Meet Cheyenne Franks of Kids and Kreatures Clothing Company

Today we’d like to introduce you to Cheyenne Franks

Hi Cheyenne , we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
As an alternative mom of two, I had a hard time finding clothing for my kids that I thought was cute, age appropriate, as well as affordable. This is a problem that I thought I could fix for other fashionably alternative parents finding themselves with the same issue. I first noticed this gap in the market when my husband and I attended a music festival. I wanted to get a souvenir to bring home to my kids. I was shocked when I couldn’t find anything, because it was an all ages event. The smallest shirt size available out of 200 vendors was an adult small. I said to my husband, “Someone should start making this stuff for kids.” His reply was “Okay, so do it.” and that is where the idea was born.

I did a full year worth of research and setting myself up for success financially, so that when the time came to quit my job and focus on this full time, my family would not suffer. Had I not done this, I think I would have failed by now. In addition to quitting my full time job to dedicate 100% of my focus on this business, we (my husband and I), made the tough decision to up root our lives and move to the other side of the state where the cost of living was more affordable. We knew that going from a two person income down to a single income to support a family of four was not going to be easy. Additionally, although I was working all day every day, most businesses are not profitable their first, and second years. I planned to not be profitable “Just in case” and financially, thats worked in my favor.

Showing my world my passion and putting myself out there for the world wide web to judge is what has gotten me where I am today. So many people ask me how to get started and my response is always the same. “Scare yourself.” You have to put yourself out there and do the scary things that push you beyond the limits of comfort. I challenge myself to do something scary each and every day and thats written the story so far.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
In the business world, the road is never smooth. I feel it takes a certain type of person to take the risks needed to find success. This goes back to the idea of “scaring yourself” that I mentioned earlier.
I’ve been open for business for about 3 years now and I have had months of great success and months of absolute stress and defeat.
For instance, the month of September I broke a record in sales for a single month. Hoping to carry that momentum into the month of October (one of my busiest months of the year), the machine I use to print my shirts unexpectedly broke which set me behind in orders and all of the money that I made from the previous month had to go towards fixing the machine. All of this is happening just two weeks before a large tattoo convention I am vending at as well. Stress, stress and more stress. Sometimes though, thats just the cost of doing business, and although I lay awake with many sleepless nights, this business is something I am extremely passionate about so I keep pushing forward.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Kids and Kreatures Clothing Company is an alternative clothing brand for all ages, specializing in babies/kids clothing. We maintain the slogan “Dare to be Different,” because we believe that all kids should be themselves, even if that makes them different. Sharing this encouragement is something that we are extremely proud of.

What sets us apart from other alternative clothing brands is affordability. Alternative clothes for kids are surprisingly hard to find, and typically when you do find them, they are not age appropriate and not affordable. As a mom of two, I personally will not pay $30 for a t shirt for either of my children just because it has a generic skull on it. Chances are, they will have it covered in popsicles by noon. Plus, kids grow fast.
If I personally would not buy something, I wouldn’t expect others to buy it either.
Additionally, we carry many matching Items so that kids can match their parents. This is something especially hard to find within the alternative community.

We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
Risk-Taking is the most important part of starting/owning a business. If you are too afraid to take the risks, you will fail. As I stated earlier, it takes a special kind of person to be a successful business owner. I had to walk away from my 10 year corporate career, where I planned to spend the rest of my life, to pursue this dream. I moved my family across the state. We went down to a single family income, and I put myself out there for the world to judge, all while doing the scariest thing Ive ever done in my life.
My successes are public, my failures are public, my life has now become public. Between all of my social media platforms, I have approximately 200k people watching me at all times. If I sneeze, it seems that they know about it. This can be an intimidating thing to do, but if you don’t put yourself out there, and if you don’t scare yourself, you cant reach the end goal.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://kidsandkreatures.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kidsandkreatures/
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@kidsandkreatures?_t=8zdq0krgusg&_r=1