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Our guest today is a business owner and clothing designer growing an online clothing business, creating sophisticated clothing and modern designs with an ethnic flair. Before that she retired from a long and successful career as a healthcare administrator, where she was an expert in healthcare management, staff development and practiced operations and major hospital systems in New York City.
She's the proud owner of Seams NYC. Without further ado,Sara Crique.
Thank you for having me pleasure to be here with you
Well thank you for being on now. Sarah, can you
take a few moments and fill in the gaps from that intro and bring us up to speed with what's going on in your world.
Sure, sure. So as you said, I retired last year from a very long career in Healthcare Administration. Healthcare Operations. I soon moved into, creating a new business for myself, that I started sometime at the end of last year. And it's been a whirlwind. , new ideas and just trying to get a handle on what it's like to be an entrepreneur, as opposed to a I'm a senior manager, at different institutions.
It's settling in now. So, I'm doing well and it's going really well.
Now you mentioned the adjustment from being a long time employee to being an entrepreneur. Was there anyone in your family that was an entrepreneur or came from an entrepreneurial background?
Well, you know, I'm originally from the Dominican Republic and we came here when I was a teenager. My mother was a seam stress. And just like the immigrant communities, we're all learning. Really make, do and become business owners and entrepreneurs. So there's always that drive there, that fuels us.
And, this is what I sort of focus on and what I draw from, when I started my business and as we move along,
So my Mom was the seamstress and, she raised us, me and my siblings, , behind the sewing machine. And she, came here in her forties. I was a teenager, and she sewed for others. She designed for others. She worked outside the home, she sold clothing. She did a lot of different things.
That's the inspiration that I get from her. She lived a very long life. She lived till the age of 97. And until she was about 90. She was still sewing and making things for other people in her community.
Oh, wow. One of those people that probably just doesn't know how to slow down.
She certainly didn't, you know,. I get this from her, where she was just running and running and running until she couldn't anymore. It was wonderful to have her as. Kind of like a mentor for lack of a better term. And that's someone who I looked up to, always. The people around us, - we were always trying to do the best we can.
I saw a lot of people in my life who really succeeded as entrepreneurs, as business owners.
Now you originally graduated from the State University of New York Empire State College. And then later on, went to attended Cornell University and graduated from there. Can you walk us through your career?
Sure. Sure. So I said earlier, I came here to the United States as a teenager. We're always fueled to do well to do better than our ancestors, always striving to learn. The first thing I did was learn to speak English and, always wanting a better life. So I went through, starting to work in different careers.
Eventually went to college. I felt I needed a college degree. I graduated from, Empire State College with a degree in Business Management and Economics. And that took me through a lot of my work life and a lot of my career. And later on, I wanted to develop a new skills in terms of Staff Management, Staff Development, Training, Human Resources.
So I took several courses and certificate programs at Cornell University. Then I was later certified as a Human Resources Expert to be able to train staff and to be able to do that. I actually wanted when I retired to become a trainer and to do a staffing and some other things, but this took me in a different direction.
So my career was really, mostly healthcare and mostly the managing staff and really learning how to develop people to better themselves.
Would it be fair to say that you've kind of constantly reinvented yourself? Maybe not completely, but exploring new things.
exploring new things. So when you talk about entrepreneurship, so there was always something else that I was doing, always something that I wanted to try and sell things and create different businesses. Some of them were successful. Others were not.
