Building business a T-shirt at a time

Jacob McKim, owner of Succulent Tees, recently discovered one of the best ways he can support local, small businesses was by opening up his own. And although he’s only lived in Maricopa three years, he said supporting the community is important to him.

McKim, whose day job is a sales manager for a company that provides advertising to news station websites, runs a small T-shirt printing and design shop from his house.

“I am a very small shop,” McKim said, adding that he could probably make “a couple of shirts up to a couple hundred at a time.”

But for smaller businesses and organizations, McKim said, his home shop is just right. 

“I know that if you’re a small operation, to get a couple of shirts printed you’re going to pay a lot of money,” McKim said. “If you can even find someone to take that order, you’re going to pay 15, 20 bucks a shirt.”

For larger companies, a lot of that cost is overhead, a cost that it is less for McKim because his store is “right in my house,” he said. 

“I do all the printing and everything in my garage and then I have an office where I do all the design work,” McKim said.

McKim uses a screen printing technique he describes as slightly more advanced than a smaller-scale, at-home screen printing kit one would find at a local craft store. 

“I think I can deliver a product where local businesses, local companies can brand themselves, get their name, their information out there,” McKim said. “And they can afford it.” 

Kelly Menefee, McKim’s girlfriend, said a lot of the joy the entrepreneur got from the business came from learning a new craft.

“He even learned the (design) computer program himself,” she said.

So far, McKim’s growing client base includes the local band the Dunderheads, real estate agent Lisa Irions and small businesses in the Valley. 

McKim said he enjoys making money doing something he loves.

“I saw the opportunity to make some money as well as do something that was creative and fun,” McKim said. “It also satisfies my entrepreneurial side and my creative side.”

It was Menefee who gave McKim the idea for the business.

“My girlfriend and I are both big sports fans, so we would travel around to different sporting events and she would make T-shirts on her own, just with the iron-on stuff you can get at the crafts store,” McKim said.

“And she would get these great comments,” McKim said. “So I thought, ‘What’s this process of screen printing actually involve?’”

Once he was set up and ready to make some tees, it was time to put his business skills to work.

“My first customer was the (XTRA 910-AM) sports radio station,” McKim said. “My first sales call, I got a sale.”

It wasn’t quite that simple, though.

McKim heard the DJs talking about a charity softball event. Seeing an opportunity, McKim called the station and offered to make the team’s T-shirts provided he could put the Succulent Tees logo on the front.

He was told the station already had someone providing the shirts. Undeterred, McKim said he made sure to leave his contact information.