We were lucky to catch up with Sharifa Macias recently and have shared our conversation below.

Sharifa, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

I think success is something that can look different for everybody. For me, it’s being able to continue to create memorable products and experiences that have a lasting impact on my customers and supporters. Being able to create concepts and make them into a reality is always one of my major goals. To obtain that, it takes a lot of hard work, persistence, and a passion for the work that I do. I think having these three elements will continue to bring more success.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers?

I became bored with mundane work at my day job and wanted a proper creative outlet for myself. I looked into starting my own t-shirt company and the rest is history. I have blended my love for creativity, nerd culture, J-Fashion, and Kawaii Culture and birthed Sweet Bitz. My shop has been the go-to apparel shop for the cute and nerdy communities. I design a variety of apparel and goods like cardigans, sweaters, purses, hats, pins, key chains and more! Sweet Bitz provides quality, exclusive apparel that is fashionable and unique. Customers that shop at Sweet Bitz are able to find items that allow them to express themselves 24/7, which isn’t always the easiest to find. I’m very proud of the fanbase I have built with my brand and all the wonderful supporters that I have gained. Customers have told me how much they’re thankful for finding a brand like mine, and I will always be thankful for that. I am a one woman show and I put a lot of heart and hard work into building this brand. I have so much more that I want to create for the world, so please stay tuned to see what else Sweet Bitz will produce.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

The year 2020 was a horrific year for the entire world. For me, it easily was the worst year of my life. In the beginning of the pandemic, I lost 2 family members to covid. A month later, my grandmother died. Then a couple of months after that, I suddenly lost my older brother as well. To say I was struggling mentally that year is an understatement. However, my business was thriving and things were not stopping any time soon. Being one person running a business, while also trying to mourn the deaths of multiple family members is very tough. There are so many things to take care of while your brain is still processing current events. I took a few weeks to let myself mourn, but after that I really buckled down and pushed through. I had a mountain of orders that needed to be shipped out, and new products to create! It would have been easy for me to fall short during this time, but I made sure that me and my brand were going to get through it.

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

I do manufacture my products! Dealing with manufacturers is a whole journey itself sometimes. I had no idea what I was doing at first or where to even start. I had to search through a database of manufacturers to find the perfect ones who could create the products that I wanted. I always made sure to ask a lot of questions like what are my customization options, how long will shipping times be, and of course, what are the costs! I picked my manufacturers based off of my needs for my products and how much they were going to charge to create them. One major lesson I’ve learned with this process is being on top of everything the manufacturer is doing for you once you have paid them. I’ve had incidents where they’ve took it upon themselves to change my sizing for products, or even choosing a shipping option I didn’t want. I’m always happy once I have my products, but there are definitely ups and down with this process.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sweetbitz.net
• Instagram: instagram.com/shopsweetbitz
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/sweetbitz
• Twitter: twitter.com/sweetbitz_

Image Credits
Trevor Soriano