The Experience Behind A & M Customs

The 15-year journey that helped shape A & M Customs

In our last blog, we introduced you to A & M Customs and explained how our business came about.

But before there was A & M Customs, there was a much longer journey.

Before starting our own business, I spent approximately 15 years working for a company in the same industry. Those years gave me the opportunity to learn how the business worked from the ground up, and eventually helped give me the skills and experience to start A & M Customs ourselves.

It Started With Products

When I first started working there, the business was primarily focused on products that were bought in and then listed for customers to purchase.

My role initially involved working on the listing side of the business. At that stage, it was all about getting products in front of customers and making sure they were presented properly.

But as the business developed, so did the opportunities.

Moving Into Personalisation

A couple of years later, the business started moving into personalisation.

Mugs became one of the products we began working with, and we started bringing in the equipment and printers needed to produce personalised items ourselves.

This changed things considerably.

Instead of simply selling products that had already been made, we could now create something specifically for an individual customer.

A photograph could become a mug.

A message could become part of a design.

A customer’s idea could become a finished product.

That was where I really started developing an interest in the creative side of the business.

Discovering the Design Side

As the personalisation side grew, my role developed with it.

I became involved in designing and creating products that could be sold to customers.

Some were standard designs that customers could simply choose and buy, while others were created so that customers could add their own personal details.

This meant learning how to create designs that didn’t just look good on a screen, but also worked when they were actually produced onto a physical product.

That practical side of design is something that has been incredibly useful ever since.

Working With Customer Designs

It wasn’t only about the designs we created ourselves.

Customers also began sending in their own designs for us to produce. That meant working with a huge variety of artwork, ideas and requirements.

Some customers knew exactly what they wanted. Others had an idea that needed a little work to turn it into something suitable for the product they had chosen.

Being able to work with both became an important part of what I did.

Learning the Whole Process

Over those 15 years, I gained experience across many different parts of the business.

I learned about products and listings, but also about artwork, design, personalisation, printing and production.

Most importantly, I learned that the process doesn’t stop once a design has been created.

You have to think about how that design will work on the actual product. You need to consider things such as positioning, colours, images and layout.

When you’re producing something personalised for a customer, those details really matter.

15 Years Later

I eventually spent around 15 years working for the company. That’s a long time, and during those years I gained experience that I don’t think I would have been able to get anywhere else.

I saw how the industry developed and had the opportunity to develop my own skills alongside it. I also discovered that I genuinely enjoyed the creative and practical side of the work.

Then, after all those years, the owners made the decision to close the company.

It was the end of an era, but it also presented an opportunity.

Turning Experience Into Something New

By that point, I had years of experience behind me.

I knew how to create designs. I knew how to prepare artwork. I knew how to work with personalisation equipment. I understood the production process.

And I knew how much work went into turning an idea into a finished product.

So when the company closed, my family and I started asking ourselves a simple question:

Why don’t we do it ourselves?

That question eventually led to A & M Customs.

The Next Chapter

Starting A & M Customs meant taking everything I’d learned over those years and building something of our own.

We could take the experience, knowledge and skills we’d developed and use them to create a business that combined personalised products, our own designs and the opportunity for customers to bring their own ideas to us.

And that’s where the next part of our story begins.