NORTH CARROLLTON — Southern Prints, a screen printing business, continues to expand its operation in its new location in North Carrollton, on George Street across from Rayburn Trading Center.
After working from their home for more than three years, Cathy and Phil Costilow decided it was time to move to a storefront and expand the business.
Cathy does all of the smaller items such as T-shirts. Phil, who is chief security officer for Viking Range, helps her with signs and banners.
“He goes in at 5 and gets off at 1, so he’s able to help then,” Cathy said.
Before deciding to open her own business, Costilow taught preschoolers at St. John’s Pre-School in Greenwood for five years. She wanted to do something that would allow her to be with her two sons, 11-year-old Taylor and 5-year-old Tanner.
“Phil looked into screen printing and told me he felt it was something I could make some money with and still be with the boys,” she said.
She agreed, and after learning how to do screen printing, she started in a 10-foot-by-12-foot shop at her house.
“We then doubled the size of the building. After the two boys were both in school, then I felt I could expand,” Costilow said. “When the Hopkins bought the building and remodeled it, we saw it as a good possibility for us. We decided to take the plunge and move to town.”
They opened at the current location in August and continue to expand their inventory.
Now that Lori Hopkins has built her beauty shop just behind the Southern Prints building, she feels she will get more walk-in business. “Just yesterday, I got a customer who came in after going to the beauty shop,” she said.
Costilow does many of her own designs and also works up the designs of others. In additions to T-shirts, signs and banners, she personalizes “almost anything, including purses, cake keepers, glasses, car tags, and other objects,” she said.
Besides custom orders, Southern Prints has a number of ready-made gift items.
The community has been very supportive thus far, Costilow said: “We have done a lot of team shirts, Vacation Bible Schools, local law enforcement and schools.”
She also hopes to do more family reunion shirts with her more visible location.
Costilow says she enjoys the work very much and plans to continue “as long as the community supports us.” She hopes that will be a very long time.
