Kate Mitchell, owner of Mainstream Boutique, opened her small business during the pandemic.
By Urvi Dalal
Kate Mitchell remembers opening a small business with a newborn as if it happened yesterday. The year she opened Mainstream Boutique, she had a baby and walked into the Lubbock Small Business Development Center office with her newborn.
Mitchell, now 37, said Mainstream Boutique started due to favorable circumstances rather than a plan.
“I never woke up one day and said, ‘I want to own a boutique,’” Mitchell said. “I’ve always loved clothes, and I just saw an opportunity.”
Mitchell has a graduate degree in retail and hospitality institutional management and felt her education and age aligned with the franchise. Being a part of a franchisee allowed Mitchell to have a support group but still pick her own products, prices and employees.
Mitchell said she believes Mainstream Boutique and its products are unique compared to other small businesses in the city.
“I feel like in Lubbock there are so many boutiques that cater to the Texas Tech market,” Mitchell said.
In her stage of life, she wanted something older but still trendy. She decided to open on Milwaukee Avenue because “[it’s] growing like a weed.”
There are no other boutiques in the area and the location has great parking and visibility. Ray Laurent, regional director for America’s SBDC at Texas Tech in Lubbock, was Mitchell’s consultant and a big help in starting her business.
“I’ll just sing his praises all day long,” Mitchell said of Laurent.
Funded by the United States Congress through a partnership with the U.S. Small Business Administration, SBDCs are hosted by universities, state economic development agencies, and private partners.
Texas Tech operates Lubbock’s SBDC and offers counseling services at no charge, according to the Lubbock Chamber of Commerce. They work to provide training and consulting to small businesses around the Lubbock area, free of cost.
Small businesses are designated by firm revenue and employment. If a company makes between $1 million to $40 million annually and has between 100 to 1,500 employees, it qualifies as a small business, according to United States Census Bureau guidelines.
Laurent said Lubbock’s SBDC is a non-profit organization and its role is to foster economic development by assisting small businesses.
“We primarily work with people that want to start a business or those who just started a small business,” Laurent said. “Our job is to assist small businesses and help in job creation and economic development through our services.”
The best way to use the SBDC’s services is to make an appointment through their website, he added. The process begins with meeting a consultant to make sure Lubbock SBDC understands the business and industry of the client.
The SBDC uses that information to submit market research requests that meet the customer’s needs. He added that most people starting a business need help with market research. As a former client of Lubbock’s SDBC, Mitchell said they were a huge part of her success. Logistics just isn’t her specialty, she added.
“I just have a passion for customer service and a background in hospitality and retail,” Mitchell said. “[The Lubbock SBDC] were essential in building my business plan. That thing was hundreds of pages long and [included] the stuff that I wasn’t even thinking about. I couldn’t imagine, baby aside, how long putting that together on my own would’ve taken.”
The Lubbock SBDC, with its proficiency in writing and organizing the plan, made it simpler for Mitchell to receive a bank loan.
“I mean that was about as easy for me as it got,” she added.
Mitchell opened Mainstream Boutique in 2020, during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and said it was a difficult experience.
“This part I will not sugarcoat,” Mitchell said. “It was terrible. It was absolutely terrible. It was terrible for everybody though, it’s like not it just happened to me. I was open for seven weeks, and then the shutdown happened.
“Oddly enough, we had this unexpected peak in 2021. I think it was the stimulus check and all that. I think now we’re settling into what our new normal is going to be,” Mitchell said. “Do I think it’s over? Absolutely not.”
Mitchell added that her journey was not like others and hopes it never is.
“Opening during a pandemic is very difficult especially when you did not set out to do online sales,” she said. “We had to adapt and luckily Lubbock has so many ladies who are loyal, so that’s been great.”
Hali Dinwiddie, an avid supporter of local commerce, said she often tries to shop at small businesses over major corporations.
“It’s important to support small businesses as opposed to large corporations,” Dinwiddie said. “Small businesses are run by working class individuals rather than millionaire CEOs that get tax breaks.”
Mitchell said because of the pandemic people look at spending differently, including her family. She believes the pandemic is still going on based on inflation and prices at the grocery store. Because of the pandemic, Mitchell has changed the way she shops.
“There aren’t as many ladies willing to invest in $100 sweaters,” Mitchell said. “But if I find a good quality sweater under $50, I will sell it. It’s more of adjusting my product and [looking at] what the market wants and needs right now. It was an absolute 180 from how I was ordering in 2019 to how I order now, [it’s] completely different.”
Dinwiddie said the pandemic, and spending more time on social media exposed her to more small businesses.
“I would spend time on TikTok and Twitter and see ads for small businesses on my feed,” Dinwiddie said. “Instead of going on Amazon, I started looking on those websites first and now I am a loyal customer of a few different brands.”
In his role at the SBDC, Laurent said, 90% of the work he does is to help people start a business.
“You have a lot of entrepreneurs who have ideas or they’re good at something, but they don’t know how to start a business [or] the amount of funding needed,” Laurent said. “A lot of those success stories you see on our website are about companies that we helped start successfully, but we always try to offer more. One of our focuses is to offer more services to existing businesses.”
Now going into her fourth year as a small business owner, Mitchell reflected on her journey with The Hub@TTU.
Mitchell’s business is located at 7604 Milwaukee Ave.
“Saying this was easy or this was hard implies that you see it as a whole,” she said. “When you’re going through it, it’s step by step; it’s day by day. Some days it’s a win. You get the yes you were looking for and for others, it’s ‘Thank you, but we’ve decided to go in a different direction,’ and you’re crushed for a few days.”
Her journey has been neither an easy one nor what she expected, yet Mitchell told The Hub she takes the peaks and valleys in stride each step of the way. She added that opening a Mainstream Boutique franchise was not a path she thought she wanted.
“It was more of a God thing that fell out of the sky,” Mitchell said.
Laurent said the Lubbock SBDC attempts to continue the relationship with the businesses they serve.
“If you’re a small business, whether you’re trying to start a small business, expand your small business or buy a small business, we are a resource here in Lubbock,” Laurent said.
The Lubbock SBDC, serving 16 counties, is part of a network of SBDCs in the country. There are six SBDCs across the Texas regions that share resources, including webinars and workshops, among themselves.
Laurent said there are close to a thousand SBDCs across the country, and most of them are hosted by higher learning institutions like Tech.
“Tech handles our grants and all the [administrative] paperwork,” Laurent said. “Also, because Texas Tech has a lot of good resources we try to partner with them as much as we can. We do that on a regular basis and our biggest partner at Texas Tech is the Innovation Hub and Research Park. It’s a great partnership.”
Most of the Lubbock SBDC’s services are at no charge, he added. The Lubbock SBDC conducts a series of workshops that can have a small fee.
The workshops range from a variety of topics including Marketing 101 and Accounting 101.
“Marketing and accounting are the two big things I see small business [owners] struggling with,” Laurent said.
He said the number one problem he sees when people try to start a small business is the lack of initial funds.
“There is a myth out there, that if you need funding to start a business you can borrow 100% of the funds, and that’s not true,” Laurent said. “You always have to put some of your savings on the line and the bank will fund the rest.”
However, difficulties continue as new businesses open. Laurent said the two main weaknesses he sees in established small businesses are bookkeeping and accounting. Businesses focus on keeping their customers happy but, at the end of the month or year, they struggle with bookkeeping. He said that can hold them back.
“They’re really good at what they do, but they’re not used to keeping the books,” Laurent said.
He said if owners need financing later on, they have to understand their numbers.
“If they don’t understand their numbers, they don’t know how well or poorly they’re doing,” Laurent said. “It’s going to be hard for a lender or investor to take a chance on them. A lot of people wing it or take shortcuts, but shortcuts only take you so far.”
Laurent said the second most common weakness is the “field of dreams” syndrome.
“[People] focus on what they want and start a business expecting [others] to show up,” Laurent said. “So, marketing is another weakness. They think just having a Facebook page will get people in the door, but you need a good marketing plan.”
As a small business shopper, Dinwiddie said one of the biggest things that drew her to a company is the advertising and marketing they do on social media platforms.
“Without paid and sponsored posts, I never would have found some of my now-favorite companies,” Dinwiddie said. “No matter what business you’re in, to compete with large corporations, you have to invest in marketing.”
Mainstream is one of many boutiques and small businesses in Lubbock, but Mitchell said they support each other rather than compete.
“As far as competition goes, I really don’t think us boutiques in town [compete],” Mitchell said. “I think we uplift each other. We all do such [different things].”
For instance, Mitchell said, denim is a mainstay of her business. For others, that mainstay may be “size-inclusive” pieces or outfits for work and leisure.
Running a small business does come with its ups and downs. This is why work-life separation is an important part of her overall life balance.
“[It’s important] to have a separate identity,” Mitchell said. “While you want to put your whole heart into it, it is very easy to let it consume your entire life. You have to be able to separate life from business because you need to enjoy the journey too. I’ve definitely had seasons where I’ve buried myself more than others.”
Now, going into her fourth year, she understands when she needs to step away and enjoy life with her family. Something else that got Mitchell through the rollercoaster of starting her own business was a piece of advice she received from a friend.
“Before I started this business, I had a girlfriend who had her own yoga studio,” Mitchell said. “I loved what she told me and I still hold onto [it]. She said, ‘If you’re gonna do it, do it. Put your heart into it. Be positive. You will absolutely have bad days but so would you with any other job.”
She was warned that some aspects she would love and others she would hate, but regardless, she would be proud of her work. Concurrently, one cannot let their business define them or their dreams, she said.
Running her own business has taught her other things as well, like that it is impossible to convert an “Amazon shopper” into a boutique shopper, or vice versa. Additionally, customer service is of utmost importance to Mitchell, she said, and something she hopes continues to improve. Dinwiddie said she finds it difficult to talk to someone at a corporation.
“When you call a large corporation, you are often connected with a robot that has no sentience to understand your problem,” Dinwiddie said. “Whereas, if you have a problem with your service at a small business, you’ll be connected to a live person to talk through your issues and come to an amicable solution.”
Mitchell said clothes can affect more than appearance. People are beautiful and deserve to be seen, she said.
“It’s really great to see how people hold themselves when they feel beautiful,” Mitchell said. “We are our own worst critic. We will look at something and say ‘I cannot wear that because of x, y and z.’
“In reality — because I have now seen that dress on different body types — I am like ‘No, no, no, trust me, put it on,’” Mitchell continued. “Not trying to talk ladies into stuff but opening their minds and letting them see how beautiful they are.”
Dinwiddie admits there is a disadvantage to shopping at small businesses.
“The one downside to shopping at small businesses is that the prices are often a bit more expensive than those of retailers,” Dinwiddie said. “However, it’s usually because the quality is better.”
While she has little interest in starting a small business of her own, Dinwiddie still values their role in the community.
“There is so much benefit to shopping small,” Mitchell said. “First off, if we only fed Amazons, those would be our only options and small businesses really do make up so much of a town or community.”
If one loves their community, shop small, she said. Small businesses put money back into their own communities that big companies do not.
Mitchell said she hopes Mainstream Boutique will continue to flourish.
“Don’t only [shop at small businesses] for you and for new experiences, but if you love where you live, do it for where you live too,” she said.
Laurent said he and the entire Lubbock SBDC love what they do.
“We’re lucky that we’ve been doing this for 35 years in this area,” Laurent said.
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