Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Liquan Cruz. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, Liquan thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We love asking folks what they would do differently if they were starting today – how they would speed up the process, etc. We’d love to hear how you would set everything up if you were to start from step 1 today
If i had to start over and do something differently, I’d say I would be more social and outward when it comes to business. In the beginning, I was very timid to talk about my business and share the ideas I had with others. I’m a reserved person naturally so it was kind of hard changing that mindset to fit the business lifestyle. I would hesitate about a-lot of things and not feel as confident as I should have. I feel if I had been more outward fro the start, it could have propelled me to greater heights and I could have probably networked with so much more people which only benefit me in the long run. I’m still happy about where I currently am now when it comes to business though. Everything is going as I expected in recent years
Liquan, 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?
I really just got into doing this business because it’s something I’m passionate about. I found out over the years that I was a really creative person and that I loved bringing the ideas in my head to life. Sprag Apparel is just one of the main ways I do that. I liked making these abnormal designs and then putting them on clothing for others to see and wear. The products I provide are mostly streetwear and urban style of clothing. The thing that I think sets me apart from others may just be the designs I come up with. I find that I have a way of just mixing or combing weird things together and they come out looking like a cool design I like. This was the case when I made my “Alien Life’ design by deciding it would be cool to put an alien in a red phone booth and have him taking a peek outside. I don’t think thats something just anybody can come up with. I’d say I’m most proud of my friends that help or support me anyway that they can as well as the fact that I’m always trying to work on new projects to bring out. My mind never stops running on new things I can do for Sprag and I have about 3 years of stuff planned out already. The main thing I want people to know is that anyone can run a business with the right mindset, creativity, and a great support system behind you. I also want them to know that Sprag has a lot in store for the years to come and I hope they keep an eye out and enjoy whatever projects we bring to life.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
There was once a time where I had a specific product I was excited to release. I put a lot of time and effort into the planning and marketing leading up to the release. I made sure I had enough content planned out as well as how I wanted everything to look. I had never done so much preparations before in my past experiences for my products but I expected this to be a big and popular release. What ended up happening right before I was going to show the new product is that everything started to fall apart quickly and a lot of stuff didn’t go my way. When I finally released the product, I also didn’t get a single sale at first. This caused me to be very discouraged and I questioned if I was cut out for this type of business. But as time went on, I tried my best to keep pushing forward and telling myself I just had to develop my marketing strategy better and push on through adversity. Most people would have felt like giving up after all that planning and excitement but I kept going and now almost all of my projects usually sell out in a few days so I was happy I continued believing in my ideas
Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?
Honestly, I was just working my regular 9-5 job while putting funds aside to focus on business expenses in the beginning. The only problem with that was there were times when I needed that money to help with expenses in my personal life. It became hard to separate the 2 from getting intertwined all the time. Recently, I had came up with the idea to find investors to support me with capital for my business in exchange for a share of future profits. This is how I am now securing my capital to further advance business as of right now. I had a good friend of mind believe in my dream and now have a vast amount of funds to put into my business so that it can continue to be successful
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.spragapparel.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_spragapparel/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Spragsupport
Image Credits
Photography by Faded Flicks