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Bringing Together -
Local Businesses & Your Neighbors in SWFL
Good Neighbor Podcast Estero
EP # 246 The Creative Leap: Dr. Winny Wong's Journey to PrintSpark
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
it's time to check out your neighbors on the good neighbor podcast, where we bring good vibes, great neighbors and local businesses in southwest florida together.
Speaker 2:Here's your host, cabo jim shaller welcome good neighbors to episode number 246 of the good neighbor podcast. Today we have good neighbor dr winnie wong print spark Hi.
Speaker 3:Great to be here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Wonderful getting to know you a little bit more and sharing your story with our listeners. And let's start off by why don't you share a little bit about what you do over at Print Spark?
Speaker 3:Well, I am the owner of Print Spark. We do custom apparel, mainly apparel items like shirts and uniforms, but we also just moved into doing promotional items like flyers, stickers, brochures and laser engraved products as well. So we focus on making the process super easy. So we offer no design fees, no setup fees, super fast turnaround times and a really personalized service.
Speaker 2:That's what it's all about, right? Absolutely. So let's back up your story a little bit here. How did you get involved in all of this?
Speaker 3:So I actually started out as a pharmacist that's where my background is but during school I had a side hustle doing custom printing and I truly fell in love with the creativity and the hustle of it. So after a few years in pharmacy I took a leap and went all in on business and I've loved solving problems and building things. So Print Spark was really the natural next step.
Speaker 2:So you got to follow your passion. That's what it's all about, right?
Speaker 3:Exactly.
Speaker 2:So let's talk about maybe some of the challenges in that transition and maybe opening your own business. Are there any that you've faced?
Speaker 3:You know like leaving pharmacy was a big challenge for me. You know like it was walking away from the stability into uncertainty. You know there were definitely tough moments. So we're still fairly new. We're about four months open and you know it's the biggest challenges are just getting putting myself out there, going to the networking events, you know, meeting more people in the community and just kind of building that trust. You know, the trust in the community, the trust in myself, I have to, you know, stay really resourceful and, honestly, just I got to keep showing up, you know, every day, even though you know it's just hard, kind of getting you know what that next day will bring.
Speaker 2:Right, but you're the boss, you're the owner. So you know, when you get up in the morning I'm like I got to do this, nobody else is going to do it.
Speaker 3:Exactly.
Speaker 2:So you got that motivation for you going and you're doing great. So let's talk about the printing and the apparel industry. Are there any maybe myths or misconceptions surrounding what you do that we can maybe clear up for listeners today?
Speaker 3:Definitely can maybe clear up for listeners today. Definitely. I think people think that custom printing is super complicated or only for big companies, but we actually keep it super simple. You don't need a fancy logo or a big order. We'll help you from start to finish and make it and we make it super accessible for anyone, whether you need one shirt or 12 shirts or 500 shirts we take like that's the biggest thing about what I wanted to bring to this is you know, we'll help you design and we'll help you get it set up and all of that and we don't charge any additional fees. So no setup fees, no design fees and no minimums on our on our apparel design fees and no minimums on our apparel, so you can adjust as easily. If you need something like oh, I have a birthday party coming up and we'd love to do like a group shirt, we'll make it happen. You know, it's just about that access and the accessibility to custom printing for people.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and there's so many other businesses out there that say, well, if you don't meet our minimums, we can't do that for you, so it's nice to have somebody that can and actually offers customer service, right, yes, so let's talk about trending things in the industry. You know, maybe, things that you've only been at a short time, but obviously there's new things happening, yeah, New things in the industry.
Speaker 3:There's so much technology in printing now. You know I do the screen printing, I do a lot of the traditional type printing, but there's so many new gadgets and gizmos that are coming out that allow you to, you know, get full color prints. You know one-off prints and there's not as much set up into putting those together and that's why I can, you know, offer, you know, additional, like these free design or free minimums. You know, incorporating technology into the design process as well. So a lot of the times we do have designers on staff, but we'll get that quick inspiration from AI. You know AI can develop a quick design and we're like, oh, that works, and we'll take parts of those AI concepts and put them into a final design for you. So a lot of these things, a lot of technology, is really incorporated into our business to really give you that next level, that next. You know, you know the next level of technology for printing and enhancing that experience.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you mentioned AI and it's. You know, like you said, it's important, you know it's nice, you can start there, because in the beginning there's so many people that come to you with an idea in their head and then you do all this work and design something they're like no, that's not what I wanted Exactly. With AI it's a little bit easier to tweak, know, and then, after you get that concept and everything approved, then you can dial it in a little bit more with you exactly, we can get more options more different styles we can be like is is this what you're looking for?
Speaker 3:is this what you're looking for? At least we can get in the right direction and then we can put in in the work to to get it exactly where you have it, and it cuts that time down as well too, because design does take a long time.
Speaker 2:So, um, so, are you from a florida florida originally. I know you went to pharmaceutical school, but you are okay yes, so I was actually born and raised in southwest florida.
Speaker 3:I grew up in lehigh, um. I went to school at lehigh senior high. I was valedictorian at the time with 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 undergrad and then I went to University of Florida for pharmacy school as well at the Orlando campus, and then I moved back.
Speaker 2:See, so you must love Florida. You're staying around here, right?
Speaker 3:I've never. I've never lived outside of Florida, so I've I'm such a true Floridian that I've never even really seen snow. I've never experienced snow.
Speaker 2:So you know it's nice. One time I grew up in the snow and it's nice when it first snows, but after that you don't know, it's too cold and you have to shovel it and you wouldn't like it. Just go visit it, come back to Florida. So I know your job, especially being a business owner, can be very demanding of your time. Is there things that you do like to do outside of work to enjoy yourself?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean honestly, since I started, because we're in the early stages, I don't know that I've spent a lot of you know, fun time doing things, but you're networking networking, like I'm working during the day and then in my evenings I'm going out meeting more people, you know, and I find I find that to be fun, you know, like meeting the people, getting you know, having appetizers and drinks with people out in the evenings, but prior to this I mean I had gone. I do like I like sports, I like bowling, I go paddle boarding, you know, just all the Florida things.
Speaker 2: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, prince Spark, that maybe they wouldn't be too familiar with?
Speaker 3:I think that with Print Spark, I mean, we're local, so that's the biggest thing is that. You know I was realizing the other day. You know it's so weird to have that one-on-one connection now because you just go online order it. You know you just hope that everything is right and I think a lot of times people start to forget that there are local businesses out there. You know you can come in and chat with me and we can work together and build that relationship and you know, like I kind of forgot that there were local businesses and going and meeting local business owners, building that community Like that's something that I really want to like do more of for myself, for other business owners, and you know I really want to encourage other people to support local businesses.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. We need to stay close, we need to stay tight and, like you said, you never know who your neighbor is they probably own a business but you don't know and you want to support them because they're in the same community. So, no, I love, I love your concept. I love the idea of what you're doing. How would our listeners go about getting a hold of you if they had some questions or wanted to learn more?
Speaker 3:You can check out our website. It's www. printspark. com. Or you can give us a call 239-935-8035. Or follow us on socials on Instagram or Facebook Print Spark Apparel. Follow us on socials are on an Instagram or Facebook. Print spark apparel, um, and if you're in Fort Myers, come by to our shop and we're always happy to help brainstorm with you.
Speaker 2:Very good, any last words for our listeners today.
Speaker 3:Uh, it was really great being here, you know. I hope that you guys learned a little bit about printing and don't be afraid to create something custom that you love.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Thank you for being such a good neighbor. It's been a pleasure to get to know you. Hope to see you on the community, probably networking soon, right?
Speaker 3:Absolutely. See you soon.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast, bringing together good vibes, great neighbors, local businesses in Southwest Florida. No-transcript.