We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Natalie Amendt. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Natalie below.

Natalie, appreciate you joining us today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

My daughter and I started this little tshirt business out of a 10×10 from in my home. I received a silouette for Christmas from my husband in 2019 and began to play around with it. I posted one of the shirts to my Facebook that I had created and sold 30+ of the shirt. My daughter Kaylee and I replicated these actions for the next several months and started discussing a name. We pressed all the Tees ourselves, my name is Natalie and my daughter was beautiful! So Pretty N Pressed was born. I also thought if we ever decided to carry a mens line my husband could run that and it would be the “pressed” portion of our business. My 14 year old daughter passed away in 2014 while visiting a friend, so we cherish the name we selected together with her input!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Who is PNP? How did we start? What is our Why?

I ve debated writing this for some time now and think it’s important for each of you to know that we appreciate you and realize without you there is no us!

Who is PNP Boutique?

We are a size inclusive boutique specializing in women’s clothing, shoes, and accessories. We are located in Willis TX!

How did we start?

Wellllll it all started in December of 2019 when my dear husband purchased me a silhouette cameo 4. I made a few shirts for fun and then decided I would post a few to see if they would sell. My daughter Kaylee would help me bleach, make, pack, and ship shirts. I worked full time in Oil & Gas for 12 years as a Quality Manager and was making shirts, designing shirts, and bleaching shirts till all hours of the night. Our shirts where selling and we had a full blown side hustle. Fast forward to 2020 and Covid and shirts where every where. We prided ourselves on being different and creating unique pieces that you wouldn’t see everywhere else. We continued our little tshirt business with Kaylee as my main assistant and Corey would assist packing orders when Kaylee would retire to bed because she had school. I decided to call the business Pretty N Pressed! My name is Natalie and I press all the tees, so it seemed to fit! Also, if and when we added a mens line that Corey would manage that could be the “Pressed” part of Pretty N Pressed! It really was a family affair! In December of 2020 tragedy struck our family when my 14 year old daughter Kaylee lost her life while visiting at a friends house. We where crushed, numb, and left to pick up pieces of our lives without her. After all we started this thing together, we did shows together (she loved them) we picked items together. She truly was my shadow and loved our little boutique biz. I continued to pull double duty working full time and running the boutique at night till 2-3 AM daily. In July of 2021 I found myself exhausted, heart broken, and just completely burned out. My Oil & Gas job of 12 years decided to let me go with no notice 6 months after this tragic loss with no previous greviances or performance issues. I was stunned and in shock and hurt that a company I had poured my heart and soul into helping build from the ground floor up, treated me this way! I went to the best, most amazing and supportive husband in the world. I laid it all out, he agreed something had to give. I chose the business Kaylee and I started and refuse to let it sink. In July of 2021 I committed to pursue our little small business. We slowly added more and more items as we grew. We added denim, shoes, accessories, home goods, and so many goodies. All the while knowing how proud Kaylee would be of us and our decision to do this. Kaylee was passionate about our family, our business, and agriculture! We created a collection within our business to give back! Kaylee Memorial Collection items that are purchased are donated back to her memorial fund, which helps us help other kids further their education in agriculture in her name!

We donated a little over 15,000 To various causes in her name not limited to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, The Cleveland Livestock Show & Dairy Day, and the San Jacinto County Fair & Rodeo!

We ve been at this over 3 years full time. To say it’s been a cake walk would be a lie. We (Corey and I) touch, receive, fold, tag, ship every single piece you see from PNP! We care about our customers, our quality, and the customer service we provide! Sunflowers where Kaylees favorite flower and Teal was her fav color! Hence our logo and brand colors. But ya’ll are our WHY! We do what we do to make our customers feel loved, heard, and relatable to us as we are just two regular people who have a dream! You gont get a robot when you reach out, you get me the Owner everytime. We’ve become the “Amazon” of the boutique world, as our orders ship same day, or next day with expedited shipping so you receive your goodies extra quick! (Which in this industry is unheard of)

My ultimate goal for PNP is to have a warehouse and employ my husband and let him run our operations, have some employees and make a positive addition to our community by adding jobs all while providing the best customer service that ya ll have come to know us for!

We are truly a small business.

If you have read this far thank you!

It is said that sunflowers always turn to face the sun and find that bright light in the darkness! Know that each of you that purchase from us or have purchased from us are exactly that! You are a light for us and help us more than you know!

We love you all and appreciate you more than you could ever imagine!

We look forward to growing with you!

Love,
Nat & Coco

Have you ever had to pivot?

Coming from an Oil & Gas field of experience and sales background, I certainly never ran a business before. When my full time job of 12 years let me go, 6 months after losing my 14 year old daughter, I knew I had to make it work. I ‘ve always done some sort of sales and knew that ultimately my family (though smaller now) still needed me to perform. But only this time I’d be performing for my self and couldn’t be cut out of what I helped build from the start. We started making tees, but as the crowd for us grew the demand for our products changed and the customers wanted more from us. So we delivered in a big way. We added jeans, shoes, tops, accessories, home goods and so much more. We take pride in currating different items that aren’t found at every boutique you walk into. It was a big gamble and a large pivot that has paid off for us. Our loyal customers keep showing up for our LIVE sales that we hold on Facebook and our Free PNPBOUTIQUE app every week on Tuesdays at 7, and Fridays at 2. We couldn’t be more grateful!

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

Funding this business was a tricky game. As it started as a tshirt business, I’d sell the tees I made then use that capital to purchase more inventory. We are a cash business with no debt. We’ve not taken out any loans or used any credit to make this business run! When I was employed full time the funds of course came alot easier as I was a salaried employee and had that to count on weekly. Shift forward where my income is now dependent on this retail business that flucuates as much if not more than Oil & Gas. I still have chosen to invest profits back into the company over and over to keep providing new items weekly. New arrivals every week, sounds crazy to some and like the inventory would quickly pile up. But if you take the time to select quality items and really know your clients then the items you bring in sell pretty quickly making room for more inventory.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.prettynpressedboutique.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/prettynprezzed
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/prettynprezzed
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/websternatalie/
• Other: www.tiktok.com/prettynpressedboutique1