GARBER—When Jeri Fincher started selling t-shirts out of her home in the Fairmont area, she never dreamed her business would take off like it did.
“It started out as a side hobby to pay for date nights,” the owner of Custom Creations by Jeri said. She and hubby Randy married in 2014 and are raising her three children, daughter Kimber and twin sons Jordan and Corban.
Her apparel business—also known locally as Jeri’s—exploded two years in, so Fincher quit her full-time job to work from home as a graphic designer.
The main idea was to make individual items for people without requiring minimums for purchase. It’s an unusual business practice as most t-shirt shops expect customers to buy 10 or 12 shirts upfront plus pay a design fee too.
Fincher threw that concept of minimums and fees out the window because she said if she can help other small businesses or organizations make money, she can make money.
By not having minimums, she added, another company can purchase inventory that fits their needs, sell it, earn a profit, and in turn, buy from Jeri’s again and again. It’s a win-win.
Moving on up
Before long, Fincher had to find more space than her living room.
“I moved to the storefront in Garber when I outgrew my house,” Fincher said about her relocation in August 2021.
The move afforded her more opportunity too—not only could she design and customize apparel such as shirts, hats, and jackets, but she could now create and personalize merchandise including earrings, coasters, keychains, mugs, banners, and signs.
“There’s not much I don’t do,” Fincher said, adding perhaps the only thing she can’t tackle is car wraps.
She simultaneously added a second business called Jeri’s Sports in January 2022. The split allowed for her to focus on products specifically for schools’ fundraisers, team uniforms, and spirit gear.
There is never a dull moment, Fincher said. She doesn’t advertise because word of mouth alone keeps her busy, whether its regular customers or walk-ins that heard she could create items.
And she does it all from taking orders, designing, and creating to stocking inventory and producing the products.
“My hands are on every order,” she said. She previously had a full-time person working for her, but now just has a part-time employee, which she said is all she needs right now.
The flexibility of owning her own business permits Fincher to be as involved as much as she wants with her children’s education.
“My mom was active with me growing up,” she said, and now she can do the same with her three.
Since the 2023-24 school year, she also has been homeschooling one of the twins, Corban, now 13, due to his medical requirements and learning delays.
“This provides him with the resources he needs,” Fincher said, adding when he’s done with his studies, he helps her package orders or sort clothing.
Her other two children are active in band, athletics, and FFA, to name a few, meaning she is regularly running from one place to another for their extracurricular activities during the day and sometimes works late at night or early in the morning to accommodate orders.
All three of her kiddos have actively helped in the shop at one point or another in between school functions.
Kimber was given the option at 16 to work for her mother on the clock or somewhere else part-time; she lasted a month with Mom, Fincher kidded, before transferring to Dairy Queen on I-35 outside Billings.
Riding out the economy
Her husband, who has a full-time job of his own, is very supportive of Jeri’s, she recounted, adding that he often tells her, “We’ll make it work.”
The former accountant said she worries a little about what’s to come.
“Small businesses are closing their doors daily in Enid,” Fincher said, and the economy being what it is with tariff wars too, she’s wondering how it will impact her shop later this year.
At the start of the COVID pandemic in the spring of 2020, she went six weeks without a single order.
Fincher said, however, it was a blessing in disguise as she could focus on her children who were virtual learning in fifth grade, second grade, and first grade.
“That summer we got to spend a lot of time together as a family,” she said, lazing around the pool and playing on their 10 acres in the countryside.
When stimulus checks went out nationwide, orders piled in and Custom Creations by Jeri got three months’ worth of work within 24 hours, Fincher said. Boosted for the summer, she donated face masks to schools that fall and customized PPE gear with logos for schools and local companies.
“Business didn’t slow down after that,” she said. “I was still able to function normally (as a business) because I still worked from home at that time.”
Fincher chose to open her storefront in Garber, rather than Enid, the following year because it allowed her to be readily available for her kids who are in Garber Public Schools, as well as be actively involved in the Garber community.
Her husband is a native of the Garber area; she grew up in the Stillwater area. They first met as teens when she accompanied her uncle who raced at Enid Motor Speedway. The soon-to-be couple crossed paths again when the twins were 9 months old and have been together ever since.
“I’m happy where I’m at,” Fincher said.
She said she plans to keep her shop open in Garber for a minimum of five more years, at least until Jordan graduates from high school. Not to mention, the overhead is far less in the small rural town of 700 residents, she said, than Enid would be.
Fincher was initially terrified her storefront would fail, but it turned out the exact opposite. In fact, she said, her original business is 10 times bigger now than it was when she started.
“It was the best decision I ever made,” she said.
Custom Creations by Jeri and Jeri’s Sports, 318 Main, Garber, is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Individuals, businesses, schools, churches, clubs—”anybody for any reason”—can contact her by calling (405) 558-1150 or following her on Facebook @CCBJERI.