When the owners of a private investigation company began creating and selling T-shirts as a creative hobby, something happened they didn't expect - the hobby exploded into a business of its own.
Co-owners Shalina Reed and Treana Cason opened Dolli's Designs in May 2018. Dolli's Designs is a local business offering more than 200 custom products.
While Cason had always known she wanted to be an entrepreneur, Reed had a different plan. She studied criminal justice at Lincoln University and always planned to be in the FBI. However, when the FBI offered her a job while she was working at a child abuse hotline, she decided it wasn't right for her.
Reed said she dreamed of owning a business, because she's always been an entrepreneur at heart. When she was a child, she was known as the "candy girl," because she sold candy to her classmates. When she was a bit older, she began creating and selling blankets.
"I knew I had an entrepreneurial spirit, and I knew that I didn't want to continue to sit, working 40 hours a week for someone else, when I could be building my own company, working 40 hours a week spending my time doing that for myself," Reed said.
Reed and Cason originally planned to open a laser tag business, but with Reed's criminal justice degree and Cason's marketing degree, they instead decided to start a private investigation company called Secure Research and Investigation.
While running this business, they began creating and selling T-shirts for fun. However, the T-shirts became so popular they had no choice but to turn it into its own business and close the private investigation company. Thus, Dolli's Designs was born, which was solely a custom T-shirt business at the time.
"It was just something that God really made manifest from nowhere," Reed said.
Cason moved to Jefferson City in 2012 to attend Lincoln University. She graduated in 2017, and Dolli's Designs opened a year later.
"In 2012, I didn't have anything at all," Cason said. "This was the most amazing thing to watch, just how God can use anybody - large, small, rich, poor to get His work done, and I believe this is His work."
Since its opening, Dolli's Designs has grown to include basically everything. Cason said they can customize almost anything, but popular products include apparel, photo frames, mugs, event decor, and marketing products and designs such as business cards, banners and logos.
Reed and Cason decided to include party decor at Dolli's Designs, because Reed enjoyed creating party decor and there wasn't a custom party decor business in the area.
"I felt like it was time to take it to the next level," Reed said.
In September, Reed attended Balloon Training Institute in Sevierville, Tennessee, where she learned balloon arch, column and drop techniques as well as business and marketing skills. She was one of a select group of balloon professionals to successfully complete the six-day, hands-on training.
"I am always constantly looking to further my education and skills within the business, and I think the balloons are a niche that has been helping our business," Reed said. "It was an additional tool to add to help set us apart."
Cason said education is important in this industry.
"A lot of people can do balloon work, but there's an actual art or technique to it," Cason said. "She learned a lot of different arts when it comes to balloon columns, balloon arches and balloon drops, so she's well-rounded."
Reed said her favorite part of her job is seeing the excitement on clients' faces when she delivers the products, and she also enjoys following new trends and taking inspiration from them to make them her own.
"I just like to constantly learn, constantly create, and I just like to top off the last thing that we did," Reed said.
Reed said her biggest challenge is finding time to scale the business as a two-person team. Although, they recently brought on a bookkeeper who offered to work for free.
"Something that we're working on or considering is how to build a team of people that we can trust - people that will be able to believe in the brand as much as we do," Reed said.
Cason said her approach is simple.
"I think these are the main things: keep God first, be disciplined, just keep moving forward and don't ever give up, because it gets hard, it gets tiring, but it's always worth it in the end," she said.