Life & Work with Mary Wysocki

Today we’d like to introduce you to Mary Wysocki.

Mary, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin? 
My business started solely as a hobby in the basement of my home. In 2015, I began making wooden custom signs. One day, I was ordering more vinyl from a supplier and noticed an item called heat transfer vinyl. I ordered a yard of it to try and made myself a shirt to wear at a festival in my hometown. A lady approached me and asked where I got the shirt. She ordered one from me, and the rest is literally history. I began making more and more shirts and posting them on social media & Etsy. A few months after the festival, I was able to quit my 8 to 5 and focus entirely on my business. We moved into my first brick-and-mortar store in 2016. Since then, I no longer make wooden signs or use heat transfer vinyl. Now, we have a fully stocked boutique/gift shop with a production area in the back where we operate embroidery, screen printing, and direct-to-garment printing. 

We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Definitely not. Finding good help has always been a struggle. I’ve been blessed with some amazing staff over the years, but I do find it’s hard to compete with employers that offer benefits. In addition, keeping up with the trends in my business and changing algorithm on social media can be exhausting. Work-life and personal life balance have been more of a struggle since becoming a mom. Shonda Rimes explained it best regarding work-life balance: 

“It’s one of the cruelest myths I feel like we’ve put out there for women. It is that thing of, ‘If I am succeeding in one area of my life, I do feel like I’m failing in another, and that’s okay.’ You know, as a mother, I can be either at my child’s science fair or I can be at Sandra Oh’s very last day of work on ‘Grey’s Anatomy.’ I can go to England and watch them film scenes of ‘Bridgerton,’ or I can stay here and take my kids to school on their very first day. Those are choices that you make, and those choices are okay. Like it’s okay to feel like you’re not giving 100% to everything.” 

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
We call ourselves a Unique Print Boutique. We specialize in custom printing, which includes embroidery, screen printing, & direct-to-garment printing. We are unique because we can print you just 1 shirt or hundreds of shirts. We have no minimums and can work with almost any artwork provided or design you something personalized. In addition, our business has a storefront that is full of boutique items, gifts, and shirts that we print in-house. We are an NC-based business, and we are proud to say we order 90% of our blank shirts for printing from a local supplier right here in NC. We also have a ‘T-shirt Bar’ in our store – you pick a blank shirt, pick your design, and we print it while you wait. We love to think of our store as a shopping experience. 

Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
I feel like you have to be a risk-taker as a small business owner. Not every idea I’ve had has panned out how I thought it would. Many have, but definitely not all, and some have been more expensive than others! It’s just part of it, and I think that’s what makes small businesses so beautiful – you’re constantly having to pivot, reimagine & get creative with things. Taking risks really forces you to use your imagination and think outside the box. My favorite quote is, ‘Good things never come from comfort zones,’ and I do think once you remove yourself from those comfort zones, the sky is the limit. To me, the risk is worth it; if anything, you’ll probably learn something valuable along the way. 

Contact Info:

• Website: www.makeitpersonalbymm.com
• Instagram: makeitpersonalbymm
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/makeitpersonalbymarymargaret