We were lucky to catch up with Beth Stutzman Emily Baker recently and have shared our conversation below.
Beth Stutzman, appreciate you joining us today. What’s something crazy on unexpected that’s happened to you or your business
We first opened House to Home in the old Wayne Candy factory. It was a beautiful, old building, but with it came many quirks (such as leaking all over our expensive inventory!). About a year in, the opportunity presented itself to move to The Landing; a beautifully restored historic block in downtown Fort Wayne. That, in and of itself, was a miracle. Columbia street was where we originally dreamed about being even before it had been restored and revived. Every time we ran into a road block, we surrendered it and accepted that it must not be Gods plan; but then the doors just kept opening, the path was laid, and it became a reality!
In February 2020, we prepared for the big move. Moving a 5000+ sf furniture store & warehouse is no joke… it involved ALL of our family and friends and lots of late nights. We had to be closed for two weeks to make it all happen. Due to the logistics of our existing lease we HAD to be out by a certain date. Originally it seemed like no problem, but as with all thing construction related, one delay after another lead to us being essentially homeless when the time came. Instead of being able to move directly into our new store/warehouse, we had to move everything across the street into an empty “holding place” while we eagerly awaited our occupancy permit. Our Grand Re-opening was planned for March 7th and we were biting our nails hoping we didn’t have to reschedule. Being a brick and mortar store, closed for two weeks, sitting on thousands of dollars of inventory, while paying a ton of money to staff and movers is a bit tough. So we needed to be open!
On Thursday, March 5th we finally got the occupancy permit! We had less than 48hours to move everything from the “holding” space across the street, into our new space and get it all ready for people to shop. It was all hands on deck. With a few more late nights, lots of sweat and tears, and a ton of prayers… we made it! I remember as we were setting up one late night saying, “Hey, did you hear about the cases of Coronavirus in Indy??” and we talked a bit about it as we naively kept working.
Saturday, March 7th we had our amazing Grand Re-opening at our new location. Tons of friends, family and clients came out to support us. It was so fun and exhilarating. Our hard work had paid off.
Two days later, Emily took off on a trip to Costa Rica that had been planned for over a year. A few days into her trip, Beth called saying “I really don’t want to bother you, but things are looking bad over here. This Coronavirus thing is getting to be a real problem. I think we need to close the store”. So the same week we re-opened after a grueling move and two weeks of being closed, we made the hard, but necessary, decision to close the store until further notice. To be honest, we had no idea what was going to happen. The idea that a young brick and mortar store could survive a pandemic was insane. We prepared our hearts, our minds, our investors, and our families for the worst. But we also prayed, a lot. We knew God had called us into this and we didn’t feel like He was calling us out of it. So we knew something was in store – we just didn’t know what it was or what it would look like.
Turns out, He had the Fort Wayne community ready to rally! The increased in support for small businesses like ours was beautiful. People shopped our very rudimentary-thrown-together online shop, they literally “window-shopped” as they passed by on walks and called in to order things, and they participated in our “Instagram Live” shopping events. It was all new to everyone, and we were all in it together. Not only did we not go under during the shut down, we actually did better while “closed” all of April 2020 than we had during April 2019!
We would be lying if we said its been all easy from there. The negative effects on our business from the pandemic are still being felt; honestly, even more so now. But, we would be remiss of us to not celebrate the way God and the Fort Wayne community showed up during the shut down. We can now look back, with a smile, and tell the story of how we moved a furniture store TWICE and then survived a pandemic.
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?
Emily & Beth met through some mutual friends and connected over their shared in interest of old homes and interior design.
Beth went back to school for Interior Design after working as a Dental Assistant for 5 years, but dropped out after the stress of traveling an hour one way to get to and from classes got to be too much. She knew she had a natural eye for design and hoped that would be enough to at least get started. Meanwhile Emily was living in California working as a Project Manager / Executive Assistant. Emily went to school for business and has always had a passion for interior design. When Emily moved to Indiana in 2016, pregnant with her first. she felt it was time to pursue her passion for interior design.
The second time Beth and Emily ever spoke, Beth said “I think we should start a business together!” And so they did! They initially wanted to get into the home staging scene since there wasn’t much of a presence in Fort Wayne, but quickly found that it was hard to find quality, on-trend furniture locally. They figured other people may be facing the same issue. So the idea of opening a furniture and decor shop came into play. They created a business plan that involved a shop, staging, and design and presented it to their investors. A few months later, they began the hunt for a space and opened up shop in August of 2018.
Nearly 5 years in, we’ve developed a well established shop carrying a wide selection of high quality, transitional furniture and decor, and we have a thriving staging & design business. We are specifically excited about our new design studio located inside our shop on The Landing. This is a place we meet with clients to go over their design and selections and assist with all the home renovation and decorating needs. Our 3,000 sq ft showroom features carefully curated vignettes of furniture and decor that can be purchased and taken home the same day or special ordered in a number of other fabrics and finishes.
As designers, we don’t just design for the design-sake. We want to understand the intention and purpose behind a space, and help our clients feel truly “at home” there. Life happens in the “every day”, and we want to bring beauty to that experience, in even the smallest of moments. We believe in thoughtful curation, and seek out lasting pieces that our clients will cherish for years to come.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
In 2022, we took on a massive, on-going design client. It felt like such a huge win to have a steady stream of income in our design realm! We reorganized staff and schedules to make sure that we could accommodate the increased work load. It felt like the right move.
But about 2 months in, we could feel the anxiety, stress, and weight of it all was too much. It wasn’t just the workload – that we felt like we could figure out and handle. It was just the overall fit of the client with our business. They were amazing, it wasnt anything personal, but ultimately what they needed and wanted we could not give without sacrificing the rest of our business and our own personal well being. We even go to the point where we no longer loved our jobs. That was the first time in 4 years that we could say we dreaded coming into work. So we knew something needed to change. We worked with the client to adjust things and try to make it fit, but it became clear we were both trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. So after 3 months we came to a mutual agreement that this just wasn’t working. It was really hard for us to “turn down” business and it honestly felt like failure. But as we processed through with friends and family we can see that it wasn’t failure, it just wasn’t the right fit. And if we forced it to fit, it would negatively impact the rest of the things we had worked so hard to build.
That was a hard lesson in saying “yes” to too much. I think thats a hard lesson that every small business owner will learn, probably multiple times. As a young business, saying “no” to any kind of business or income for any reason seams counterintuitive. But we’ve learned how important it is to analyze every decision, even the ones that seem like no-brainers, to understand all the potential ramifications and impacts and to be ok saying “no” to something that seems good with the believe that it might not be the best.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
I don’t think we have just one story… there are a series of stories that combined make us so proud to still be standing strong today! We aren’t experts, and we aren’t perfect, but we are absolutely resilient!
Between moving our store (technically twice in a two week span), surviving a pandemic, and one of us having a baby every year we have been in business, its been a wild ride! We didn’t exactly know what we were saying yes to, and at times we even question our sanity for choosing this while in our young-child-rearing years. But we always said, if we are going to work and be away from our families at all, then we want it to be something we are passionate about and invests in our future. We have fought hard to maintain a flexible schedule that puts our families first. We aren’t perfect at it and we have to re-calibrate sometimes. But overall that has been a value of ours from day one and is the reason we have said no to a number of things along the way. We are actually currently in a season of pivoting and adjusting to make more time for our families and to realign, again, with what matters most to us in our business. I think our resilience is actually evident in the fact that we aren’t saying yes to everything, even when it may lead to more instant growth and success. Our resilience is demonstrated when we choose to stick to our core values even when it leads to slower growth and what others in the business realm may deem as less success.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.housetohomefw.com
- Instagram: @housetohomefw and @h2hdesignfw
Image Credits
Callie Brooke Images