We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Aimee Fertado a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Aimee thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What do you think it takes to be successful?

Success is found in the details, the consistency, and the growth/change you make year after year in your business. It’s being better than you were a year ago, it’s changing with the times but remaining true to yourself and your brand. Success to me has been building a place and a community of followers and customers who return week after week because they feel good spending their money with you. Success has been surviving through COVID and coming out even better than we were before. Success is hard work, putting your fears aside and learning through your mistakes and failures but continuing to show up for your business every day. As a business owner, I’ve had to work through miscarriages, pregnancies, life ups and downs, and most recently a pandemic. Your business doesn’t stop when things get tough. Success is showing up without loss of enthusiasm.

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?

I started Plush while working in Corporate America. I had a great paying job, loved what I did, and ran multiple offices. With that job came commuting and traveling which I loved to do but when we decided to start trying for a family I realized that I didn’t want to miss my kids growing up. I saw a hole in the market in our small town and decided to open our first brick n mortar store. We were the first store of our kind in our community. With the help of family and friends, I was able to keep my corporate job and run my business. Our first store was in a small space with almost no foot traffic. We attended pop-up shops, festivals, and events, and passed out fliers in salons and coffee shops just to get our name out there. It wasn’t easy at first and I wanted to quit more times than I could count but I stayed consistent and focused. We hired a model, attended fashion trade shows, got a photographer, and really worked on perfecting our products. I was finally able to leave my corporate job two years in and I’ve never looked back. We are now in a beautiful outdoor shopping mall and have built a successful e-commerce business. We ship all over the US and are growing every day. I think the biggest thing that sets us apart is our customer service and our product lines. We go above and beyond for every customer and our goal is to make every woman feel like a better version of themselves after they leave us. We strive to bring in the cutest styles you can’t find anywhere else.
I am most proud of how far we’ve come. We started from nothing and built a brand that people talk about. We’ve survived COVID and all the challenges small businesses have had to overcome.

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

Our biggest pivot in business came after COVID. We had just come out of the hospital with the birth of our son when the whole world shut down. With a newborn at home and my business shut down for the foreseeable future we had to figure out a game plan. We had a lease and employees and a new baby and all of it was a bit overwhelming. After spending what felt like an eternity with our doors closed we had to make a decision, we either sink or swim. We decided to swim. We put more effort into our e-commerce, focused on our marketing, and decided that this was going to make us stronger. And it did. 2021 was our best year ever. Online flourished, our store got busier and we really started to see the growth we’ve never seen before. COVID could have broken us as it did so many other small businesses, but we didn’t let it. We now have a bigger focus and know that we can overcome even the biggest obstacles. ‘Being challenged in life is inevitable, being defeated is optional’ Roger Crawford.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

When we first set out to get a loan for our small business venture we were turned away at every corner. We had a business plan but we had no financials or real experience owning a business. We were stuck. We knew we had a great business plan but at the time (post-2008 crisis) banks weren’t giving loans based on our plan for success. They wanted to be sure we’d be able to pay them back. After talking to a family member about a home equity line we decided that was the route we’d need to take. We had just purchased our home and had great jobs but not a lot of money left over in savings to invest in our dream. Although taking out money against our home was scary we decided to go for it. We paid off our small equity loan in the first two years in the business. We didn’t make a lot of money in those first few years, with everything we made having to go right back into the business but we were able to pay off what we owed. We now get TONS of offers for loans but we’re proud to say that since that initial loan we’ve never had to take out another loan.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://plushboutiquebrentwood.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/plushboutiquebrentwood/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PlushBoutiqueBrentwood/

Image Credits
Mandi Collins Photography