Our First Year in Business! The Recap

I’m so glad you’re here. You’re invited behind the scenes as I share all about the first year of Starner Styles. From the office admin to road trips to Vegas to our first branding shoot to our inspiring customers--this one is for you!

The hustle and bustle behind the scenes from January to our launch date in April was filled with all that super fun legal stuff and paperwork… and a lot of that fun stuff (selecting the perfect garments, fabrics, patterns, and silhouettes or our customers! What was it like starting a business in 2019, preparing it for 2020? A dream always starts is the why. I want to impact women’s lives on a large scale, creating a shop they can leave looking and feeling amazing, fulfilled, and like they just left a friend’s home. Beyond that, and maybe even before that, I wanted to build something for my family, as a legacy to pass down. The idea of service runs deep in my heart and with my daughters. I hope that this brand will grow and we will be able to serve our community for generations.

With that as our guide, it was getting-to-work time! Well, let’s just say you can Google about anything and it’s always nice to have a few friends in-the-know that don’t mind you asking a BUNCH of questions. It’s equal parts trial-and-error and vision, a cup of coffee and a pinch of sleep. But in the end, we had a sweet confection that was ready to show to the world… our online storefront!

With the site finally (oh, finally) live, this country girl packed up her bags to head to the city… Vegas, girl! Moving into the fashion and retail space has a steep learning curve, but I was ready to take it on by putting myself in the room with industry leaders and insiders. That first trade show in the City of Lights (yep, there is another one besides Paris) was exciting and eye-opening. Amidst the neon tubes, the swaying palms, and the unblinking sun, we soaked up all there was to discover and brought back the best of what we found, just for you!

With our fresh finds from Vegas, we started a completely new project. Our shop on wheels! We bought an old trailer and began fixing it up to take the store across state lines and, well, anywhere within 300 miles of St. Robert, Missouri (our biz headquarters). We stocked out the tiny caravan and hit the road, bringing a unique shopping experience to pop up inside other brick and mortars, churches, and halls.

During the fall, with the garments draped from racks on our warehouse floor (um… that’s my dining room, y’all!), the website humming along, and hundreds of miles under our belts, we knew it was time for our next-level move. Meet Rowan, our communications specialist! She spends her time on the Blog, Pinterest community building and all that SEO techy stuff when she isn’t sipping an almond milk latte with cinnamon or watching Bluey with her babies (age 5 and 2) or folding laundry with her hubby. With eight years in retail management and being a huge self-proclaimed social media nerd, she has a unique focus for our marketing and is a support to the vision of our company!

Ok, everyone says their mom is the best… but you guys... my mom is actually the best! She spent so-so many hours prepping the clothes, steaming, arranging and offering up a heaping serving of wisdom all along the way. She was expertly wielding the steamer, perfecting every single pleat and drape before each and every road trip. Harrison, Arkansas in October? Yeah, those pristine skirts and cardigans were all her, ladies. Houston, Missouri? Yep! Beebe, Arkansas? You bet! Saint Robert, Missouri for Small Business Saturday? Absolutely! Thanks to her curation and attention to detail, we made an entrance and were able to make connections with all those lovely, inspiring, women! (Thank you for coming to the pop-up shops, ladies! You did not disappoint!)

Can we share a secret?

Since you stuck around for all the warm fuzzies of our first year, I want you to be the first to get the inside scoop. In December we scratched out designs and cut patterns for our first original collection coming to you in Summer 2020! Can you even right now? We can’t. We can’t even! This year has been huge, full of growing pains and evolutions of the business. We opened our e-commerce site, bought and remodeled a shop-on-wheels, hit Vegas, logged hundreds of miles and hosted lots of pop-up experiences, met so many new friends, made our first hire, and began the design and manufacturing process of our first-ever original Starner Styles collection. And that was just year one, people! We cannot wait to see what 2020 has in store for us! Thank you for being apart of our charter year!

From my family to yours We want to wish you the warmest New Years ever to you and your whole family!