10/08/2026
10 Years of JEK Services Co. â From a Hobby to Something We Never Imagined
Ten years ago, I started a company because I needed a hobby. That was it. No business plan, no dreams of building some big operation, and certainly no idea that a decade later, Iâd be sitting here writing about how that little hobby completely changed our lives.
At the time, I was working full-time for an environmental emergency response company. We had recently moved to Knoxville, and outside of work, I didnât have much going on. Before that, I had been a full-time firefighter and spent my days off volunteering. I was used to staying busy, and I needed something to occupy my time.
So, naturally, I decided to buy equipment I knew absolutely nothing about.
I found a US Cutter MH-871 vinyl plotter on sale, brought it home, and started teaching myself how to make decals.
And let me tell you, those first attempts were absolutely atrocious.
I was making simple decals for friends and family, learning through trial and error, and probably wasting more vinyl than I was actually using. But after a few months, something clicked. I started getting pretty good at it. I learned how to calibrate the machine, adjust blade offsets, work with different materials, and understand the differences between vinyl manufacturers.
Then I had another idea.
Everybody loves stickers. Why not make stickers?
The problem was that I didnât have a printer designed for making them, and my vinyl cutter wasnât capable of reading registration marks for print-and-cut work.
But Iâm stubborn, and I like figuring things out.
I found printable vinyl that would work with my regular inkjet printer. Then I figured out how to modify my vinyl cutter by soldering a 5V laser dot into the solenoid and mounting it so I could create and align registration marks.
Suddenly, I could print and cut my own stickers.
I thought I was ready to take over the world.
The internet quickly humbled me.
I started listing stickers and decals on eBay, and the initial feedback was brutal. Our inkjet stickers werenât remotely close to industry standards, some of our designs needed serious work, and customers werenât shy about letting us know.
It was a gut check. I actually lost interest for a little while.
But again, Iâm stubborn.
Instead of quitting, I started fixing things. Better print quality, better designs, better materials, and most importantly, being completely honest about what we were selling.
Our stickers werenât outdoor-rated. If you put one on your car, it was going to fade. So I made sure our listings said exactly that, in multiple places.
Over time, the reviews improved, the products got better, and the little hobby started bringing in a few extra dollars.
For the next several years, thatâs exactly what it was. A fun side project that made a little money.
Then 2020 happened.
Four years after starting the business, I accepted a management position with another company to help open a new local branch.
Nine days after I was hired, the COVID shutdowns began.
I was trying to navigate opening a new branch during a pandemic while, apparently, everyone sitting at home had discovered online shopping.
Our little sticker business exploded.
There was no way I could keep up with my career responsibilities and spend every afternoon printing, cutting, and packaging stickers.
Thatâs when my wife stepped in.
And she didnât just help. She jumped in with both feet.
She learned how to print, cut, package orders, manage our online listings, and create new products. What started as a few hours a day eventually turned into her running the shop while I was at work.
Then we decided to try embroidery.
We purchased a 15-needle commercial embroidery machine, and once again, we were getting into something neither of us knew much about.
My approach was pretty simple: Turn it on, load a design, and letâs make this thing sew.
Her approach was to actually take the training courses, learn how to digitize designs, and understand how to operate the machine properly.
Iâll give you one guess whose approach worked better.
Over the next four years, we continued growing. Nothing crazy, nothing overnight, just steady progress. We had built something that was legitimately bringing in additional income.
Then, in 2024, everything changed.
I lost my job.
After years of building a career, working my way through management, and putting everything I had into an industry, it was suddenly gone.
I was furious.
I resented the industry, the uncertainty, and the feeling that everything Iâd worked toward could disappear regardless of how much effort I put into it.
I sat at home wondering whether I even wanted to find another job in that field. Did I really want to climb back onto that roller coaster and go through it all again?
Eventually, I made a decision.
If I was going to ride a roller coaster, the ups and downs were going to be on my own terms.
So I took a gamble.
I emptied my savings and retirement accounts and invested everything into expanding our little sticker and embroidery shop.
Was it risky? Absolutely.
Was I terrified? You bet.
But I also knew that if we were going to make this work, we had to stop treating it like a hobby and start running it like a business.
My wife would handle production. She had already spent years doing it and was exceptionally good at it.
I would focus on developing products, creating designs, expanding our customer base, and figuring out how to market ourselves beyond eBay.
We got some big wins early, but there was still a mountain to climb.
One of those wins was a contract to produce campaign hats for the 2024 election.
We quickly sold more than our embroidery machine could possibly produce.
So we ordered another machine.
Then we found a third one locally.
For months, our lives revolved around embroidery machines. We were loading hats, changing thread, trimming, packaging, and shipping for 18â20 hours a day. Sometimes we slept in shifts just to keep everything running.
It was exhausting, but it was working.
There was just one problem.
What happens when the election is over?
We knew that business was going to slow down dramatically. Campaign merchandise wasnât going to sustain us forever, and I spent plenty of nights lying awake trying to figure out our next move.
We decided to try laser engraving.
Leather patch hats were incredibly popular, and we thought we could get into that market before it became oversaturated.
We traded one of our smaller embroidery machines for a laser engraver, and I started learning another completely unfamiliar piece of equipment.
Different materials, different settings, different techniques, and a whole lot of trial and error.
Eventually, we figured out how to make some really nice leather patch hats.
And they didnât sell.
Seriously.
To this day, I still have a ridiculous amount of hat inventory tucked away for the occasional order.
But something interesting happened.
People didnât necessarily want the hats. They wanted the patches.
That little discovery changed everything.
We started figuring out how to make standalone embroidered patches. Then we experimented with engraving leatherette into patches. We added VELCROÂŽ Brand hook backing so customers could attach them to their gear.
Then we took our printable canvas material and developed printed morale patches with embroidered edges.
Suddenly, we had three different ways to make morale patches: embroidered, engraved, and printed.
And people loved them.
Customers who didnât want to buy an entire hat could now get the designs they liked as individual patches.
Our little shop took off again.
We were selling stickers, decals, embroidered hats, leather patch hats, and now an expanding lineup of morale patches.
We had finally found a product line that made sense for our equipment, our creativity, and our customers.
Somewhere along the way, I also discovered AI.
Holy moly. Here was something that could potentially take hours of design work and reduce it to seconds!
Or so I thought.
My excitement faded pretty quickly when I realized just how terrible some AI-generated artwork could be, especially when you actually needed a clean, usable production design.
I still have a few of those early AI designs listed, mostly as a reminder of how far the technology and our own design process have come.
I still use AI today. Itâs fantastic for brainstorming, visualizing ideas, experimenting with layouts, and helping work through creative problems.
Itâs also pretty good at taking a ridiculously long story like this and turning it into something people might actually finish reading.
Then, in 2025, we launched our website.
For years, eBay had been an important part of our business and continues to be one of the places customers can find us. But we wanted to create something that was truly our ownâa place where we could showcase our full product line, tell our story, and give customers another way to shop with us.
Launching the website was a big step. It gave us more control over how we presented our products and allowed us to build a home for the business beyond a marketplace platform.
Around the same time, we also decided it was time for a new name and identity.
JEK Services Co. became JEK Supply & Printing.
The old name and logo had served us well, but the truth is that they were pretty basic. My design skills werenât exactly the best when I came up with the original logo, and as the business grew, the branding no longer reflected who we were or what we offered.
The new name better represents what we do today. Weâre still the same people, with the same commitment to our customers, but JEK Supply & Printing feels more professional, more focused, and more aligned with the products we create.
We still have our eBay page, too. It remains an important part of our business and gives customers another convenient way to shop with us.
So, where are we today?
What started with a single vinyl cutter in 2016 has turned into a shop filled with equipment I never imagined weâd own.
Today, we have a commercial eco-solvent printer, three commercial embroidery machines (including the one I eventually bought back after trading it for the laser), multiple laser engravers for different materials, several heat presses, a Merrow machine for finishing patch borders, and a commercial sewing machine for producing name tapes.
And somewhere in all that equipment is the same idea that started this whole thing ten years ago.
Make something. Learn something. Figure out how to make it better.
Weâve had products fail. Weâve wasted materials. Weâve bought equipment that didnât work out the way we expected. Weâve made mistakes that cost us money, and weâve had more than a few days when we wondered what in the world we were doing.
But every one of those experiences taught us something.
Taking that gamble in 2024 was one of the best decisions Iâve ever made.
Not because it was easy. It absolutely wasnât.
But because we built something that belongs to us.
I couldnât have done any of this without my amazing wife. She has been there through every ridiculous idea, every new piece of equipment, every late-night production run, and every moment when I decided we needed to try something else.
Sheâs the reason so many of those ideas actually became products.
Weâve also been incredibly fortunate to build relationships with suppliers who have become some of our closest friends. People who have helped us learn, grow, and figure things out along the way.
And of course, none of this would exist without our customers.
The people who bought those early stickers. The ones who gave us another chance after we improved. The customers who have ordered from us repeatedly, recommended us to their friends, and supported our little business as it grew.
Today, our business is debt-free, continuing to grow, and operating on our own terms.
Those late-night worries about what we were going to do next have finally started to fade.
Weâre not trying to become some massive corporation. Weâre not trying to be the biggest shop in the country.
We just want to make great products, sell them at fair prices, take care of our customers, and enjoy what we do.
And somehow, ten years after buying a cheap vinyl cutter because I was bored, thatâs exactly what weâve managed to build.
Itâs funny how life works.
Sometimes losing what you thought was your future turns out to be the push you needed to build a better one.
Hereâs to 10 years of JEK Services Co., the next chapter of JEK Supply & Printing, and to whatever crazy idea comes next.
Thank you to everyone who has been part of the journey. We genuinely couldnât have done it without you.
