Dr. Winny Wong's journey from pharmacist to business owner exemplifies the courage it takes to follow your passion. Born and raised in Southwest Florida, this former Lehigh Senior High valedictorian built a successful career in pharmacy, all while nurturing a side hustle in custom printing. Eventually, the creative calling became too strong to ignore, leading her to establish Print Spark just four months ago.
Print Spark is challenging industry norms by making custom apparel and promotional items genuinely accessible to everyone. Unlike competitors who enforce strict minimum orders and complex fee structures, Dr. Wong's business offers a refreshingly simple approach: no design fees, no setup fees, and no minimum orders required. Whether you need a single shirt for a birthday celebration or hundreds for a corporate event, Print Spark delivers the same personalized attention and quality result.
Technology plays a fascinating role in their process. While maintaining traditional printing methods, Print Spark incorporates cutting-edge innovations including AI-assisted design. This blend of personal service and technological advancement allows them to generate initial concepts quickly, refine them collaboratively with clients, and produce high-quality custom apparel and promotional materials with remarkable efficiency. Beyond shirts and uniforms, they've expanded into flyers, stickers, brochures, and laser-engraved products.
As Dr. Wong reminds us, there's something special about working with a local business—having face-to-face conversations, building relationships, and supporting your community's economy. In an era dominated by faceless online ordering, Print Spark offers a refreshing alternative where Southwest Florida residents can collaborate directly with a fellow community member. Ready to create something custom you'll love? Visit their Fort Myers shop, check out printspark.com, or call 239-935-8035 to experience the Print Spark difference for yourself.
Print Spark
Dr. Winny Wong
17222 Alico Center Rd, Unit 3 Fort Myers, FL 33967
(239) 935-8035
info@printspark.com
printspark.com
Episode Transcript
it's time to check out your neighbors on the good
neighbor podcast, where we bringgood vibes, great neighbors and
local businesses in southwestflorida together.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Here's your host, cabo jim shaller welcome good
neighbors to episode number 246of the good neighbor podcast.
Today we have good neighbor drwinnie wong print spark Hi.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Great to be here.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Yeah, Wonderful getting to know you a little bit
more and sharing your storywith our listeners.
And let's start off by whydon't you share a little bit
about what you do over at PrintSpark?
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Well, I am the owner of Print Spark.
We do custom apparel, mainlyapparel items like shirts and
uniforms, but we also just movedinto doing promotional items
like flyers, stickers, brochuresand laser engraved products as
well.
So we focus on making theprocess super easy.
So we offer no design fees, nosetup fees, super fast
(00:58):
turnaround times and a reallypersonalized service.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
That's what it's all about, right?
Absolutely.
So let's back up your story alittle bit here.
How did you get involved in allof this?
Speaker 3 (01:11):
So I actually started out as a pharmacist that's
where my background is butduring school I had a side
hustle doing custom printing andI truly fell in love with the
creativity and the hustle of it.
So after a few years inpharmacy I took a leap and went
all in on business and I'veloved solving problems and
(01:31):
building things.
So Print Spark was really thenatural next step.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
So you got to follow your passion.
That's what it's all about,right?
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
So let's talk about maybe some of the challenges in
that transition and maybeopening your own business.
Are there any that you've faced?
Speaker 3 (01:51):
You know like leaving pharmacy was a big challenge
for me.
You know like it was walkingaway from the stability into
uncertainty.
You know there were definitelytough moments.
So we're still fairly new.
We're about four months openand you know it's the biggest
(02:12):
challenges are just gettingputting myself out there, going
to the networking events, youknow, meeting more people in the
community and just kind ofbuilding that trust.
You know, the trust in thecommunity, the trust in myself,
I have to, you know, stay reallyresourceful and, honestly, just
I got to keep showing up, youknow, every day, even though you
(02:34):
know it's just hard, kind ofgetting you know what that next
day will bring.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Right, but you're the boss, you're the owner.
So you know, when you get up inthe morning I'm like I got to
do this, nobody else is going todo it.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
So you got that motivation for you going and
you're doing great.
So let's talk about theprinting and the apparel
industry.
Are there any maybe myths ormisconceptions surrounding what
you do that we can maybe clearup for listeners today?
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Definitely can maybe clear up for listeners today.
Definitely.
I think people think thatcustom printing is super
complicated or only for bigcompanies, but we actually keep
it super simple.
You don't need a fancy logo ora big order.
We'll help you from start tofinish and make it and we make
it super accessible for anyone,whether you need one shirt or 12
(03:23):
shirts or 500 shirts we takelike that's the biggest thing
about what I wanted to bring tothis is you know, we'll help you
design and we'll help you getit set up and all of that and we
don't charge any additionalfees.
So no setup fees, no designfees and no minimums on our on
our apparel design fees and nominimums on our apparel, so you
(03:45):
can adjust as easily.
If you need something like oh,I have a birthday party coming
up and we'd love to do like agroup shirt, we'll make it
happen.
You know, it's just about thataccess and the accessibility to
custom printing for people.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Absolutely, and there's so many other businesses
out there that say, well, ifyou don't meet our minimums, we
can't do that for you, so it'snice to have somebody that can
and actually offers customerservice, right, yes, so let's
talk about trending things inthe industry.
You know, maybe, things thatyou've only been at a short time
, but obviously there's newthings happening, yeah, New
(04:25):
things in the industry.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
There's so much technology in printing now.
You know I do the screenprinting, I do a lot of the
traditional type printing, butthere's so many new gadgets and
gizmos that are coming out thatallow you to, you know, get full
color prints.
You know one-off prints andthere's not as much set up into
(04:48):
putting those together andthat's why I can, you know,
offer, you know, additional,like these free design or free
minimums.
You know, incorporatingtechnology into the design
process as well.
So a lot of the times we dohave designers on staff, but
we'll get that quick inspirationfrom AI.
(05:08):
You know AI can develop a quickdesign and we're like, oh, that
works, and we'll take parts ofthose AI concepts and put them
into a final design for you.
So a lot of these things, a lotof technology, is really
incorporated into our businessto really give you that next
level, that next.
You know, you know the nextlevel of technology for printing
(05:31):
and enhancing that experience.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Yeah, and you mentioned AI and it's.
You know, like you said, it'simportant, you know it's nice,
you can start there, because inthe beginning there's so many
people that come to you with anidea in their head and then you
do all this work and designsomething they're like no,
that's not what I wanted Exactly.
With AI it's a little biteasier to tweak, know, and then,
after you get that concept andeverything approved, then you
(05:55):
can dial it in a little bit morewith you exactly, we can get
more options more differentstyles we can be like is is this
what you're looking for?
Speaker 3 (06:05):
is this what you're looking for?
At least we can get in theright direction and then we can
put in in the work to to get itexactly where you have it, and
it cuts that time down as welltoo, because design does take a
long time.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
So, um, so, are you from a florida florida
originally.
I know you went topharmaceutical school, but you
are okay yes, so I was actuallyborn and raised in southwest
florida.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
I grew up in lehigh, um.
I went to school at lehighsenior high.
I was valedictorian at the timewith the highest GPA in the
record of the county.
You know not to be boastful,but I grew up here and I went to
UF in Gainesville for undergradand then I went to University
(06:48):
of Florida for pharmacy schoolas well at the Orlando campus,
and then I moved back.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
See, so you must love Florida.
You're staying around here,right?
Speaker 3 (06:57):
I've never.
I've never lived outside ofFlorida, so I've I'm such a true
Floridian that I've never evenreally seen snow.
I've never experienced snow.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
So you know it's nice .
One time I grew up in the snowand it's nice when it first
snows, but after that you don'tknow, it's too cold and you have
to shovel it and you wouldn'tlike it.
Just go visit it, come back toFlorida.
So I know your job, especiallybeing a business owner, can be
very demanding of your time.
(07:27):
Is there things that you dolike to do outside of work to
enjoy yourself?
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Yeah, I mean honestly , since I started, because we're
in the early stages, I don'tknow that I've spent a lot of
you know, fun time doing things,but you're networking
networking, like I'm workingduring the day and then in my
evenings I'm going out meetingmore people, you know, and I
find I find that to be fun, youknow, like meeting the people,
(07:54):
getting you know, havingappetizers and drinks with
people out in the evenings, butprior to this I mean I had gone.
I do like I like sports, I likebowling, I go paddle boarding,
you know, just all the Floridathings.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Right, that's why we live down here to be outside and
do that fun stuff, right, yeah,so is there one thing you wish
our listeners knew about, princeSpark, that maybe they wouldn't
be too familiar with?
Speaker 3 (08:28):
I think that with Print Spark, I mean, we're local
, so that's the biggest thing isthat.
You know I was realizing theother day.
You know it's so weird to havethat one-on-one connection now
because you just go online orderit.
You know you just hope thateverything is right and I think
(08:51):
a lot of times people start toforget that there are local
businesses out there.
You know you can come in andchat with me and we can work
together and build thatrelationship and you know, like
I kind of forgot that there werelocal businesses and going and
(09:18):
meeting local business owners,building that community Like
that's something that I reallywant to like do more of for
myself, for other businessowners, and you know I really
want to encourage other peopleto support local businesses.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Absolutely.
We need to stay close, we needto stay tight and, like you said
, you never know who yourneighbor is they probably own a
business but you don't know andyou want to support them because
they're in the same community.
So, no, I love, I love yourconcept.
I love the idea of what you'redoing.
How would our listeners goabout getting a hold of you if
they had some questions orwanted to learn more?
Speaker 3 (09:54):
You can check out our website.
It's www.
printspark.
com.
Or you can give us a call239-935-8035.
Or follow us on socials onInstagram or Facebook Print
Spark Apparel.
Follow us on socials are on anInstagram or Facebook.
Print spark apparel, um, and ifyou're in Fort Myers, come by
to our shop and we're alwayshappy to help brainstorm with
(10:15):
you.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Very good, any last words for our listeners today.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Uh, it was really great being here, you know.
I hope that you guys learned alittle bit about printing and
don't be afraid to createsomething custom that you love.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Absolutely.
Thank you for being such a goodneighbor.
It's been a pleasure to get toknow you.
Hope to see you on thecommunity, probably networking
soon, right?
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Absolutely.
See you soon.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor
Podcast, bringing together goodvibes, great neighbors, local
businesses in Southwest Florida.
No-transcript.
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