From the home garage, Miami couple learned to balance entrepreneurship with parenthood
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Black business month
The Miami Herald interviewed Black business owners and entrepreneurs in South Florida about their journeys and inspirations.
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In 2015, Rose Jean and her husband Tony Jean launched the T-Shirt Mayhem business from their Kendall home garage.
Today, their company has expanded into a South Miami office and the couple specializes in designing and printing logos on T-shirts and uniforms for customers such as the U.S. Army. Last year, T-Shirt Mayhem was selected as one of the businesses to participate in the inaugural Bank of America Miami and Florida International University Small Business Bootcamp.
Rose, 40, a graduate of FIU, handles sales and marketing tasks, while Tony, 45, mainly focuses on production. The couple discussed what has worked for them in nearly a decade of business and what entrepreneurship means for their growing family. The interview was edited and condensed for clarity and brevity.
▪ Question: How did you two decide to go into business together?
▪ Rose: It was a vision at first. Tony used to work for a T-shirt company and he’s into designs. One day, he said, let’s do T-shirt stuff together. He said he was used to seeing shirts at the flea market that cost $30. I did the research and we came up with a business plan. We had a family member from Haiti join the team and help us with funding it.
I’m the salesperson and got our first contract with a church. From there, it’s built up through referrals. One project has led to another, and now we’re in the corporate and government sectors with clients like the Army.
▪ Q: How did COVID-19 affect the way you ran your business?
▪ Tony: I can say that before the pandemic started in spring of 2020, the business was growing. After COVID-19 hit, business surpassed what we thought it would. I haven’t been able to keep up with certain jobs, so Rose would have to help me at certain times.
Rose: Although business started to increase when COVID-19 emerged, when that caused people to go into isolation due to the public health risks, things ceased with our company. That’s when I found StartUP, a business incubator at FIU. That bootcamp-style training gave me information, resources we needed and directed me to financial help from the Small Business Administration. Then as the pandemic waned, we’ve had so many customers calling.
▪ Q: How have you handled running your own business and managing your family life?
Tony: Our business was running when we had our first child, and I had to learn to juggle. I was working for another company at the time, when we were initially getting our business going. I had to juggle going to work, handling our business and then our child after he was born. I had a choice to make between staying at my job or leaving, and working with our business full time.
In 2017, the Army contract we secured was what made me work to build our company and spend more time with the family. I learned to interact with the kids more as I was working from home. I haven’t worked for anyone else in the six years since, and don’t plan on doing it again.
Rose: It’s a family-owned and operated business. We want to eventually give this business to our three sons.
▪ Q: What is it you think prevents Black community members from building generational wealth through entrepreneurship?
Rose: Support is number one. The support within the community matters and also the funding for small companies. What we had that made it easier for us was my mother coming in and recognizing our vision. She ended up funding us, so we had that support. When we landed the Army contract, different family members volunteered so that we could build for the next stage of our firm.
Also, Miami-Dade County has offered much support for us compared to other places we’ve lived. Earlier, we ended up having a lot of doors shut in our faces. I am a very ambitious person and don’t take no for an answer. All of our help comes from this community.
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