Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to ADELAIDE UTMAN. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

ADELAIDE, appreciate you joining us today. So, let’s imagine that you were advising someone who wanted to start something similar to you and they asked you what you would do differently in the startup-process knowing what you know now. How would you respond?

When I first began my retail shop it was located in a very small second-floor storage space, generously reconditioned into a small retail store by my landlords. The location was on the Main Street of a busy tourist area and provided me with low overhead costs in the early days. When I eventually moved to a ground-floor location three years later, I immediately noticed a significant increase in foot traffic, sales, and profits. Given the chance to go back to my early days, the first thing I would reconsider would be the length of time I stayed in the initial location. Allowing low overhead to be the driving force in making the leap probably had a substantial impact on my business’s potential for growth.

Secondly, I strongly believe that having a tighter outline for the development and management of my social media and online presence would have helped me grow faster and more significantly. If more emphasis had been placed on curation and strategy development, I believe I could have grown my follower base sooner and, consequently, increased sales as well.

ADELAIDE, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Oak was started by myself 8 years ago as an option for people in the growing area to shop a curated collection of modern styles for both men and women. Prince Edward County was experiencing a significant boom in growth, but I found myself limited in options for personal shopping. I wanted to create a store that could appeal to the ever-growing fashion-forward clientele in the area.

Four years in, my now-husband joined in the management and buying of Oak, bringing his 20+ years of fashion experience with him. Together, we expanded the store to include our OAK SURF CLUB side, which features our in-house brand, surf equipment, and a coffee bar. We are now located in a 3000 sq. ft. space with two floors and a fully shoppable online store for those not in the County.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

COVID! Need we say more? The pandemic forced everyone to get creative, and only the fortunate ones have fully recovered from it. The closures during COVID were a lesson in how to pivot to online sales and in-store pickups, how to make our Instagram/online store more user-friendly, and how to compete with big-box stores.

There are ripples within the world of retail from COVID and its effect on the economy. If you are not hustling every day to serve your clients and prove they should choose you, you risk falling too far behind to make it to the easier years that are bound to eventually return.

How’d you meet your business partner?

I met my business partner/husband, 8 years ago when he was a sales rep for some of my brands. We became friends and worked together for 3 years before we fell in love and now have two little boys.

We also own a wholesale agency together that we run inside the same building. We are a little crazy!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.oakclothingpec.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oakclothingco/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/oakclothingco

Image Credits
Headshot: Calder Sidley Store: Kassandra Melnyk