We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Etty Berkowitz a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Etty thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
I initially started with wanting to create a slim fitted toddler and kid pant. My son was always very petite and slim and I felt he needed a better fit than the standard kid pants on the market. I began looking into manufacturing but ultimately decided to pivot and get to know the market better before creating anything. I decided to first become a retailer, buying and selling other brands to properly understand what people wanted to buy for their kids.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Both of us are energetic and motivated and we both have a strong drive to grow and succeed. As a team we work well together, with each of us bringing our talents to the business. We pride ourselves in choosing the best brands and coolest new designs each season. We scour the children’s trade shows and carefully select a curated selection to bring to our boutique. We do our best to offer excellent customer service and often cultivate a personal relationship with many of our customers.
How’d you meet your business partner?
I initially started my children’s boutique as an online store. I stored the inventory in my small apartment and sometimes local customers would come by and shop in person. I got into a conversation with a customer about looking for a small office space to run the business out of and she mentioned that I should get in touch with Chaya. I didn’t know Chaya at the time but came to learn she was running a similar online store for women. We were introduced and hit it off immediately. I ended up renting part of her office space to store my inventory. We continued this way for sometime, sharing the same space and running two separate businesses out of it. It didn’t take long to realize that our customer was often the same – women shopping either for themselves or their children and often overlapping. In 2018 we decided to create The Shoppe Miami – a combination of both businesses catering to women and kids.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
When we moved our online store into a retail location we were taking a huge leap of faith, going from a small office space and into a larger street front retail location. Setting up the retail location was overwhelming and quite a large expense for our small business. We wanted our store to be cute and inviting and we wanted to invest in good quality fixtures to go with our aesthetic. We ended up finding a store that was going out of business and selling furniture and fixtures. The pieces were custom made, bulky and very heavy. We were on a tight budget so we enlisted our husbands to help move them. The four of us eventually managed to get the move done, although it did take a lot of muscle and sweat and careful maneuvering through the small door.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.theshoppemiami.com
- Instagram: @theshoppemiamikids
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shopminimemiami/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-shoppe-miami-miami-beach