Hey Chics,
Well, another year has come and gone. It's hard to believe all that we were able to pack into a year both personally and professionally. It's one of our favorite times of the year (not only because our birthdays are just before) but because it's the perfect time to reflect on what worked, what didn't, how far we've come and how far we want to go. We have loved every minute of the year being able to share our Chic Avenue Boutique story with you all and help you find CHIC styles so we thought it was only fitting to write a little year in review blog post to reflect with you.
In all honesty, 2019 started off a little slow. I (Jill) was in full-on wedding planning mode as we prepared for our May wedding while also still working full time. I was a complete basket case 90% of the time and slightly embarrassed about the amount of tears I shed in the first 5 months of the year. Krista was a ROCK STAR and kept us rolling! We spent the first half of the year popping up at events (like the Moms of Multiples conference) and flew to Las Vegas for our first ever MAGIC show! What a trip that was. Until this year, we hadn't historically been attending markets out of state. We had attended local marts and shopped primarily through online marketplaces. Dang, are we glad we went to MAGIC. Attending that show gave us an entirely new perspective on buying, shopping for our customers, trends, connections in the industry and so much more. Being able to see, touch, try on - has been so helpful in curating the PERFECT styles for all of our Chics and we've been kicking ourselves that we didn't go sooner, but as with most things in business, you live and learn.
After the wedding, we headed to The Boutique Summit in Atlanta in June. This was such an amazing experience to connect with our boutique besties, meet some new ones and receive our 2018 award for Minnesota Online Boutique of the year! What a fun night that was! We also attended our first Atlanta Apparel market which was awesome! Can't wait to go back again this June!
Pictured: Our boutique besties - Alex from The Boutique Baton Rouge and Serena from Hustle & Heart
This past July we celebrated our 4th birthday! It's wild to think that 4 years ago we were sitting at Krista's kitchen table in Elko with a tiny closet full of clothing ready to launch the site. Now, we've taken up Krista's entire front room (and more) and on average sell more than we did that entire first year (well half a year) in a month. We're so proud of that and are so appreciative of everyone who has been there with us along the way and supported us in one way or another!
The rest of the year brought another trip to Las Vegas for the August MAGIC show (with our mom in tow this time!), lots of amazing pop-ups in the fall, and one heck of a holiday season. We were busy, hustling and trying our best to make sure our customers had what they needed to #staychic all season long. One other big piece of news was that I left my full-time job in September and Krista's girls started pre-school two days a week. So much time freed up for us to focus on Chic Avenue! Since then, we have been able to ramp up our business on essentially all levels and are on our way to taking Chic Avenue Boutique to the next step! We sure hope you'll stick around for the journey!
To sum it all up, 2019 was awesome! We're immensely grateful for all of the love, support, shares, purchases, hugs and friendships we've had throughout 2019. As we start on our 5th year of business, we feel like we're only just getting started. We're so excited to #staychic with you all for many years ahead. Whether you make formal resolutions for the new year or not, we hope that whatever intentions you have for yourself in 2020 are successful. Wishing you nothing but a blessed New Year and amazing year ahead!
WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH!
Stay Chic,
Jill & Krista
