We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jt John Thomas. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with JT John below.

Alright, JT John thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear how you think where to draw the line in terms of asking friends and family to support your business – what’s okay and what’s over the line?

Support from family and friends can be shown in various ways. Appropriate support could be shown by them purchasing our products, or through other monetary ways (Ex: investing or donating). Other appropriate support could be shown by them simply being our side cheerleader constantly motivating us to keep going, and/or someone we hire to manage sectors of the business that could add experience or growth. I believe there is nothing wrong with asking for support. I am a bigger believer that when you produce quality work and people see the passion behind what you believe in, people begin to notice and naturally want to support. Having positive friends and family to support my brand, PROFILE Your Style, is something i’m truly grateful for. I am never one to ask for assistance or support, so when i see it genuinely happening, it adds fuel to my drive and motivates me to keep reaching new heights.I absolutely believe that as entrepreneurs we are constantly growing and learning. Sales, advertising, investors, product, etc. take a team, and sometimes we are our own teams. To have people who support us in any way is a blessing and something we should not take for granted.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I like to think of myself as a country boy who had big dreams, and used sports to help catapult them. I was born in a small town in southern Louisiana, surrounded by a pretty close knit family. My cousins were like siblings and everyone knew everyone in my town. My mother made the decision to move to us to Houston, her and i, to allow me to see more than what i was confined to. My mother is the type to go without to ensure her kids (me and my sister) have everything we need. The older i get, the more i understand the sacrifices she made, so i could achieve all that I did. She pushed the importance of education, religion and family in our household and would make sure we were well balanced with all 3. Mom would have us spending summers in the library, up to 6 hours a day sometimes, having us prepare for the upcoming school year, or completing reports we would later have to present to her on something new we learned, mine always pertaining to an athlete or something in the fashion industry. We absolutely hated doing those by the way. Although my parents were properly preparing us for life, fitting in with society was something we struggled with. Our southern louisiana accents, thrift store clothes, and heavily influenced religious upbringing was looked at as “weird.” Playing sports, and being really good at them, was my escape from being “weird.” I quickly learned the power of hard work, and used the rewards of the hard work to constantly better myself and open new doors.
My brand, PROFILE Your Style, is about putting in the hard work and a healthier life being the reward. P.Y.S is not only about looking good in great athletic clothes, it’s about showing up when times get tough, putting in the work and seeing all you put in discharged into multiple areas of our health and wellness journeys.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I believe in any market, when you are authentically yourself the reputation builds itself. I grew up involved in sports through high school and quickly made a name for myself with being the top 5 in the country. That success awarded me a full track and field scholarship to run in college. With all this experience and knowledge it only made sense to make a life out of something i enjoyed and rewarded me in so many ways. Having a great deal of understanding in, sports, wellness and training, i love designing clothes that are functional to our journey. With all we do, we must show up as ourselves to build a reputation worth following.

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

Wanting to start a business is always a great start to living a life of freedom, but most times it cost money to initially get that going. LLCs, licenses, Websites, advertising, time, etc. all add up and if you are not prepared for these costs, it could be overwhelming. As a clothing brand owner, where the clothes i design are manufactured, and the quality of each individual piece made are very important. For me it was important to use U.S. based manufacturers for P.Y.S and have a hands-on relationship with my main manufacturer being based here in Miami, FL. With the choice to limit my relationships to U.S. it came with a price. Where as manufacturers in other countries came with incentives, such as the fabric and size grading all included in the overall price, here in U.S. the cost of buying fabric, patterns, samples, grading and cutting for sizes are all separate and makes the overall price almost 40% more expensive. This cheaper cost can have benefits also, but a lot of times countered with poor quality in details of the product and why i chose to work with U.S. based. Every business will be different when it comes to initial capital needing to start a business. Having a second source of income lightens the load, when helping with initial cost. For myself, i also have a successful career in the field of chemistry and was able to use that to fund my own business. Doing research and planning your business, prior to starting, gives us a good idea of what initial costs are needed to run a successful business. If properly done it will eliminate most surprises when putting together the capital needed to start a business.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Profileyourstyle.com
• Instagram: Profile_your_style
• Other: Email: [email protected]

Image Credits

Tarrice Love
Karolina Sabadosh