Profile

To start, who is Mike Gibson (laugh)?
Well that’s a good place to start! From Mentor, Ohio (outside of Cleveland), married to a lovely wife and have two beautiful younger children. My conventional profession is being a Fire Fighter/EMT, my wife works for the school board so we are pretty busy. I now consider myself a little bit of an entrepreneur after I started our home-based business, Professional Threads. Both of us still work but my goal is to create enough income with the business for my wife to work less if she wants to, not because she has to.

How did your business get started and why?
As a professional Firefighter/EMT, my schedule has me working several consecutive days on and off. During my days off I was looking for an opportunity to supplement the family income. I needed something that was flexible that could work around my schedule and being my own boss seemed like a good idea.

What made you choose decorated apparel?
I could operate the business out of my basement. There are no dangerous chemicals needed which is important for me since I have two small children. Embroidery has a high-perceived value and I thought it would be profitable.