We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jaszmine, Tabitha, TJ Rodriguez. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jaszmine, Tabitha, TJ below.

Jaszmine, Tabitha, TJ, appreciate you joining us today. So, what do you think about family businesses? Would you want your children or other family members to one day join your business?

As siblings, we were raised by two parents that had both owned or currently own their own businesses so being an entrepreneur has always been in our blood. That wasn’t always our goal though. Tab and I (Jasz) always had a passion for pursuing a career in the Criminal Justice world. Our brother (TJ) had always wanted to do something in the culinary or first responder field. My sister (Tab) and I (Jasz) graduated high school and went straight into college where we both received our bachelor degrees in Criminal Justice from Texas State University. Our brother (TJ) graduated from high school and went on to graduate from EMT/Firefighter school. We had some minor setbacks that kept us from achieving those goals right out the gate so we all began working part-time/full-time jobs in the retail/customer service world. We knew we didn’t want to work for anyone else so we decided to venture into the business world and figure out what type of business we wanted to run with.

Most people think that starting a business is easy but it wasn’t for us. We took classes, we ran tests on products, we invested so much of our own personal money into things, we watched many videos, we’d wake up early and go to bed late, had many setbacks, trashed many items, had some mental breakdowns, shed a few tears, and ran into every possible error you could think of. Despite all the struggles, we continued to push forward because failure wasn’t an option for us.

Running a business with your family has its ups and its downs. You could bump heads in the process (we definitely did) but at the end of the day, you have to put business aside and remember that you are family and that’s what really matters. You will all have different opinions and outlooks on things but you must always remember that you have to find a middle ground. If any of us were to have kids, we wouldn’t ever pressure them to join the business because we would want them to be their own person and do what makes them happy.

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?

In August 2022, my siblings and I began thinking of different types of businesses we would all enjoy. Our sister (Tab) mentioned doing an embroidery business. So it was time to run with the idea and make things happen. We did our research on top embroidery machines, watched countless videos on materials, learned about different thread types, etc. Once we knew what we wanted, we purchased our machine in November of 2022.

Our next steps involved picking a business name/colors/logo, creating a website, purchasing business materials, and becoming a legit legal business with the state. We spent WEEKS trying to pick a name that would fit not only the older generation but the newer generation as well because both generations are what made us who we are today. In January of 2023, Modern Era Threads was born and launched to the public in April of 2023.

We are a custom embroidery business that specialized in simple and complex designs for personal and commercial use. We offer individual and/or bulk pricing. Our team can manage all roles but we all have different specialties. Tab specializes in working with the embroidery machine, alignment, and inventory. TJ is our in house digitizer so he turns your images into stitches that will later get embroidered on products. Jasz is in charge of creating designs, customer service, and managing social media/website.

We take pride in the extra details/steps we take in perfecting orders like matching colors as close as possible, working on designs until they meet customer’s satisfaction, and so much more. We wanted every product we put out to be a reflection of the time and effort we spent perfecting it. We wanted customers to look at our work and appreciate our craft. What sets us apart from others is making sure our customers know that they are getting top tier products and service every time they come to us. We have helped customers with last minute gifts, uniforms, etc. We have had customers bring us items from other businesses because quality was not meeting their expectations, and we go above and beyond to make sure they walked away 100% satisfied with their items when we completed them.

We are most proud of seeing people wearing their products out in public with such pride. That, to us, means we are successfully doing our job. When we are told that our work is “clean” or “excellent” or being told we made their vision come to life…that brings us so much joy. We know how hard we worked to get to where we are today and we always make sure we are staying humble along the way.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

This question is big for us. With each new client we get, we like to build a bond with them and want to remain as transparent as possible. If they have a deadline that we cannot meet or a design that seems impossible for us, we tell them. Being transparent and honest is one of our most effective ways of growing our clientele. Once you establish that trust with a customer, your business name travels like a wildfire. We have several different social media accounts but each time we ask a customer how they heard about us, almost every customer has been referred to by a previous customer of ours. Our second most effective strategy for our customer growth is google reviews. We never thought it would make a difference but it 100% has. When previous customers leave a review and/or add photos, that helps populate your name more when people search for businesses like yours. The higher ratings you have, the more likely you are to populate first.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Every day. We are always thinking of ways to be better and do better. The choices we made yesterday or the ones we make today or tomorrow will effect how we do things in the future. So there isn’t just one story or time that we have had to pivot in our business, career, or life. We have to do it daily and will continue to do it because we always want to be the best versions of ourselves and our business. We think if you never make a change, are you truly giving it your all? We want people to look at us and our business and see where we started and all the choices that led us to be who and what we are today. Change is indefinite.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://modernerathreads.square.site/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/modernerathreads/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/modernerathreads

Image Credits
Modern Era Threads LLC