We recently connected with Christy Pope And Toni South and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Christy Pope , thanks for joining us today. Being a business owner can be really hard sometimes. It’s rewarding, but most business owners we’ve spoken sometimes think about what it would have been like to have had a regular job instead. Have you ever wondered that yourself? Maybe you can talk to us about a time when you felt this way?
The last time we wondered, “wouldn’t it be nice to have a regular job?!” was during the month of December. When you own a retail business, the fourth quarter, but especially December, is insanely busy and crazy. Some of our small business retail pals claim to make 75% of their income or more during this “busy season”. For us, we are saying yes to extending our hours, showcasing our goods outside of our brick & mortar for special events, adding services to our repertoire such as holiday gift wrap and delivery; and we face the reality of saying “no” to a lot of social events and family outings that are typical during this time of the year.
Most of our friends and family members are taking time off of work, going on vacation and scaling back their career duties. On the opposite end, we are working harder than ever, sleeping less and stressing more! It sounds pretty bad when you put it that way, but truth be told, for both of us it has come to be one of our strengths. Turns out we kind of strive on hustle; and we are very lucky that our inner circle supports and values the hustle as well. We have amazing staff, but it sometimes takes unpaid family help to truly make it work. Our significant others, children, best friends and siblings really step up to the plate during fourth quarter. When we could feel sad about missing a holiday dinner or party, they bring the food and company to us; when we feel overwhelmed or short staffed they take over greeting customers and tying ribbons. The community we have built around CLT Find definitely makes up for it not being a “regular job”. Other perks include the ability to bring your child to work whenever necessary, access to the amazing locally made goods we sell, and building relationships with both vendors and customers that will last a lifetime. We are pretty grateful for our non traditional work/life scenario…even when the vacation stars don’t always align.
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?
We are Christy Pope & Toni South, co owners of CLT Find. CLT Find began 8 years ago when we realized a shared love of buying outside of the box! Christy is a local children’s book author in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Toni makes organic/holistic skincare. We met when we bought each other’s products to give as gifts and struck up a conversation about our desire to buy unique items that look different from the norm. Jewelry that is hand crafted, local pottery, leather goods such as handbags and totes that are sewn here in Charlotte, small batch soaps, skincare and of course local art. One day over lunch, the idea of putting a large number of Charlotte based makers & creatives under one roof came to light. We found a space in the Uptown neighborhood that caters to both tourists and locals, and have grown from there to include a second brick and mortar shop, online shop and hosting pop up shops. What started with about 30 individual makers has grown to over 120. You can find just about anything from apparel, jams, chocolate, coffee, glassware, baby blankets, cutting boards, handbags, planters, leather dopp kits, body scrubs, hand soaps, and we sell a lot of beautiful jewelry and art.
One of our favorite aspects of the business is our ability to accommodate bulk corporate gifting. There has been a rise in large corporations using smaller mom and pop shops to fulfill employee appreciation gifts, new hire gifts, welcome baskets and holiday gifts. We have access to thousands of products and can work with any budget to customize your order. We have shipped gifts all over the United States, signed NDAs for gifts delivered to high profile clients, and delivered thousands of gift boxes here in Charlotte. We also love to assist with local weddings by providing gift bags and specialized items for bridal parties.
How did you build your audience on social media?
Social media has played a huge role in the success of CLT Find. We were both newer to the Instagram platform when our business began, but we quickly realized how many customers engage via Facebook and Instagram. We do have a presence on TikTok, but admittedly the bulk of our demographic still mostly uses Facebook and Instagram. We have heard and read ALL of the advice about how to best run a business social media account. Advice ranging from making scheduled posts, defining your “aesthetic”, using professional quality photography, etc. Though we are not marketing professionals, we can say without a doubt that what works for us is to just show up. Post, post post. Share, share, share. Show your customers all of the new inventory and products that you can; show them the inside of your shop; show them your neighborhood and how they can access you; and definitely show them your face! Do not get bogged down with color schemes, filters or perfection. This allows strangers to build more of a connection and to feel that you are accessible to them; making a potential customer more likely to comment, direct message or visit your website. Engaging with your followers may seem overwhelming and time consuming, but the payoff is big. We have so much repeat business through taking the time to respond to messages and provide one to one customer service in the beginning.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
This question piggybacks on the one above for CLT Find. I think our reputation has been built on personal interactions with our vendors, customers and other members of the small business community. Authenticity and not always appearing like we are perfect, wildly successful or too busy to make the time for the people who uphold our business. We are very far from perfect and always entertain constructive feedback; our success is measured through customer satisfaction, not monetary transactions; and at the end of the day we want our makers, employees and customers to feel appreciated.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.cltfind.com
- Instagram: @CLTFind
- Facebook: CLT Find
Image Credits
Christy Pope