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

Alright, Dubraska thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear the story of how you went from this being just an idea to making it into something real.

Dubraska , 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?

Dubyscrafts is the dream that I build every day thanks to all the people who support my work. Making personalized products is to bring joy, emotion, happiness and a sense of belonging. I have always defined gifts as gifts that have a price and gifts that have value. A gift with value is one that has a purpose, it is the one that will not go out of style, it is the gift that will remain in our lives because it is part of our history. I started my business making personalized mugs with different motifs and messages. I cannot deny that mugs are one of my favorite products, especially those with positive messages, comic characters or baby motifs, I also really like magic mugs that change color when they have hot liquid and reveal surprise messages, mugs with photos are the ones my clients want the most and I love them. I also make personalized t-shirts and I am passionate about creating textile vinyl prints with many colors and beautiful designs for each person in her style. It fills me with joy to celebrate the gender reveal with the new dads with their personalized t-shirts or prints on bodysuits with their personal messages for their babies. For many other entrepreneurs I make mugs, puzzles and pictures, these products help them identify their business and position their brand wherever they go. In the same way, depending on the time of year, I make personalized ones for each occasion, Valentine’s Day, Saint Patrick’s Day, Easter, July 4, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year and every occasion that people wish to celebrate wearing personalized t-shirts as a family that are part of your special moments. I like to take the time in each project that I do for each client and when I am preparing them I interact with them and involve them in the design process so that they can see how I am shaping their ideas. For me, all moments are special and feeling that I am part of a smile, joy, celebration and also that I continue to connect positively with people tells me that I am on the right path. And my business is still a business with a purpose, that’s the most important thing to me.

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

Taking the risk of starting a business and living from your business is a very difficult decision to make, however, having the support of my family has been a fundamental part of helping me build and maintain my business.

More than unlearning, I have learned to overcome my fears, in one way or another we all feel fear in the depths of our being, fear of failure, fear of not being able to, fear of disappointing the people who love me and bet on me, to win Fear is getting up when I fall, overcoming fear is moving forward every day, overcoming fear is taking on every challenge that comes my way, overcoming fear is working with passion and dedication, that is my greatest learning and is part of my growth.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

I started my custom mug business with a small capital that was enough to buy a printer, a mug press, and two boxes of sublimation mugs. I got the capital from my husband and I previously invested my savings in training, the motivation I had from before made my husband trust my project and live with me the dream of starting our family business, we made the decision that I would pay for specialized training with very successful people to learn the Crafter’s trade and he would provide the capital for the equipment and inventory. In the next 30 days, we ran our first tests and sold our first 72 custom mugs to friends and people in our community. We would not stay with what we already had, we went for more, we bought a t-shirt press, a cutting machine and we started selling T-shirts, it seems incredible to me that not much time had passed and a computer and another printer also arrived. I continued to acquire knowledge and today we also have a cup press, now our main products are mugs, T-shirts and personalized cups, another textile vinyl cutting machine arrived very soon to help me with the work. I continue training and we are expanding the business in a creative stationery project for children’s parties.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @dubyscrafts
• Facebook: dubyscrafts
• Other: Instagram is my main social network and I’m working right now to connect it with Facebook. My main clients have come through person-to-person recommendations and by going to visit every location in the community and telling people what I do, I continue to connect with people and talk to them with such emotion about what I do that I think that’s my greater strength and sales tool.

Image Credits
all images are my property.