We recently connected with Andrea Minnillo and have shared our conversation below.

Andrea, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

How I got started – my business details:

The Girl Republic stemmed from my frustrations when purchasing clothes for my children. I have 2 girls and 1 boy and when I would shop for my daughters, everything was princess type of clothing and I so desperately wanted to find a cool tee-shirt with something like a volleyball on it and I couldn’t find anything. When my son was born, I noticed all his clothes were all about action and accomplishing. I kept thinking what is the message we are telling our young girls? I set off on a mission to develop a clothing and merchandising line with products and designs that speak to girls and their true passions in life.

What most proud of and what I want people to know about my business today:

I originally started my business with inspiration from those closest to me, my family. The idea of The Girl Republic stemmed from frustrations while shopping for my children, but didn’t expect my two daughters to get so involved in the day to day of my business.

When I started, my main focus was selling my merchandise in vending events here in Cincinnati, Ohio. There is alot of preparation and planning that goes into participating in a local vending event, and from day one, my daughters were eagerly involved. With prior plans of being ready a week before the date with little to no stress never happened. I was usually up the wee hours of the morning in my mother’s basement counting inventory, packing boxes and loading my car as quickly as possible to then race home to get a few hours of sleep before waking up super early the following morning to drive down to setup for the event. My oldest was 10 at the time and she was always there with me, packing up the boxes and car and it saved me hours of time. The day of, she would wake up with me to head off and spend a few hours setting up before the event started. We would both be there all day until the early evening talking with customers, handling sales, posting on social media until it ended and we had to pack up again to head home.

I always thought their interest would wane, but it’s only growing with more curiosity and a greater understanding of how to run a small business and all that goes into it. My day to day life is beyond busy with my children’s schedules, coaching their sports teams, and employed as an analyst at another company that I was getting to a point where I was tapped out and stretched too thin. But a lot of that has changed this summer with teaching my daughters web design, inventory tracking/analysis, marketing, etc. to relieve some of the work load off of me, but also transform them into true TGR employees who have a passion for the business. And honestly, that is what keeps me going and pushing forward to expand the business. Family businesses aren’t always easy but the lessons learned with those closest to you can bond you for life.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

Definitely the Instagram platform and also local vending events. Instagram is a great platform to connect with customers, and it is fairly easy to use. I definitely have had to learn quickly and made alot of mistakes along the way as never having used IG until I opened up my business, but the effort to learn it and use it is worth it.

Local vending events are also great for my business. Sometimes weather is a factor and that is the risk you take, but being able to connect with customers face to face is extremely important and meaningful.

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

My business was started with the intention to grow and build through ecommerce. It has not been easy by any means and my website right now live was entirely designed and built by myself.

I am in the process, along with my daughters, on building an entirely new website and platform with a company called Cinnova. I received a grant to rebuild my website through a local Aviatra (Aviatra Accelerators is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization which focuses on women starting and sustaining businesses by giving them the resources they need to be successful.) chapter and the process has been interesting to say the least. They are the experts and understand ecommerce and my vision.

We expect to launch the new website within the next month and it will allow me much more flexibility on an improved platform. Starting off you have to maybe begin with little to no resources and I am lucky right now to hire the experts to improve my website.

Contact Info:

• Website: thegirlrepublic.com
• Instagram: thegirlrepublic
• Facebook: thegirlrepublic

Image Credits
Drummer girl: Quinn Keininger Girl with Elephant: Samira Javed