walked up,” said Natasha. “I asked him what he did, and he said he was making pens to help pay his way through school. At first, I thought he was talking about pins like you put on your shirt.” “I told her, ‘If you’ve got ABOVE Natasha and Michael moved to this area from North Carolina where they decided to start their own business together. a minute, I’ll show you,’” said Michael. He brought back a case of the most beautiful handmade writing pens she’d ever seen. “She said, ‘I could sell those for you, no problem. We’d only just met. I thought she was just going to take them and disappear.” But a few days later, Natasha brought him the money for the pens she’d sold. “The pens are what brought us together,” said Natasha, smiling. “I took his pens to festivals and craft shows in the area. I’d set up a tent and a table and sell the pens he made.” By the time Michael was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, the pain in his feet had become unbearable. “He could hardly walk,” said Natasha. “Nerves in his feet were already damaged at that point from neuropathy. We knew he was not going to be able to stand at a machine for hours at a time.” They’d followed their dream down to Georgia but knew their retirement funds would only last so long. “We had to do something, so we decided to take the money we had left and invest it in a business,” said Natasha. The question was, what kind of business? Natasha had some experience with embroidery as a hobby, and Michael could still make his pens. It was a start. “If you’d asked me if I was ever going to do embroidery, I would have told you, ‘Absolutely not,’” said Michael. “But embroidery machines,” which are used to create patterns on textiles, “work off the same axis as CNC milling machines.” Even though it wasn’t the career in machining for which he’d planned, he couldn’t have been more prepared for this moment if he had planned for it. Mina’s Embroidery and More LLC opened for business on August 31, 2015, in Vidalia. “Michael’s sister came up with the name by blending the first letters of our names together,” said Natasha. “It’s become my name to customers at the store.” Michael and Natasha had two things going for them: the determination to work hard and a willingness to learn. Michael had always worked on the principle that if he didn’t know how to do something, he didn’t stand back and wait for someone else. He learned. “I figured I wasn’t hired to be a monkey to do one thing. That’s just not me,” said Michael. Mina’s Embroidery and More quickly added new products 52 Toombs County Magazine
20204RD
To see the actual publication please follow the link above