The Savvy Entrepreneur

Photograph by Westfall Photography

Welcome to the first of many blogs about the life and times of us savvy entrepreneurs!

Savvy meaning to know and understand and entrepreneur meaning a type of personality who is willing to take upon herself or himself a new venture or enterprise and accepts full responsibility for the outcome.

We are unable to do so without the proper information or support. This blog will consist of many things related to business and entrepreneurship!



My business partner, is also my soul mate. When I first met him, he was selling t-shirt's from his men's clothing line, Reyes Muertos. I loved it! It spoke about things that I was passionate about; revolution, culture and urban art. We often spoke about these things and one day starting talking about creating a woman's line with the same feeling, but more feminine. I was excited and on board. Some of my favorite tees were from businesses with the same feel; Evolve Universal and Acrylick (to name a few). That is where Dope Orchid Creations was started! Although, down the line, the name was changed to Divine Orchid Creations. (Dope is such a generational term, to us it was hip hop, to others it was a term for drugs and the younger generation had no idea, we were able to snag our target market, but using a term that is more universal and has more of a spiritual connotation.)

While I was browsing craigslist, I came upon an ad for women entrepreneur classes. It sounded perfect! I started attending Women's Initiative classes. It is an 11 week course, twice a week and at the end of the course, to graduate, you have a business plan. Since graduating, I have expanded my business and have become the savvy entrepreneur I am today! Women's Initiative is worth checking out, for those of you who would like solid information on how to grow and expand your business. Women's Initiative has classes all over the Bay Area!

Our first run of clothes was a mixture of our logo and Reyes Muertos designs put onto tees, one of a kind vintage clothing and a custom made dress.





As we evovled as a couple and individually, so did our clothing and designs. Frida Khalo is an artist we both look up to and it seemed fitting to have a design in her honor. Maria Felix is another Mexican icon whom we thought appropriate for a design. She is a actress from Mexico during the silver screen era. She was eccentric and talented and represented Mexico during that time.





We're now at the place of having our fashionistic ideas come into life! We are getting ready for our first Fall/Winter line and are excited about things to come. The thing about business, and about entrepreneurship, is that giving up is not an option. When I'm feeling helpless, or frustrated, I remind myself that my bigger cause is myself, my future family, and most of all, knowing that doing what makes me happy takes hard work. We both still carry day jobs, he is a high school counselor for gang impacted youth and I teach middle school art as an intervention for low-achieving students. We also operate a silk screening business out of our family's home. We take on many roles and tasks, as we do all of this on our own dollar. No loan, yet, but hopefully soon so we may commit full-time to our passions. It's important for us to diversify our talents to make sure no matter where the road takes us, we have skills in many areas of life. One day we plan on having a home with lots of land to roam, with our children and many pets. Till then, we'll work out of our apartment, with our soon to be dog and always push forward.

A sneak preview into our Fall/Winter line...our first dress! It's just a sample, the fabric is going to be different.

Join me next week as I discuss taxes and the BOE. Fun stuff...well I'll make it fun. Till then, love yourself, love your neighbor, and always keep your head high!

www.divineorchid.etsy.com
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**All photographs (except the first one) are taken by myself and my pop's, Tom Ehrlich**