Ellen Daigle’s life changed after her divorce from her husband. She was a registered nurse, but after getting custody of her three small daughters, she wanted a job that would allow her to work out of the home. With that goal in mind, Daigle took a sign-painting course that included some training in silk screening, and in 1978, Ellen’s Silkscreening was born. Daigle spoke with Alexa Apallas about the challenges of creating and maintaining a successful business.
When I first started my business, my goals were to put food on the table, pay the rent, and stay home with my kids. I always had an artistic bent, and having been a nurse was a great help. It gave me a lot of people skills and a lot of organizational skills. If you can get 10 to 12 people off to surgery in the morning, then you can run a business.
In the beginning, I worked out of my garage. I had minimal equipment and it took me a week to complete one order. It just amazed me that someone was paying me. I never really had a long-range business plan, so if I could pay my bills, that was cool.
In the beginning, I was doing everything by myself. I think I was overwhelmed all the time, but I loved what I did so much that I didn’t get worn down. My first client was a local liquor store. I made 12 shirts for the store’s softball team, and ended up getting orders for 500 (the store ordered more shirts to sell to its customers). I also walked door to door to build a clientele. I started with restaurants. I would take my sample and go to four, five, six restaurants until I got an order. Then, I started advertising in the local paper. In 1982, I moved out of my garage into an office building. By that time, I had met my new husband and he worked with me. Now, I have 13 employees. I couldn’t do it without the people I work with. I try to treat them well and pay them well because without them, I wouldn’t have a business.
There is a lot of competition in this business and the only way I can set myself apart is that we do silk-screening in-house and we have an in-house art department with people who are very knowledgeable about art, design, and fashion. Also, because we do artwork in-house, I can always get something out in 24 hours and the customer won’t incur a huge rush charge or huge shipping charges.
About two years ago, we started a promotional product line where we put (the client’s) name on anything. It seemed like a natural way to expand because we already had the artwork, the customer base, and the advertising capabilities. We didn’t really have to extend ourselves financially. We had $1.5 million in sales last year, and I’m hoping to make $2 million this year.
