We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Joseph Steinmetz. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Joseph below.

Hi Joseph, thanks for joining us today. Owning a business isn’t always glamorous and so most business owners we’ve connected with have shared that on tough days they sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have just had a regular job instead of all the responsibility of running a business. Have you ever felt that way?

I recently had to do a lot of thinking about this exact thing. I was recently approached by a much bigger company about a merger where i would take over a whole division of there business. After a lot of thought and a few sleepless nights, I came to the realization that the typical work environment is not for me. While steady pay and consistency sounds amazing, I am too set in my ways of running a business that I don’t think I could change now. I really appreciate the freedom i have gained while working for myself.

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?

I am the owner and founder of Minor Threads. We are a print company out of north Texas. If you want your name, logo, artwork on anything, there is a good chance we can do that. We also try to sponsor events in the area that we believe need to exist here. Events like our local Pride and music events. We have been lucky to work with some really awesome clients that push our limits as a company. People who have far more interesting ideas than I could have come up with.
I got into this business about a decade ago. The story is a little convoluted but I can try to neatly summarize it. I was working at a pizza place in Virginia and had mentioned to my coworker how I really wanted to learn to screen print. The next day we both had off he introduced me to a friend of his, he owned one of the biggest print shops in the town. The owner was a very friendly older man and told me I could come by the shop any time I wanted. So for the next two weeks anytime i was free, I went to the shop. Helping out by doing odd jobs around the shop, I was doing anything to be helpful while also trying to get an understanding of what was going on.
After about two weeks of me going to the shop, the owner pulled me aside. I was afraid he was going to tell me I had overstayed my welcome. I was surprised when he said that he wasn’t banning me from the shop. He offered me a job with his other company welding mailboxes (I went to school for metal fabrication), and in my free time, I could learn how to print.
A decade later, I’m still printing and genuinely love what I do. In my free time I read up and study about all forms of printing. Twice a year I go to printing trade shows to stay up to date on the latest technology in this field and I mentor other people who want to get started printing.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

This has been a struggle since day one. Its also one of the scariest parts of owning a business. I have been extremely lucky with the people in my life being supportive of my dreams.
When I first started the business, it was 100% self financed. I was lucky enough to be working at a shop here in Texas that allowed me to use the equipment after hours. The owner was a great mentor and guided me through a lot of business things like sales tax and finding suppliers.
As I was growing, I needed to buy my own equipment and people were willing to lend me money from their savings or borrow against their 401k. I am always in shock when people believe in me that much.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Minor Threads is my third business. My first one was a record label I started in high school and the second was a small clothing line I started in my early 20s. Both of those businesses, I had the mindset of “I need to do this all on my own.” “No one can do this the way I need it done.” These are toxic mindsets that a lot of small business owners have. When this is your mindset, you will burn yourself out. By thinking you’re the only one that can do things in your business, you will get overwhelmed and start to do things poorly and missing deadline.
Unlearning this mindset has really helped me grow because I have been able to hire people who are much better at specific tasks than I am which frees me up to do the jobs I am best at.

Contact Info:

• Website: MinorthreadsCO.com
• Instagram: minorthreadsco
• Other: Linktr.ee/minorthreadsco

Image Credits
DJB Producutions, C. Coffey Photography