From boutique owner to lifestyle blogger
I opened my brick and mortar boutique at 23 years old. My first baby, a sweet boy, was about to turn 1. I was on an 8 month maternity leave from my RN position at the hospital on the Medical/Surgical floor and when I had about 2 months left I started to feel this now or never moment. Do I pursue my dream before I go back to my posting? I went for it with the support of my amazing husband. I started with a few boxes of inventory, google search and business publication research knowledge but no business schooling, and kicked off with home parties. One party into it I knew I wanted more, so we found a space, negotiated month by month, and opened up! This was before small business boutiques really took off - and I could tell people thought I wouldn’t make it. We started by only being open 1 day a week. Yes - one. I wanted to be home with my baby most of the time because that was and still is my ultimate dream. We grew, and moved to a gorgeous downtown space. The week of my grand opening my dad unexpectedly passed away and our lives were flipped upside down. One thing about being an entreprenuer is that you keep moving, despite heartbreak. We expanded into bridal and formals. I hired and worked along side amazing women as I had my first daughter. Then our second daughter came along and life got even more blessed and crazy. I felt the desire to grow to our dream location and it HAPPENED! It was everything we wanted and right by my fave coffee shop. It was the perfect space for everything I loved and we let go of bridal. It was flexible, each week having different hours and working by appointment. We have never been a traditional business but have always thrived with the most amazing local support! When I found out we were expecting our fourth child I started to shift even more into the online world. I was always so focused on local that I never pushed to grow online. Once she was born life got even crazier and I felt the juggling was getting a little crazy, and being an entreprenuer was losing its flexibility as the boutique grew busier and busier. Then....COVID. At first I was crushed to be forced to close. My kids had to distance learn from home (my oldest two were kinder and 1st grade). When we were finally allowed to open back up the world felt so different. I couldn’t bring my baby to work with me anymore - everything felt so heavy. Then the mask mandate came, which in short I will say I just don’t agree with. I have a very strong will in my convictions and I just couldn’t throw on a mask and pretend like it wasn’t against what I believed. Prom was cancelled and the world of formals was completely upside down. Formals had become my absolute love and joy - without it I started to question my love for my boutique. At home with my babes there was so much joy, love, laughter - and of course plenty of going crazy, chaos, and losing patience. I loved being home and almost wanted to just back out of the crazy COVID world. As an entreprenuer I thrive in flexibility, fun, and being spontaneous. With the restrictions and stress - I honestly had a hard time finding my joy. What I loved most about my business was the social aspect, planning fashion shows, events, photo shoots, our prom dress giveaway kindness campaign. We got to be in the Duluth Bridal Show fashion show and last year our Kindness Campaign was featured on the cover and with a spread in Girlfriends Magazine. Every dream I have ever had I have reached with hard work and tons of heart. Normally I love to be a light, push through adversity. I have more grit, SISU, and determination than most people - but when my heart isn’t in it I can’t fake it. I didn’t reopen and I took the summer to rest (while still paying rent and running my business online). I started praying and wondering - what do I love? What do I want to do? When you have 4 little ones it makes you prioritize your time differently. The days FLY by and you truly only want to do the things you absolutely LOVE the most. I have always loved photography but never had the time - so I started small and flourished!! I love the flexibility and tapping into my creativity by creating little sets and capturing little moments. My heart is in it and it brings me joy. I have dreamt of lifestyle blogging for years and now that I have built the platform I have - it felt like the biggest blessing in disguise! I always loved to share my life just as much as I loved to share fashion and boutique. The pull just kept coming - rebranding, transitioning to lifestyle blogger, and CLOSING my boutique. At first it sounded so crazy. I wanted to give it time to see if the world got itself together...and it just didn’t. January is the last month of our lease and it seriously is the most freeing feeling in the world to have written my last rent check. It has been almost EIGHT years!! It is so crazy to me. I have never known what it is like to run an online business without the overhead costs of a local brick and mortar business. I love my business and my local customers more than anything because they are the ones who make this next step possible. I could never step into the world of lifestyle blogging without the platform you all helped me build and I am forever thankful. We will still have weekly new arrivals but this time I am only ordering what I LOVE - not pieces I need to fill racks and space. I am hopeful that when formals and events take off again that we will do local pop ups - even across the range. It gets me so excited. My hubby reminds me too - this isn’t permanent unless I want it to be. We have moved the business 3 times and renovated 3 spaces beautifully. If it feels right in the future we will definitely be back up and running! In the meantime I am SO happy to be free from the stress of having a space. I can truly have freedom to explore what I love. I am extremely excited to pursue and announce partnerships I can make as a lifestyle blogger. I want to continue to blaze a trail for women to follow their dreams, run with my dreams as they evolve, and will make a difference with my platform any time I can. I want to be fearless in never holding back to pursue my dreams. I want to share tips, advice, photography, DIY, home decor, beauty, fashion, and of course mom life. So sign up for our newsletter and be sure to like our FB page - as long as I am still loving it we will have weekly Thursday mini live sales! God is so good and please continue to use your voices and social media accounts to speak up, be a light, and make a difference in this crazy dark world!
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