We recently connected with Paulina Cardiel and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Paulina thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Being a business owner can be really hard sometimes. It’s rewarding, but most business owners we’ve spoken sometimes think about what it would have been like to have had a regular job instead. Have you ever wondered that yourself? Maybe you can talk to us about a time when you felt this way?

The thought of working a regular job, with regular hours, and clear job roles is a thought that passes through my mind during the days when things beyond my control impact my business. This past week has been a week of these types of thoughts. Our shop kept having power outages recently; after having different electricians and technicians come out, we seem to have figured out the issue. Without electrical power we wouldn’t be able to print and embroider the orders that must meet their in-hands date. The burden of working to find the issue, resolve it in a speedy time and in a economical way, in addition to caring for the daily needs of the business and a family is a heavy load. When you own your own business you are responsible for every aspect of operating the business,( I feel like this is true for most businesses of 1-3 employees).
Even with all the overtime hours and sometimes literal headaches that being a business owner brings, I am happy being one. Being my own boss gives me the privilege of working with my friend and husband, of seeing all of our effort and work actually yield a fruitful business, being able to have little luxuries of accommodating our work to fit our life. I get to bring my children to work with me and see them grow while building this business that may one day be theirs. I’m glad I took this risk.

Paulina, 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?

Hello, fellow human reading this. My name is Paulina Cardiel, I am the owner of Oofnik Printing. Oofnik is a screenprinting and embroidery company, we decorate apparel for events, company uniforms, teams, brand merchandise, churches, etc. I have been in this industry for near 10 years, 5 of which I have been running my own business, Oofnik. I’ll be honest, I’m not good on marketing my company, I always get stumped when people ask me to describe or expound on my companies virtues. My customers say we are the best screen printers in Atlanta, I’ll say we are very good, I haven’t met all the printers. We are kind, efficient, skilled, and people who take pride in delivering an exceptional product. We have printed for Burger King, RPM 9/11 5k, Weststride, Beans & Butter Coffee House, and Bake and Skate to name a few.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

I believe that the 1st step in creating a solid work team, is seeing every person as a human. I’ve seen people compare their workforce to machines, but even machines need proper care or else they don’t function at their best. When I was a manager in another company there was a woman who hadn’t been working as the the owner would have liked. He gave her instructions in a harsh manner and she responded harshly. He in turn fired her in that moment. Being the manager I stepped in, asked her to return to her station then spoke with the owner. Later I went and spoke with her, she shared how her father had unexpectedly died a couple days before. As managers we must see people as whole beings before or rather as seeing them as tools.
I believe if we show people the value of their role in the business/company, they usually respond by delivering a valuable service.

How’d you meet your business partner?

My business partner is my husband. We met about 9 years ago working in the same company. It was a small company when we started, and we both held different job titles throughout our time there. Working there somewhat prepared us for running our own business.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.oofnikprintingga.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oofnikprinting/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OofnikPrinting/

Image Credits
Headshot by Emily Dukes Photography. All other images were taken by Oofnik Printing.