Today we’d like to introduce you to Amy Bouvier.
Amy, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
When I began my senior year of college at the University of Kentucky, I was wrapping up my Bachelors degree in Public Health and minor in Psychology while trying to determine where I was headed next. Public Health was a major I stumbled into after I got weeded out of Pre-Pharmacy, which had been my backup plan after I became too queasy for Pre-Med. I was feeling directionless and unsure of what Masters program or career path I should pursue next. One day early into the fall semester, my Food Systems professor asked our class what an inelastic cost was. No one in the room could answer, including myself. This seemed to be a basic question and it dawned on me that through all of my academic pursuits in science, I had failed to learn anything about money. This thought shocked me enough that I began to consider how I could pursue an education in business and went to an MBA open house.
I began business school right after graduation and very early into the program, we had mock interviews. These were meant to help us prepare for the job search, but they were also set up with real companies from the region who were interested in the next class of MBA talent. I decided to treat it like a real interview and went in as prepared as possible.
I made a great connection with my interviewer that led to my pursuit of a real career with the company. My interviewer suggested a finance role and although I was only a few weeks into my very first finance course, I began my application process. After several interviews, tests, and weeks later, I accepted a position as a Senior Finance Manager that I would begin upon graduation. I was shocked that I had made it through their notoriously selective hiring process and couldn’t wait to begin working.
I never pictured myself as an entrepreneur. Even in my MBA program, I never took entrepreneurship electives because I didn’t believe that I had what it takes: fearlessness, creativity, and a lot of resilience. I’m more of what some have called “Type A-plus”. Despite my efforts to change, I’m a perfectionist at my core. I excelled in school from an early age. I loved knowing exactly what was needed to get an A. I could look at my rubric and work backwards to craft the perfect score. Because of this, when I pictured my career, I always thought I would thrive somewhere with a ton of structure. But the real world doesn’t work like that. Even being at a Fortune 50 company with tons of structure, a lot of my day to day work was on massive messy data sets hunting for insights. My minimal financial analysis skillset didn’t do me any favors and I found myself just wanting to be told exactly what to do. I had only ever worked on things that were laid out clean and simple. As it turns out, that’s what they hired me to do.
When push came to shove after three years, I decided my time was up. The job had taken a major toll on my confidence and I was feeling particularly lost. I knew I would be a valuable asset somewhere, but I had to take a leap of faith in order to get there. I resigned in the summer of 2022 and continued my search for a work environment that would be best for me.
Fast forward and the last two years have been some of the best of my life. I focused on healing my spirit and doing what I loved. This work led me back to myself and allowed me to realign with my purpose. When I resigned, I began training as an indoor cycling instructor and I just recently taught my 350th class! It fills up my cup to connect with my riders each day and I love having the opportunity to lead them towards their goals.
I also began working for my friend’s boutique here in the greater Cincinnati area, which was so incredibly fun and showed me firsthand what running a small business could look like. After almost a year with her, I decided it was time to try my hand at having my own shop. I launched my online clothing and custom gift shop, Ormond Gifts, on October 1st, 2023, and we are now almost a year old. I have learned so much in my first year of being a business owner: from doing my taxes and promoting my business, to planning ahead and pivoting around surprises. But most of all I have learned that I do have what it takes to run my own business. Those characteristics that scared me when I was in business school; fearlessness, creativity, and a lot of resilience, are now the things I am most proud of about myself.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I have been fortunate to have a ton of support from family and friends since launching my shop, but I would be lying if I said there have not been challenges. The first few months of running the business, I was hung up on overcoming my perfectionist tendencies. I would put things off so that I could do them “right”, but quickly learned that done is better than perfect, and perfect doesn’t exist. Since then, in my second and third quarters of business ownership, I have been focused more on showing up consistently. Being an online-only boutique, I rely on my social media presence as promotion for my business. I have worked hard to create a pipeline of fun, engaging, and aspirational content for the @shopormond Instagram. Keeping up with daily posting for several months has helped me grow a little, but lately I have been letting the negative aspects of social media get to me. I have been comparing myself to other small business owners and get envious of their success and piles of daily orders to pack. When I start to feel this way, I remind myself of a few things. First, that I am on my own path and they are on theirs. Second, we all show our best online, and it’s rare for people to share their struggles or things not going their way. Third, lasting success is not built overnight.
I have taken a few weeks off from posting everyday and am refining my vision for the shop so that our page can reflect that. I think it is important to take a step back and look at what is working and what is not in your business every few months. It doesn’t mean you need to take immediate action on those things, but making observations regularly can plant seeds of what decisions you may want to make when you are ready for change. For instance, my shop was always going to be a custom gift shop, but I decided to include clothes at the last minute to supplement cash flow if the custom orders were slow. Now it is working in the opposite direction, with the vast majority of my business being custom orders, and clothing inventory being a drag on my books. That being said, I had no idea what would work or stand out when I was getting started and had one way to find out, so I have no regrets for trying different things.
All in all, every obstacle I have faced has pushed me in new ways and helped me develop new skill sets. Now when I face adversity, I try to focus on what it is teaching me and how I can use it to be even better at what I do.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Ormond Gifts is a clothing and custom gift shop named after the street I grew up on in Louisville, Kentucky, which is where I first fell in love with creating handmade gifts. My shop is designed to bring you elevated essentials and gifts you can’t wait to give, or get for yourself! I specialize in the bridal space and love creating unique designs for custom bachelorette party sweatshirts, bridesmaid champagne flutes, and wedding welcome signs.
I also do custom accessories like clear cosmetic pouches and stadium bags with initials, team slogans and more! I just recently acquired an embroidery machine and am thrilled to begin offering embroidered gifts, especially for my friends who are expecting! From blankets, bonnets and bubbles to bibs and burp cloths (oh my!), I would love to create something special for your little one! Follow us on Instagram @shopormond and send us a message to get started on your custom project today!
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
My parents did a great job of encouraging my creative interests as a child. At any given time growing up I was either reading, drawing, or making friendship bracelets clipped to my Klutz craft book. One year for my birthday when I was about 8 or 9, I got a scrapbook. I loved it so much and carefully created unique designs on each page. I would cut out different shapes from patterned colorful paper with my zig zag scissors and glue them together with photos of my friends and family. It was something I was so proud of and loved working on over the years. For so long as a teen and in my early twenties, I thought I had to put my creativity to the side and be someone more serious. Now I know that reconnecting with my inner child has only brought me more comfort and confidence in who I am. I feel like I got permission to be myself again and am at ease in my own skin. It truly makes me smile to think how excited younger me would be to know that we are still busy crafting to this day, and that we get to call it work!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://ormondgifts.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shopormond/?hl=en
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ShopOrmond
- Other: https://www.pinterest.com/shopormond/