Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Brenna Tucker. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Brenna, thanks for joining us today. Parents play a huge role in our development as youngsters and sometimes that impact follows us into adulthood and into our lives and careers. Looking back, what’s something you think you parents did right?

My mom was a single parent but not in the normal single parent sense. When you hear the saying “it takes a village” it really took a village to raise me. I had an amazing support system going up. My family truly encouraged everyone of us to be whoever we wanted to be. My mom worked her way up from a dishwasher in a hospital kitchen to Director of Food and Nutrition for that same hospital. She taught me that I am never alone and to always lean on my family when I need help. She would have never been able to move to the top without the support of my aunts, uncles and grandparents to watch me while she worked. If I wanted to participate in any sports or go on any school trip, she made it happen. She attending every color guard and cheerleading event. If she couldn’t attend all of my family was there in the stands. When my mom passed away in March of 2016, I didn’t know if I could continue on with any of my dreams. I was 100% sure that any motivation I had to do anything was gone. I didn’t finish college, I only had one credit left too. I packed up and moved 700 miles away from home. In 2020 when I wanted to start my business my family again showed up in full force. My grandma was even one of the models in my first photoshoot. All of my aunts placed orders on the first day and they are continuously sharing my posts on Facebook. When we moved into a store front in 2021, my grandfather’s brothers came out and helped build the gate used to close off from customers at night. My husband and his friends built the fitting rooms. Every aspect of my business’s success has been built on the fact that my mom taught me that family is always going to be there for me. When I had my 1,000th sale, when I had my first $2,000 sale and when I had to close my store front and go back online, my family has been here. They are right beside me ever step of the way. I am so grateful for her teaching me that it’s okay to ask for help and it’s okay to not go in it alone. Because without my family the good stuff wouldn’t be so good and the bad stuff is a heck of a lot easier to get through.

Brenna, 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?

Hello, I am Brenna, owner of Tuesday’s. I feel like I was raised in fashion and that retail is in my blood. Growing up my Aunt Bitsy and my grandmother helped my mother raise me. I was surrounded by strong women who knew that a good outfit could change your whole day, but each had their own fashion motto. Bitsy believed you couldn’t leave your house without lipstick and a great statement necklace. I remember sitting on her couch waiting for her to get ready listening to her tell me the importance of a well put together outfit. She said, “A phenomenal outfit will make a woman and her day.” My grandmother is my favorite shopping buddy. She always said, “If you find something that you love and it fits well, buy it in every color.” Then there was my mother, my body is shaped the exact same as hers. We’ve always struggled to find things that fit our waist and our hips, our arms, our booty and our belly. If we couldn’t find any clothes that fit we’d always end up in the Dillard’s accessory department. She’d always say, “The jeans might not fit, but shoes and bags always will.” All of these women shaped my love of clothing. When I turned 18 and landed my first job in retail it was history from there. I started working in higher end retail; hosting fashion shows, private shopping events and mostly helping women fall in love with themselves the way my mom, grandmother and aunt had taught me to love my body. The retail bug had gotten me. I worked for companies that helped women find their favorite jeans, blazers and even intimates. I was starting to realize everything that went into making an outfit from well fitting undergarments to a beautiful statement necklace. I knew one day I’d have my own store and I’d be able to help more women fall in love with fashion and more importantly fall in love with themselves. Here at Tuesday’s we will aim to do just that. We carry everything from Intimates to Outerwear and Self Care to Home Goods. We want to help you fall in love with every part of your life, even on a Tuesday.

But it’s not just me. There are others behind the scenes helping everyday to make this dream come true. My grandmother, my friends and my husband help me pack orders, take photos for the website and keep me caffeinated. Together we are Tuesday’s.

Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?

In the slower months, I keep my inventory low and after the first Farmer’s Market of the year I plan out the rest of the year based on that Market. Last year’s first market was also my first time attending this particular market. It was a night time event about an hour from my house and we packed all the essentials; tent, weights for the tents and covers in case of bad weather. We were having a great event. I ran out of business cards, we sold a full rack of clothing and were unpacking another box to refill the rack when rain started coming. We started to pack up and then a huge burst of wind came through and despite the weights, our tent was lifted. All of our racks were blown over, jewelry and glassware were all over the street. Our brand new iPad was shattered. The next thirty minutes we spent cleaning up our tent and helping every vendor we could all while the rain kept coming down, the wind blowing and the street was beginning to flood. I have never seen a community pull together so quickly. We had people helping us throw clothes in the back of our trailer, our tent was recovered in one piece and some products were even brought back. We helped vendors that had product sitting in puddles, return product to other vendors and carry product parking lots away to their cars. We lost a couple thousand dollars in product that day. I also learned that our insurance doesn’t cover product when it leaves our county. It wasn’t something I had even thought about asking for. It was a huge learning experience because I do a lot of events outside of my county. It took a while for me to recover from this because some of the props and equipment weren’t as easy to replace and I didn’t have the funds to just replace all the product we lost, especially coming off the slow season. After a loss like that, I had to stay even more consistent in my business. It’s been a little under a year now and I am still attending Farmer’s Markets, doing pop-ups and going steady online. It was tough because the morning of the event, I would’ve told you that I was prepared for anything but I was in fact, not prepared for Mother Nature.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

We’ve all heard the myth of oversaturation in markets. It’s not hard to find a small business boutique owned by a woman, pull up your Tiktok and there are lots of us. When I started working boutiques there was a lot of competition instead of community and there was this idea there was already “too many” boutiques in our area. As a shopaholic myself, you can never have too much of a good thing. I love a small business woman owned company. It’s kind of my jam but I was so used to working with women that saw other woman as competition because they too believed the market had too many of us. I started posted online and I kept my head down because I didn’t want to be “copied” and I didn’t want to be seen as “competition”. As I started to grow in the online space I began to find other women that were creating their businesses. I was creating relationships with them and we were becoming friends. I didn’t see that as competition, I saw them as my people. I finally had people in my life who understood what it was like to run a business. There are highs and lows that some people just don’t understand. We were hosting giveaways together, calling each other to cheer each other on after big sales, and even helping each other through the slumps. I learned from being surrounded by positive women that these women are not my competition. They have their own markets and I have mine. They are also taught me that my town may be small and we have a lot of boutiques but the same theory still applies, those boutiques also have their own markets and their own client bases. People can also shop all of them. Someone once said to me that it’s like when you go to the mall, everyone leaves with bags from different stores throughout. Why are our businesses any different? If you’re looking to start a business in a market that feels oversaturated, just remember that you haven’t started it yet and you could be the difference the market is needing.

Contact Info:

• Website: tuesdaysboutique.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tuesdaysboutique/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Tuesdays-Boutique/100063841493959/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brenna-tucker-cross-117a31231
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@tuesdaysboutique