Meet Barry & Chanell Graves | Owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Barry & Chanell Graves and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Barry & Chanell, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
The Custom Stitch Houston LLC was created so my husband and business partner, Barry Graves, could regain his confidence, create his own opportunities, and make a decent living after suffering a life changing accident. On October 29, 2016, Barry, was walking and was hit by a car in Beaumont, TX while celebrating his college homecoming. He suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI) from the accident. After two brain surgeries, physical, occupational, and speech therapies, it took about a year to fully recover. Even after recovery, he was not 100% himself. Also, he was not able to work at the same capacity as before his accident which tremendously reduced his income.

As his wife, I knew my husband was not himself and was depressed. He always talked about starting his own business in embroidery because he learned embroidery from a previous employer, but he kept procrastinating. I took the initiative to invest in my family and purchased a 15 needle industrial embroidery machine. I took a graphic design course and started our journey with the embroidery business.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
There are several reasons that set us apart from other custom apparel businesses. (1) The Custom Stitch Houston LLC specializes in custom embroidered apparel. When our customers see there logo or design embroidered, the quality cannot be matched. (2) Not only do we provide custom embroidery services, we also have an online store. Most of our designs are displays of our deep-rooted love of the African American culture and of our hometown, Houston, TX. (3) Making money is not our end game. We want our customers to love our work, and we work with our customers so they get exactly what they want. (4) We took our time learning our machine, learning the digitizing process, and learning graphic design. We had our machine for about 4-5 months before we starting marketing ourselves and taking orders in order to make sure that we were ready.

On the business side, I just used the same skills that I acquired working for other businesses and applied them to my business. We wanted to do everything the proper way, so we got the appropriate business licenses, and searched for the best vendors for our products. An enormous hurdle that we had to overcome outside of learning the embroidery was marketing. We had to really learn how to market ourselves so we get in front of the people who wanted and needed our services.

A lesson we learned is not all business is good business. Trust your gut when working with people, and it is okay to turn business down if it does not fit.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
We are foodies and music lovers. If I wanted to show someone a good time, we would eat at The Breakfast Club or Quotes for brunch. For lunch and dinner, we would go to Cafe Rian, Kid Kreole Kooking, or Lost and Found. For entertainment, we would listen to some live music at Scott Gertner’s Rhythm Room or Phil & Derek’s. We would enjoy a good comedy show at The Improv or Komedy Lounge.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Our entire family and friends deserve a shoutout. People say that strangers will be your biggest supporters, but that is not our reality. Our family have been extremely supportive with our business.

Website: https://thecustomstitchhouston.com/

Instagram: @thecustomstitchhouston

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecustomstitchhouston

Image Credits
Th3rd Eye Studios