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

Andrea, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

When I was a kid I remember playing in my Grandmothers flower gardens. I remember the yellow and orange puffy little flowers out front. I would pick them and crush the petals and rub them on me as perfume. I always believed that Marigold’s were her favorite flower. I would rummage around in her jewelry boxes and put on as many pieces that I could and wear them around the house. I always thought my grandmother was so stylish to have all this beautiful jewelry. It was easy for me to pick the name of my boutique. I knew that some day I would name it Marigold’s. After my stylish, Marigold loving grandmother. Fast forward years later I was searching for a trailer to start a traveling boutique and there she was! And believe it or not she was yellow! It was perfect! So she was offically named…Marigold’s Traveling Boutique.

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’m just your average girl with a big dream. I have always wanted to own my own boutique. I just didn’t know how. How to start, how to pay for it, how to run it. There was also another big problem. I’m a traveler. I love to roam and move to new locations. I grew up all over the midwest then after collage moved to the mountains of Colorado. From there I found myself in Door County, WI. I have since moved on from the shores of Lake Michigan and now split my time between small town country livin’ in Wisconsin for the Summers and residing sea side in the Florida Keys for the Winters. So you can see how it was going to be hard to start a boutique with my all this moving around. While traveling I stay at many different trailer parks and found a love for all the different trailers. I would walk the dogs in the evening and check out all the variety the different parks had to offer. I absolute fell in love with the old vintage trailers. Then it hit me! A traveling boutique! I could go to shows and festivals, offer pop-ups within other businesses, and have an online store for the down time. I started searching Marketplace for old trailers just to see what was out there and there she was! A 1958 Shasta Airflyte! And she was Yellow! The name Marigold’s would fit perfectly! So with little construction help and a fresh paint job Marigold’s Traveling Boutique became a reality.

My Boutique sells a variety of clothing, accessories, candles, and fragrance with a boho country flare. I figure as long as I love it, it will fit my brand and my followers will love it too. Not only do they love the clothing but they love the experience. I get to hear the stories of their childhoods camping in a similar trailer. The good times they shared on the road and all the places they have been. The smiles of everyone who walk by and say to their friend ” what a great idea!” I feel so grateful at the end of the day that I got to live out my dream in such a creative way.

Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?

While most of my business comes from in person shows, I do have an online shop. My thought process was to have a way to still sell in-between shows. That was a major step for me. I didn’t know the first thing about putting together an Ecommerce website. I barely know how to run a computer! It took me months to put together a site that I was pround of. And even though it wasn’t perfect I was so proud of myself for accomplishing it. I remember hitting the publish button and just sitting there like, HERE WE GO and waiting for that first order to come though. I waited and waited. Day after day. Nothing. I felt so defeated. No one told me how slow an online store could be. I just assumed that I would build it and they would just come and shop. In time I started to get orders and while it’s still a work in progress I’m grateful to other business owners that have shared there wisdom with me and kept me motivated to continue.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Social Media has never been my strong point. I struggle with, am I posting too much? Am I not posting enough? Will my posts look professional?” I finally just had to go for it and in time I started to feel more and more comfortable. I just had to say to myself, If they follow me on social media it’s most likely because they want to see what I have to offer and they enjoy following my journey. Sometimes I like to go on my Instagram and look back at how far I’ve come. I’m proud of myself for conquering my fears and just going for it. Best advice I can give is just be you and do what feels right. Don’t feel like you have to fit into someone else’s mold. What’s right for someone else’s business might not be what’s best for you. Just be yourself and go for it!

Contact Info:

• Website: [email protected]
• Instagram: @marigolds_traveling_boutique

Image Credits

Ashley Kalbus Photography