Ellery began in 2018 when I was working a trade show in New York with my college mentor. I was feeling a little lost in what I wanted to do for a job and a career.
I tried working in corporate retail, working my way in management and that was not for me.
I tried managing a fair trade coffee shop that had a little retail section and while that was way closer to what I wanted, the food industry was not for me.
In college, I managed a student-run fair trade store on campus and that’s where I completely fell in love with the idea of having my store. I loved making the displays and merchandising the shop. I loved marketing the store and advertising around campus. I loved talking to people about their purchases and loved hearing how much they loved it. Those who worked with me knew how much this experience meant to me and how much I loved the idea of starting my shop.
While at the trade show, Connie told me to just do it. Just start a business.
It seemed impossible and a very lofty dream.
How do you file for a business? Where would I get money? Did you need a lot of money? Did I have the time to do it? What if no one wanted to buy stuff? What if people thought what I was doing was dumb?
There were so many reasons to not do it, but I couldn’t shake the idea. Walking Dagwood I started to have ideas on what I wanted to sell and started to think “why not?”. Once I figured out the business name I knew that I had to give it a shot.
At the end of 2019 Ellery had been around for a year and It had gone well. I decided that I wanted to see what would happen if I threw myself into it full time. So in January 2020 I left my full-time job, picked up a part-time job, and decided that Ellery was going to be my full focus.
Well, we all know how 2020 ended up. Starting and running your own business is terrifying, and add in a global pandemic, and it was full of so many unknowns. I knew I just had to make it work because this was all I had.
And here we are in 2022 with 17 different women-owned shops in this little boutique and Ellery has continued to grow each year.
I truly can’t imagine what my life would look like if I didn’t leap. If Ellery didn’t exist. If I didn’t get to meet all of you and this community of people who all love shopping from women-owned businesses who want to shop with a purpose.
Thank you for being a part of Ellery’s story, we are here because of you.
