December 10, 2024
ElevateX Personal Shoot
Solitude Apparel
Jayson Ventura is a first year Marketing student from Clinton, MD. He started two businesses: ElevateX Agency and Solitiude Apparel.
"ElevateX Agency is a content agency that helps businesses and entrepreneurs elevate their social media presence through videos and much more! Solitude Apparel is a clothing brand that creates a community through fashion for people who feel like... outsiders wanting to grow and adapt to being different."
Describe the journey that led you to creating your business.
About ElevateX
"Ever since a kid I was always creating , drawing on clothes or shoes or customizing them in any way. I also was into photography and editing videos as a child aswell making multiple videos of me playing video games and taking pictures of my family when we went out. Later down the line I started thinking to myself how my father came to the US after the war in El Salvador and became an entrepreneur without knowing much English and being new in this country. His story inspired me and one day I was watching videos on other people who started their own brands and that’s when solitude was born."
About Solitude Apparel
"I would like to say I was always a creative. I always made videos, took photos and learned to edit. I used to use my parents camera and started offering photography services to people. I didn’t find much luck until one day I was driving and saw a car with a businesses sticker on it with their number and I cold called them to ask if they needed any photography services. From a photoshoot for them to making their content for social media. I grew my business from that day to retainers with other businesses and business owners. To this moment I have 3 people aside from me on the team to hopefully scale this agency in the 2025 year to even higher levels and be able to show others how to do the same."
What is most challenging about running your own business?
"Time management , delegation"
What do you love most about running your own business?
"I love the process of being able to solve problems and create relationships with clients. I also love designing new pieces for my clothing brand and shooting promotional videos for the brand."
What advice do you have for students who are interested in starting their own businesses?
"Just get started. You will not be perfect and you will fail but take the failures as lessons to adapt and overcome those mistakes."