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Hush boutique3/31/2023 ![]() July was an even better month, with Honey Hush besting last year’s revenue over those long, hot 31 days by a whopping 138 percent. Shelly saw her April 2020 sales surge by 65 percent compared to April 2019. Since then, business has steadily improved - so much so that Honey Hush is now doing better than ever. After I submitted, she kept me constantly informed on the progress of my application.” She was always there to answer my questions and get me closer to the finish line. “She kept the lines of communication open the entire time. Looking back on the whirlwind of activity that was the first week of April 2020, Shelly praises Linda’s composure and professionalism. Within 10 days, Honey Hush Boutique received $13,500 in financial assistance via the PPP. She even helped Shelly track down and organize those documents. She laid out the PPP loan application process step-by-step and shared with Shelly the long list of required documents she would need to send to the Small Business Administration (SBA) to qualify. Shelly immediately reached out to Linda Brown at Guaranty Bank & Trust’s Bogata location to ask her what she knew about the CARES Act and the PPP. She was meeting with some of the area’s other business people when the topic of conversation shifted to the federal government’s Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act and its more than $370 billion in funding for small businesses. To be honest, without that and curbside pickup, I don’t know if we would have made it to April.”Įarly April is also when Shelly first learned of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). I hoped they’d be popular, but they completely took off. We then found some cool headbands to pair with those masks and started sewing Honey Hush buttons on them. We got lucky that one came through when those items were nearly impossible to get. Behind the scenes, we were asking every supplier out there about getting masks. Before the pandemic, we’d only been doing it every two or three months. We got creative and started using Facebook Live to showcase our latest arrivals. “We were down to my manager and myself due to one employee leaving and one having to go into quarantine. Here’s how she describes Honey Hush’s March 2020. With stunning suddenness, the COVID-19 pandemic turned Shelly’s entrepreneurial dreams into a mad scramble for mere survival. Moreover, she seemed well on her way to achieving another: revitalizing Bogata’s downtown.įast-forward to early 2020. Shelly had achieved one goal: she was now her own boss. Foot traffic to the store - not to mention neighboring shops - became heavier and heavier with each passing month. Shelly had both hired additional staff and opened an online storefront to cater to a larger customer base. Within six months, Honey Hush Boutique was contributing mightily to the local economy. A place not only for my customers but also for my employees - a place that helps them support their families.” “I wanted to create a special place, one that’s as much a community as a shop. “Our grand opening provided so much validation that we had made the right decision to come home to little Bogata and start our own business here,” she explains. Shelly took justifiable pride in what she and her daughter had accomplished. And those sales kept up their brisk pace through Christmas and into the new year. Honey Hush Boutique closed $4,000 in sales. ![]() But customer demand for the merchandise they’d painstakingly curated exceeded their wildest expectations. At best, they hoped they might make $1,000 on their first day in business. ![]() Understandably, both Shelly and Lacey felt more than a little apprehensive that morning. Black Friday, perhaps the most important date on any retail merchant’s calendar. Finally, the day of Honey Hush Boutique’s grand opening arrived - Friday, November 27, 2015, a.k.a. Meanwhile, to help cover the cost of renovations, Shelly sold custom T-shirts online. ![]() Months of work followed as mother and daughter gradually converted what was once a bank into a retail space. Lacey persisted, and her pitch eventually won her mom’s backing. Lacey, on the other hand, leaned in the direction of a boutique featuring all things Southern and stylish, from women’s apparel, shoes, and jewelry to home décor items. The big question facing Shelly and Lacey that summer was what to do with that cavernous space. Although the family had purchased some acreage located just outside of city limits, they’d also acquired an old brick building on Bogata’s Main Street. Months before, they’d returned to their hometown of Bogata in Texas’ Red River country. The busy 2015 holiday season was an unusually anxious time for Shelly Evans and her daughter Lacey. ![]()
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