Inspiring Conversations with Jennifer Wolz of MOM OF 3 EMBROIDERY

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennifer Wolz.

Hi Jennifer, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Growing up, you never think you are going to be just like your parents. Boy, was I wrong!

I went to college, worked for a few years, and then met and married my husband. We always knew I would stay home when we started having kids. He was a KCPD officer with various shift changes that made it more difficult to do a part time job. I baby sat for a few years – and knew I couldn’t keep doing that. I then talked to my parents some and — here is the part of the story where I started to become them. My parents had started an embroidery business in the middle of my college years. I went with them to learn how to run the machines since they were computerized. So while struggling to figure out what work I could do on my own schedule and around my husband’s – my dad suggested bringing up one machine to test and see how it would go.

I made an investment in a computer and embroidery software (2005) and wondered what in the world was I doing? We started with a small one-head machine with only six needles. This means I could only embroider one item at a time and have six different thread colors. We did lots of craft fairs and made tons of gifts for friends and family. Little by little, the word got out. My parents were trying to retire, so we purchased their four head machine from them as we were needing more capacity. Each year from that point on, we have gotten bigger, and bigger, and bigger. Our advertisement is mostly word-of-mouth referrals.

Every year or so, we have purchased some new equipment that would be the trend for the time or something that could help us grow. These purchases include a rhinestone machine, new heat presses, a new six-head embroidery machine, a single head embroidery machine, a print cut machine, and our latest is a laser engraver!

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
With a business like this, we learn new things as we go. As we grew, we thought we needed more space, so we moved to our current place in 2012, and now we have outgrown that. At first, it was just me doing everything: Orders, producing, and packaging. I started realizing I couldn’t do it all myself, so I asked a friend to come, help count, sort, fold items, and she has been here for over 10 years. Mom of 3 now has two full-time employees, one part-time, and many many helpers along the way.

We have changed lots of things, but mostly how we do orders! We used to do paper order forms and spreadsheets of orders. Those were always hard to read because of people’s handwriting and the money never added up correctly. We now have a website for Mom of 3 and do tons of individual spirit stores for any group that wants one!

We also get orders from our Facebook page, website, email orders, Etsy orders, and just your old-fashioned over-the-phone orders.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about MOM OF 3 EMBROIDERY LLC?
We do so many different items. Of course, personalized items are always a gift people are looking for. Our specialty has always been spirit wear for teams and activities. We offer many logos on many different items and always let you personalize them. We can custom create logos for you or work with a specific design your company or school has. The possibilities are endless!

We also offer embroidery, screenprint, glitter, and now laser engraved items. We love many things, including first responders and baseball teams.

We produce all the clothing items for KCPD Friends and Family and do lots of different school groups. For baseball/softball we do team jerseys/spirit wear. We are a sports-loving family, so we support lots of local groups.

Our daughter figure skated at Line Creek Community Center – also happens to be where my husband and I met- so we do their club items and their synchronized skating team (Kansas City Illusion).

What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
We have plans to move to a building – still local but somewhere that is better suited for all our equipment! We see this happening in the next year or so when our youngest graduates from high school.

We will still be in the Liberty area since this is where people know us! The laser, our latest purchase we made this summer, will open up a whole new line of products we can offer.

I’m anxious to see where it heads. I would love to have a place where we could possibly do classes and help people learn this trade or have a space for groups to come and do a make and take.

Contact Info:

• Email: momof3emb@gmail.com
• Website: www.momof3embroidery.com
• Instagram: @momof3embroidery
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/momof3emb