LEARNING CURVE: ELLEN’S SILKSCREENING & PROMOTIONAL PRODUCTS : Home Design : Silk-Screener Found Success in a Garage
Ellen Daigle, recently divorced and with three young daughters, launched a silk-screening business in her garage because she wanted to work from home. Daigle, who has since remarried, was interviewed by Karen Kaplan.
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I was recently divorced and had three young daughters to raise. I was trained as a registered nurse, but my goal was to find a job where I could work from home. So I started a silk-screening business in my garage.
I took a three-month course in silk-screening and casually mentioned it at a neighborhood liquor store when I stopped in to buy some milk. They asked me to make a dozen T-shirts, and they were so popular that I ended up selling 400 shirts.
I didn’t have an actual business plan--things just kind of evolved. Over the next couple of months, I did another five or six orders for friends. I set up a little shop in my garage and started seeking out orders. We started making a profit after about a year.
I started out with very minimal and rudimentary equipment--ink, squeegees, wooden frames to stretch the fabric over and some clamps for the screen. My daughters helped with the business, folding shirts and such. At the time, there was a real shortage of nurses, so I could work a couple of nights a week. Having that backup source of income gave me a tremendous amount of freedom.
I started the business in 1978 and I moved out of the garage in 1982. I found an office about two minutes away from our house. By then the kids were older and they could come right over after school. They helped out and did their homework at the office. It all kind of just fell into place.
At that point, I had to quit my nursing job and devote myself full time to silk-screening. Once we were in the shop it was like, “OK, this is a real business.”
In 1984, we got a really big client who was doing a line of shirts for the Olympics. That order was big enough that we were able to buy all the equipment I’m using today and pay for it in cash.
In the beginning, I had one friend who was starting her own catering business out of her house, and it was less frightening for both of us to be going through this together. There weren’t as many people in those days doing their own thing. Still, I never really questioned what I was doing. If I did, I probably would have come to the conclusion that I was totally nuts.
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On why she started the business . . .
“My goal was to find a job where I could work from home. So I started a silk-screening business in my garage.”
On moving the business out of her garage . . .
“At that point, I had to quit my nursing job and devote myself full time to silk-screening. Once we were in the shop it was like, ‘OK, this is a real business.’ ”
On finding moral support . . .
“I had one friend who was starting her own catering business out of her house, and it was less frightening for both of us to be going through this together.”
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AT A GLANCE
Company: Ellen’s Silkscreening & Promotional Products
Owners: Ellen and Joe Daigle
Nature of business: Prints and sells customized T-shirts and other promotional items
Location: South Pasadena
Number of employees: 13
Annual sales: A projected $2 million this year
