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

Christina, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?

Yes, I am extremely happy as a business owner. While it comes with many challenges and down sides at times I wouldn’t trade it. Owning my own business allows flexibility and making decisions for myself. During times of financial stress years ago, I found myself thinking about receiving a regular and reliable paycheck from someone else. The energy it took to juggle payables, payroll and my own personal expenses was draining. But after working through all of it I know it was a lesson I couldn’t learn in school or in someone else’s business.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Retail was not something I had set my sights on when I moved to Northern Michigan at 23. I had gone to Western Michigan University for 4 years but moved up north when I married thinking we would end up back down state and I would graduate, etc.

I started working at Boyne Highlands with the front desk team since I was a Travel & Tourism major and soon realized I wasn’t happy there. So I reached out to the golf pro shop and started working there. During the 6 years I worked for them I learned how to merchandise (display), as well as purchase and receive inventory. I was able to work in all of their locations and had some management responsibilities as well.
Through that position I met people at Bay Harbor Company, a development firm, who hired me away to open a Men’s/Women’s store for them, which became Threads. I was 29 at the time and a couple years later they offered to sell to me. 2024 is the 25th anniversary of the business and I couldn’t be more grateful.

Customer Service is something we pride ourselves on. Going out of our way to find an item for a customer or accommodate them is key. We are also consistent and reliable in having beautiful merchandise and I think that keeps our clients coming back year after year.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Covid was a real test of resiliency. After the initial shock of closing for an unknown period of time I was able to dive in and get a handle on pending shipments, cash flow (which was at the worst time seasonally for me) and communicating with and servicing clients. When I re-opened a couple months later, I was in a great position to move forward and have one of the best years to date.
Instead of curling up and staying afraid, my resiliency helped me work every day and tackle the issues and challenges in front of me.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

As I shared in an earlier answer I bought the business from my boss, but feel very blessed. He approached me and asked if I wanted to buy it. I was 32 and told them yes but didn’t know how I would be able to as I had no money at the time and wasn’t sure how or who I could get it from.

They offered to front me for a year and said I would just have to pay them for the cost of the inventory. After that I would need to go to the bank and borrow anything I still owed. Everything else would be given to me such as display racks, computers, hangers, paper clips etc!
He also co-signed a small line of credit for me for the first year.

On closing day I gave them the money from the til and put my own cash in the drawer and never looked back.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://shopthreadsonline.com https://aprespetoskey.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/threads_petoskey/ https://www.instagram.com/apresbythreads/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/threadspetoskey https://www.facebook.com/apresbythreads
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/?trk=homepage-basic_sign-in-submit