Today we’d like to introduce you to Rachel Christman Carol Mcbee
Rachel Christman, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
We both love fashion and at an affordable cost. We are both great friends who met in the DFW area. Rachel is originally from Wisconsin and Carol from Canada. We first bonded over our shared love of fashion and our friendship grew from there. We both have entrepreneurial spirits and were always looking for unique ways to share our style. As busy moms we have 6 children between us. Often, we want to throw a hat on but couldn’t find all the hats we loved. We came up with Trendy TruckerTX when we wanted to create a way for women to make something truly customizable and unique to them. Everyone is so different, and our fashion should allow us to express that, always! We started with one hat press, 100s of patches and 60 hats. We did most of our first events as pop ups at local women owned boutiques. After six months we started doing corporate events, throughout all DFW, with two hat presses, 1000’s of patches, 100’s of hats. We love working with our customers and creating one-of-a-kind hats.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
We started out with a good understanding of the many aspects to making a successful hat company however, we had to come out of pocket to begin. It took 4 months before we saw a profit. We had to decide what elements could wait (i.e. hats in stock, more patches, extra heat presses, marquees, website, etc) and which ones were essential.
We also found there to be a trucker hat shortage. We have to be strategic in purchasing the hat colors we need and want. We scour our favorite hat dealerships to find the colors, brands and styles of hat we want. Planning ahead! We have business meetings often to talk through upcoming events and talk through what patches and supplies are needed. Ordering custom patches can take 1-2 weeks to receive them so we have to plan ahead to ensure we have them in time for our events.
As you know, we’re big fans of Trendy Trucker TX. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
We are TrendyTruckerTX, a mobile custom trucker hat bar in DFW Texas. Our hats are 100% customizable! Choose from thousands of patches, and we create it for you! We have a link tree on instagram and update our events on our social media each month so customers know where to find us and how to book us.
We now offer nationwide shipping through our Etsy partnership; local TX pick up or join us for one of our upcoming pop ups or schedule your own party with us. We can’t wait to party with you!
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
Rachel’s Memory:
Humble beginnings. I remember at an early age as the middle of five kids that going out to eat was a treat and don’t order a lemonade as that would add on additional costs. I realized my career was going to be important for my future. I went to school and got my bachelor’s and then two Master’s. One in Educational Psychology and the other in Administration Leadership Curriculum & Instruction. I started my career as a School Counselor and then worked in Higher Education as an Administrator. It was thrilling and had its limitations working for someone else and seeing slower impact and improvements from my efforts. I have created several concepts for companies however, each one was missing a key element to being successful. I believe Trendy Trucker TX is unique in that we have created and captured what customers value and want!
Place yourself in a position to order the lemonade, even if it takes you several tries!
Carol’s Memory:
I felt it fitting to share a few childhood entrepreneurial memories. I come from a family of entrepreneurs from my Grandmother & Grandfather on both sides, my Dad and four out of six siblings. I first felt my first entrepreneurial spark on a rainy weekend while sitting in the car in the grocery store parking lot. My mom was doing our shopping for the week and Dad mentioned how many carts had been abandoned in the rain, instead of being returned to the cart corral. I grew up in Canada where you would need a quarter or one dollar coin in order to use a cart. The rain discouraged patrons to return their carts, so seeing an opportunity, I ran around in the rain and returned all the carts and pocketed all the coins. Later on I would find myself on lakeside beaches during summer vacations setting up a hair braiding business. I continued that on for six summers. Now that I’m a mother, I can see that moms were simply getting a few minutes of peace while I braided their daughters hair, but at the time, I felt like I had an amazing hair service. I later on worked for a company removing returned mail from their marketing database while babysitting. I would put the kids to bed and then got to work and doubled my income for the evening. I have always liked coming up with an idea and making it a reality. Five companies later, my entrepreneurial spirit continues to thrive!
Pricing:
- $15/hat
- $2-$15/patches
- $10/acrylic & metal chains
- $15/custom phrase chain
- $2/adornments
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.trendytruckertx.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/trendytruckertx/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61558013900402
