Life & Work with Fressia Ramos of Palmdale

Today we’d like to introduce you to Fressia Ramos.

Hi Fressia, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Hello everyone, my name is Fressia, owner of Fressia Customs. We are a small embroidery business based in Los Angeles, more specifically in Palmdale California. A little bit of myself, I was born in San Diego and raised in Mexico. Since I remember, I have always had a passion for selling, like selling used clothes in markets to help my mother pay for our school needs. This is where I feel I got my passion for selling. Years later we moved to Palmdale, where my business emerged. My business was founded in August 2020, during the pandemic. Due to the quarantine, I decided to look for a hobby, I decided to start learning how to sew. At that time I was a senior in high school, where I won a scholarship and used that money to buy a sewing machine. Back then, scrunchies were trending, so I decided to sew some and sell them. When I first started, I went to a lot of pop ups, which helped me promote my products and also sold on Etsy. I started embroidering with a brother pe800, the embroidery frame was somewhat limited, and the machine was not fast enough which took more time to complete my orders. My first embroidery projects were mainly custom portraits, which is a picture embroidery. These were selling like pan caliente and my business was growing so I decided to buy a faster and bigger machine. I was very scared to buy my embroidery machine because it was my first big purchase. Later in 2021, I took the leap to finance my machine that I currently have, afraid to know if I would make enough to pay the monthly payments. During the course of my business, I have had collaborations with companies, which have helped my business, such as with the Nasty Gals in 2022, a billionaire birthday party in 2023, and with a university, Cal Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks. These achievements have made me feel proud of my hard work and made every moment worth it, even when things in my business do not go as I expected. And now this interview makes me feel in a way that I’m an example for other entrepreneurs. My faithful followers will know that I delivered my orders on an electric scooter for two years, that I even appeared on Google. Yes, the journey was very difficult but thanks to the collaborations and every purchase, I was able to buy my car in 2023. Currently, we focus more on custom orders and make themed sweatshirts for markets during the holidays. We don’t attend pop ups anymore as they are not profitable as before. This last year was a tough year for us since our orders decreased tremendously on Etsy which was my business main source of income. This took a toll on my mental health and business activity to the extent that I had decided to give up on my business. As the months passed by, I realized my business was not being promoted enough. I decided to start posting my embroidery services on Facebook marketplace which helped my business to get more sales and promotion. This taught me to be patient, take it day by day and try to promote my business anywhere I go. Even though my business is not as big as I want, I have to keep pushing and manifest that one day it will be big enough to be my main source of income. I want to thank everyone who has supported me somehow.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
This last year was a tough year for us since our orders decreased tremendously on Etsy which was my business main source of income. This took a toll on my mental health and business activity to the extent that I had decided to give up on my business. As the months passed by, I realized my business was not being promoted enough. I decided to start posting my embroidery services on Facebook marketplace which helped my business to get more sales and promotion. This taught me to be patient, take it day by day and try to promote my business anywhere I go. Even though my business is not as big as I want, I have to keep pushing and manifest that one day it will be big enough to be my main source of income. I want to thank everyone who has supported me somehow. -Fressia

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
We do custom portraits, picture embroidery in other words.

Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
Yes, always look at the positive side. Even though we were stuck for 1-2 years inside, something good came out of that, my business

Pricing:

• Pricing varies by design and size
• Small name embroidery $20 (not including product)
• Small business logo embroidery $25 (not including product)
• Market themed sweatshirt $35-$45
• Custom portraits (picture embroidery) $60-$75

Contact Info:

• Website: fressiascustoms.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fressiascustoms/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/fressiascustoms/
• Linkedin: https://linktr.ee/fressiascustoms?utm_source=linktree_profile_share&ltsid=683e7b3b-c702-498d-909a-5fa44bb34779
• Other: https://www.etsy.com/shop/Fressiascustoms

Image Credits
Fressia, Jcpenny Photos