In-home business grows into Main Street firm

By BROOKS TAYLOR

Mt. Pleasant News

Thirteen years ago, Joni Manske purchased a small embroidery machine and began producing embroidered and silk-screened clothing from her home during evenings and weekends.

Fast forward to 2011 and Manske not only has made her business, ?Anywear Apparel,? a full-time job but has moved the business from her home to a storefront (120 S. Main St.) in downtown Mt. Pleasant.

?The business was outgrowing my home and I wanted to hire some employees,? Manske explained. ?I just wanted to expand uptown and wanted to have some retail space.?

Anywear Apparel has an extensive selection of what Manske terms ?fan wear,? ranging from t-shirts and polos to jackets, shorts and sweatshirts and most things in between.

School fan wear occupies most of the stock with Manske featuring plenty of items bearing the logos of Mt. Pleasant, Winfield-Mt. Union and New London. She also carries some Iowa and Iowa State wear as well as gift items featuring all of the aforementioned schools.

Manske also does custom orders of embroidery and screen printing, handling accounts such as the Henry County Health Center, Great River Medical Center, Mac?s Sporting Goods in Burlington, the Mediapolis Booster Club and several other schools. Most of her longtime customers are from Iowa and Illinois.

Another reason for her move to a building was for display space. ?I never had any room to display anything when I ran the business out of my home, and the Mt. Pleasant, W-MU and New London school apparel is new because now I can display it.?

She employs four part-time employees including a graphic artist.

Manske said her business has doubled since she began it and expects the storefront exposure to increase it even more. ?Basically, I just relied on ?word of mouth? advertising before and now I have display area. I have had a very good response thus far. People have been very positive and I have had great help and support from the downtown merchants.?

Prior to becoming a full-time business owner, she was a social worker at Great River Medical Center and also worked for the juvenile court services.

Anywear Apparel is open from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Friday and from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on Saturdays. Phone number for the business is 319-986-5885.