Nestled in an Handley neighborhood of Fort Worth, owners Cherie and James run a fabulous home-based embroidery business. Quite possibly, one-of-a-kind, Cherie4art provides exceptional value and service to their customers. Mr. and Mrs. Curry began their business adventure in May 2013 after Cherie was laid off from a supervisory position at a large apparel decoration company. Just as other small business owners in Fort Worth, the Currys saw the opportunity to open their own business to use their great skill sets to build a prosperous future for their family. This was a no-brainer given the fact that they have great talents that left them both unfulfilled and under appreciated while working each and every day for another employer.
Cherie began her quest working in the decorative apparel industry working as a machine operator to pay her way through college to study art and later becoming a commissioned paint artist in New York City. Post college, she found herself in one position or another for over a decade and finally decided to invest in herself by purchasing her own machines. Her background is definitely evident in her products through her keen since of design and layout learned over the years. James focuses on the administrative aspects to the family business through his experience in web development and business in general. This experience has shown to be beneficial as the outsourcing of website services, art conversion, and administration task are handled in house. Cherie4art delivers a superior product than other embroidery shops. Their keen ability to convert logos and art into stitches using thread is shown in their products. By being able to digitize all of the art in house, Cherie4art does not send it out overseas via the internet as many embroidery shops do. By also plotting each stitch in a CAD style program manually, Cherie has more control than many other shops. It is important to know that embroidery and decorated apparel is a commodity business, however, quality is definitely controlled by the artist. Cherie4art has unique ability to offer services to other larger shops that choose not to carry skilled artist on their payroll any longer. They were able to step up to the plate when these businesses opted to use software programs that auto digitize and found that their quality fell below standards.
Because Cherie4art has everything in house, their overhead is low, their turnaround time is fast, and the customer has more control over how their final product looks and represents their brand. Don’t be fooled by this business being operated in their house versus a storefront. Although they have the right professional equipment in their home, the quality output is great. Furthermore, they have the tools and agreements with other businesses possessing larger machines to handle the big orders. Being a home-based business does not mean that the product is inferior to the larger companies’ products. One thing that Cherie4art struggles with is overcoming the customer’s innate opinion that browsing a store is required prior to purchasing something. Recent increases in DFW real estate has caused many local embroidery/screen printing businesses to close their shops or be swallowed by other large companies. Being home-based allows them to compete and produce more for less if the customers are willing to work with them . . . which they should! One thing that can’t be left out is the fact that the namesake of the company and lead artist, Cherie, is a Deaf entrepreneur. Obviously this creates awkwardness as customers often wish to speak with her directly on the phone, which is impossible for her. Communication with Cherie4art is primarily through email. This does not pose much of a problem as art and logos are visual; but customers naturally like to speak to business owners. Knowing this, Cherie, being an articulate Deaf individual and excellent at lip reading, goes the distance and will meet customers where they can speak in person. This author feels that this is an attribute . . . not a limitation Are you looking to support local businesses in Fort Worth? Contact Cherie4art for your next embroidery or apparel project. You can find them at: Cherie4art Embroidery Source: http://thedfwreview.com/cherie4art-embroidery-not-your-average-home-based-business/ from https://thedfwreview.wordpress.com/2016/12/18/cherie4art-embroidery-not-your-average-home-based-business/
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