Hidden Gems: Meet Sophia Eldib of The fire factory ink

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sophia Eldib.

Sophia , we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Oh boy where do I begin LOL. To sum up a long story it all started being a young 14 year old girl who thought I was going to marry Lil Wayne. Safe to say ive always been delusional and like working for crazy goals!!

I was 18 years old freshly out of high school and it just so happened getting closer to what I had my eye on was right around the corner. My sister knew someone who worked for Trukfit (his brand at the time) and was hiring for an assistant. A call later and I ended up in a career I never knew would be my future. Clothes was always something I had been in, but never had a vision for what exactly my life calling was going to be.

To fast forward through those crazy years I ended up working my way up and developing my sales skills set and contracting with different clothing brands and selling directly to stores across the country. From there I ended up working closely with a brand here in LA and began getting more into production. People in my inner circle and surrounding always knew I was good at connecting the dots and making things happen and I kept developing more knowledge and connections from everything I learned! At this time im 23 years old managing a clothing store in the valley that I had worked with and I spent the next 3 years of my life building out that store! Running website, sales, customer interaction, production and all things that went with that!

Fast forward 3 years later and I kind of felt stuck, young 20’s I think you can be free not really have structure or a plan and I kind of felt like my time there was coming to an end but I still had NO clue what I wanted to do. While running the store, I continued getting random projects from people in my circle. Someone would have an idea, a brand, or something they wanted to create, and I would figure out how to make it happen. I was basically already doing what would eventually become my business, I just didn’t know there was a name for it yet.

Then here comes the pandemic. Its so weird because I can vividly remember exactly the day I was sitting at that store like I never want to come back here, and in a true Sophia fashion I did exactly what I said I was going to do.. which is never go back.

Around that same time, one of my best friends from high school introduced me to someone who had a brand and needed help. It was the same story I had heard so many times before.. she had an idea, she needed someone to execute it, and I made it happen. Except this order was HUGE. Like… WTF huge. Big brands I worked with for the last years at this point weren’t even running orders that big and I thought if I actually was able to produce this instead of sending this to be produced that would be a successful operation

So June 2020 I got on craigslist and just so happened to stumble across a shop that was 3500 sq feet, had an automatic press, a manual, all the starter equipment and I jumped in head first! When I say I had no idea what was to come next things happened FAST! Im freshly 26 years old, thrown into something that you can only take day by day and fight fires as they come (which I have learned I am extremely good at) I had no printing experience, never have employed anyone and the list of things I didn’t know was probably longer than the list of things I did.

There are a million stories within those six years, how I came up with the name The Fire Factory, the relationships I’ve built, the clients I’ve somehow managed to get in the room with, the projects that felt impossible until we pulled them off, and all of the lessons that came with building a business while simultaneously learning how to be a business owner

But I think the simplest way to explain how I got here is that I kept connecting the dots, making things happen, applying myself, wiping my tears and figuring it the f*ck out, which eventually became a business model!

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
absolutely not 😂😂😂 I cant even begin with how many things happened but I have a note in my phone that I can refer too. Id say the HARDEST thing which was always the root of my problem is trying to run an entire operation without capital. Literally circling the same money in and out I was on a hamster wheel for forever

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about The fire factory ink?
The fire factory is a one stop shop for all branding needs! We specialize in taking a clients idea and bringing it to life. what separates us from others is we lead with ethical business, we guide customers in the right way and dont just oversell. were here to produce good product which leads to our clients producing good product. theres so many places you can print and go to but no one cares about your sh*rt more than we do. We build relationships, make things fun, help guide with the knowledge we have and have returning clients for a reason. any client I have ever had has ordered from me again and has referred me to someone and that speaks volumes especially in the industry im in which is usually gate kept

you can walk in the door with an idea in your brain and shorty after you can have a tangible product for whatever it is you need. we like what we do because we have customers from every background. we have clients who own gyms, we have clients who play in the NBA, clients that build satellites for space, the list of who we get to sit with is tight

Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
I religiously listen to podcasts of people in my same industry. The printavo print hustlers is my favorite, I also like one called the shirt show and I read a lot. I have a few mentors in the industry that have drastically helped guide me with decisions and listen to me complain/vent and my family being a support system helps too!!

Pricing:

• Really depends on what the job is but im no different than your average person in the industry!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thefirefactoryink.com
• Instagram: @thefirefactoryink