(The following is taken from an interview I did for a local magazine with my friends Brian and Gwen Callahan of Sigh Co. Graphics in 2007. Brian and Gwen are t-shirt designers, printers and purveyors of all things geeky, gothy, and a little bit twisted.)

How did you guys get started? Long story short, sometime in 1998 or 1999, we were on a road trip to Las Vegas for my birthday.  On the way home, we were being tailgated by this jerkwad. Brian gets all mad and shouts, “Tailgaters make me psycho!” The rest of the trip was spent making a list of all the things that could possibly make you psycho, including ex-wives/husbands, clowns, kids, etc. We thought it would be cool to make stickers or something.  Nothing really ended up happening with that until much later. Brian got a job that sucked up all his time (and his soul). Then we moved to New Orleans in 2002. He had it in mind that instead of getting another soul sucking day job, he would start a t-shirt company. T-shirts offered more of an outlet for design, not just clever sayings.

In July of that year we came out with 8 designs, and in August, we went to DragonCon in Atlanta, Georgia and set up in the dealer’s room there.  We managed to sell enough to pay for the trip, and solidified the idea that this could be a viable business for us. For about 2 years I did Sigh Co. and I had a day job. After November of 2004, I started doing Sigh Co. full time and the business picked up a lot.

What’s the best and worst thing about having your own business? The best thing is that when you’re stuck printing shirts at 3 am and you have to leave for a show in 7 hours, at least the hard work you’re doing is for yourself. No doubt about it. It’s long hours and hard work, but we get to reap the benefits of our labor.  The worst part is that no one is paying your health insurance or giving you paid vacation days. If you don’t work, you don’t make money.

If you could go back and change anything what would it be? We probably would have gotten a small business loan. That’s the worst thing you can do to yourself, is to try to start a company on your own credit.

What’s been most successful for you as far as marketing goes? Doing conventions has done a lot for us in terms of brand recognition and building a loyal customer base. We see a lot of the same people every year at these shows, and they all tell their friends where they got their cool shirts. Our e-bay store has also helped us build repeat customers.  It seems like when people get a few of our designs, they want all of them!

You can check out goods by Sigh Co. Graphics at their website or Etsy shop, and various retail stores and events around the country.