SendCutSend isn’t Jim’s first business venture, but it’s the first business that he’s started with his wife, Erin. In this episode Jim and Erin discuss starting SendCutSend, the challenges and benefits that come with sharing a business and a life together, and how Erin’s background in teaching has lead her to success as the President of SendCutSend.
Jim and Erin met in their early twenties when Jim worked at Erin’s parents’ sign shop in Reno, Nevada. What began as an introduction arranged by Erin’s mother eventually led to marriage, and, over the years, to building businesses together. Early on, Jim intentionally left that first job to avoid the complications of dating the “boss’s daughter.” This decision foreshadowed their approach to balancing personal and professional life with intention and boundaries.
After college, Erin pursued a career as an elementary school teacher for nearly a decade before choosing to stay home and raise their children. In 2020, when the pandemic created a natural shift at home, she began spending time at SendCutSend, which was then a small team of six or seven people. Initially, she handled simple but essential tasks like ordering lunch, paying bills, and sorting mail. This gave her a window into every corner of the company’s operations. As the business grew, she gravitated toward finance, accounting, and HR, eventually stepping into the role of president.
The conversation highlights just how capital-intensive manufacturing has been compared to Jim’s prior experience running a software company. Unlike SaaS, where scaling is largely tied to engineering and digital distribution, building SendCutSend required millions of dollars in equipment, inventory, facilities, and skilled people. Equipment downtime was especially stressful, and in the early days the company sometimes ran payroll out of Jim and Erin’s own pockets.
Financing the business was another uphill battle. Banks and lenders were hesitant in the early years, often asking for four years of positive tax returns that a young company couldn’t yet provide. Erin became the steady hand in navigating these relationships, proving growth step by step, and returning to lenders consistently to show progress until they finally invested. Over time, she learned to leverage Jim’s ability to passionately “sell the story” of the business while she maintained and nurtured the long-term relationships with financial partners.
Another critical learning came from equipment failures. When a brand-new laser went down for weeks in the early days, the company’s limited redundancy almost brought operations to a halt. They quickly realized the necessity of having multiple machines and backup systems in order to maintain the fast turnarounds their customers expected.
Erin’s background in teaching deeply influenced her leadership style. She views her role as not only managing people but also developing them, much like students in a classroom. From hiring and onboarding to designing benefits and shaping company culture, she strives to build a workplace that values employees as individuals. Her close personal relationships with staff—knowing their families, strengths, and areas for improvement—create a strong sense of loyalty and community. Jim credits her with preventing the company from becoming overly corporate or ruthless, keeping balance between operational efficiency and human connection.
As a couple, the Belosics have found ways to work together without friction by staying in separate areas of the business. Jim focuses on production, logistics, and growth strategy, while Erin leads HR, finance, and people operations. They rarely clash on direction, and when disagreements arise, they work through them privately at home. Both acknowledge there is essentially no work-life balance in their world—but rather than view this as a problem, they embrace it because they genuinely love what they do. Their children, who have grown up around the shop and even work there part-time, see the business as part of family life rather than a source of strain.
For Erin, one of the biggest personal lessons has been overcoming imposter syndrome. Having never worked in business before, she initially doubted her authority and worried she wasn’t “doing things the way experts would.” Over time, she and Jim realized they had the freedom to build the company in their own way, without conforming to traditional corporate structures. That freedom allowed them to make culture-driven choices, like providing daily lunches for employees or small touches like candy in customer shipments, that strengthen loyalty and morale.
Jim describes mistakes not as failures but as expensive lessons, emphasizing that none have been irreversible. Together they’ve found that focusing on what feels right for them and their team, rather than mimicking larger corporations, has been key to their growth.
Both Jim and Erin express pride not only in the company’s growth but also in maintaining a strong marriage throughout the process. Erin feels she has evolved into a leader far beyond what she imagined, gaining deep knowledge of manufacturing and business through experience. She is especially proud of their culture and of the opportunities created for their 300-plus employees.
Looking forward, they are excited about expanding services. CNC machining represents a major new challenge that feels like starting fresh again, while anodizing—affectionately nicknamed “Erin’s Anodizing”—is another project they’re eager to bring in-house to improve quality and reliability. These initiatives represent both diversification and an opportunity to deepen customer trust.
This episode of Just Gonna Send It features Jim Belosic, host and co-founder of SendCutSend, and his wife and the company’s president, Erin Belosic. Together they explore their journey as a couple, as business partners, and as leaders of a rapidly growing manufacturing company. The discussion weaves between their personal history, the challenges of scaling SendCutSend, and the lessons they’ve learned from building a company side by side.
