We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sarah Jabbour. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sarah below.
Sarah, appreciate you joining us today. Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?
I knew I wanted to own my own boutique in high-school, and after college I attempted to do just that but financially, I was not ready. So I worked full-time at a marketing firm and started my boutique on a smaller scale inside of a co-opt that had central checking and staffing. I took PTO and would go to market and would bring in merchandise over my lunch break and on the weekends. Over the next couple years, we added other co-opt locations in different parts of Kansas City and I also offered pop-ups in people’s homes where they would invite their friends over for drinks, snacks and to shop. I was able to make mistakes on a smaller scale vs having a big storefront and could learn/grow from them. The co-opts and pop-ups were successful, and I was able to quit my office job to continue to grow the business after 4 years. The pop-ups were a big hit, and I would sometimes do 5 a week in women’s homes or offices. I would travel all over Kansas City for the pop-ups (and sometimes to college campuses), but this also allowed me to gain insight into where our main customer base was. While I would travel all over the city for the pop-ups, most of them (and the most successful ones) were located near the Prairie Village area. It also happened to be where my growing family and I had lived since basically the start of the shop. So, when it came time to open my own store and move my business from my home-I knew just where I needed to be-Prairie Village, KS. The shop had instant foot traffic and to have a space that was open on a normal basis (vs pop-ups) in the heart of our customer base was a great start to our first physical location and continues to be.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
My name is Sarah Jabbour (nicknamed SCOOBIE in high school) and I truly am in love with fashion! It is a genuine passion of mine that I want to share with others. I have worked in the retail world since I was fourteen and have always loved coordinating outfits and helping people look and feel their best. I have worked everywhere from Limited Too, to Nordstrom, to lululemon to local boutiques in both Kansas City and Lawrence while attending college. It is so rewarding to see the confidence in someone once he/she is in a well fitted and styled outfit. I have been able to create my own style and develop our own brand through our locations, and I love sharing our finds with all our amazingly supportive customers—they truly make my world go around! The shop is located in a suburb filled with young families so dressing pregnant and postpartum mamas helping them feel beautiful (while wearing functional clothing for her changing lifestyle) is a lot of fun. Women often come in frustrated or not feeling confident and we love helping her find something that makes her feel confident and beautiful.
We offer a variety of clothing to appeal to a wide range of customers. From casual, everyday wear to cocktail and soiree dresses-we like to have options for all the events big and small, in our customers’ lives. We also have on hand 5-6 local accessory vendors in the shop. We sell a lot of gifts and jewelry/accessories are always a big hit-especially local artists’ work. Our customers love supporting local!
I am proud of the shop that we created (the store itself did no have walls, plumbing, etc when we first started to build out the space). Creating the space was very challenging but very rewarding. Starting in my home 10 years ago and working out of my home for 7 years with small children-to now having my own storefront and a growing online presence-is a wonderful feeling of accomplishment.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Like all small businesses, I had to pivot and work harder than I ever have during the covid shut down. I had worked 7 years out of my home and had finally opened my 1st brick and mortar store. 6 months after that the world shut down. I also had 3 year old twin girls and a 6 month old baby boy at home. My husband fortunately was able to continue his job normally working remotely at home-so my priority was caretaking for them. Finding the time to figure out what in the world I was going to do to keep my business alive was the most challenging part. When I opened the brick and mortar store 6 months before, I had also added an online store-but not everything in-store was available online. I quickly added all inventory online and also hosted Instagram and Facebook live events. I did Flash Sales, and any kind of sale/promo I could to help generate revenue and move the product I had at the store.
Today we continue to put everything in-store, online and even offer ‘online exclusives’ because customers expect the convenience of online and ordering online/picking up in-store. This has also helped us grow our business.
Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?
My husband and I are high school sweet hearts. We also went to college together where I got a degree in Business Marketing and he got his degree in Accounting (and later Finance as well as his CPA). We put together our business plan for the bank and continue to work together. He handles the accounting and finances of the business, loans etc. We have loved growing the business together and problem solving together. His role was especially vital during the covid shut down. Josh was able to help navigate the funding that was available and help us get the loans, grants we needed to keep our brick and mortar store alive and healthy.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.shopscoobie.com
- Instagram: shopscoobie
- Facebook: shopscoobie
Image Credits
anna petrow