.

Dominique, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

I believe that education is the key component to success! Not all education comes in the form of school and classes ;however, for the education that does, it’s personal. I believe that scholars should be able to highlight what is important to them and has inspired them to complete their accomplishment. Therefore Stole the Spotlight was created! Stole the Spotlight provides custom stoles and cap toppers for scholars to spotlight all things important while graduating!

Dominique, 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?

Hello everyone, my name is Dominique Mitchell, I’m a master level social worker working in the education field. During my free time I’m an entrepreneur, operating my small business Stole the Spotlight!

I began printing shirts in 2016 for family and friends’ birthdays, celebrations, and parties. I then created Two A Tee, a company specializing in all custom items. While operating Two A Tee, my love for creating stoles grew! Therefore, I decided to rebrand Two A Tee to focus on graduation gear.

The stoles, “Stole the Spotlight,” at this point, the company was rebranded. The name Stole the Spotlight derives from this very statement, as Spotlight is my line name!

Graduation is the ultimate milestone and should be celebrated as such! I believe every grad should steal the Spotlight at graduation!

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

All of my custom items are made for scholars by me! I did have to find a vendor for premium vinyl as this is what is used to print the stoles. A vendor also had to be located for quality material of the stoles. To find these vendors I did some searching on Google and came across them and decided to try them out! There are times that my vendor does not carry the color needed for customers so depending on the project different vendors are used! One lesson that I’ve learned is that vendors do not have to be a one stop shop! It’s ok to shop around!

Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?

Prior to me working in the education field I worked as a foster care case manager. Working as a foster care case manager was very time consuming and demanding. I would work 60 hours a week and still had to find time to do homework and make graduation gear. There were many long nights and times where I had to pay $100 or more to ensure that my customers received their graduation gear on time. I fell short during the creation process because there was simply not enough time in my days. Yes this did cost me my profits ,but I believe that a business owner should make things happen behind the scene! So if that meant spending extra money on shipping for my customer to receive their order timely, I was willing to do just that!

Contact Info:

• Website: Stolethespotlight.com
• Instagram: StoleTheSpotlight
• Facebook: Stole The Spotlight

Image Credits
Antoine Lever