We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jen Nylin. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jen below.

Jen, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?

Jenny in the City began in the basement of our small South Minneapolis 1915 house in the winter of 2017. I worked years in retail and after staying home with my youngest knew I wanted to start my own business, but didn’t have the funding or time to start big. So I started small with a little investment on my credit card.

For over a year in my home I used my profits to continue to build my inventory, not yet taking any pay for myself. By December 2018 we were able to move into my first brick and mortar (950 square feet) and continue to build my business. I continued to turn all my profits into more inventory and by early 2020 I finally had my first small paycheck.

Spring and Summer 2020 was of course a huge curveball for us (and many other small businesses!). Our storefront was closed during the shutdown and we worked morning to night trying to sell online to try and make up as much lost income as we could. I would fulfill orders in our store while my husband would deliver the orders to doorsteps around Minneapolis. All while our girls were doing school remotely in our closed storefront. Our store income fell so short of what it normally would, but we pressed on.

In May 2020 we had just re-opened when the riots began in the wake of the death of George Floyd in our neighborhood. We woke one morning to a message from a neighbor telling us the gas station by our store was burning. We quickly took as much inventory out of the store as we could and boarded the door and windows closed. Our store had to take a pause for a few weeks again (this time without being able to fulfill any online orders).

There were many days I didn’t know how we were going to continue, but I took everything one day at a time. Sometimes one hour at a time. The rest of 2020 brought constant pivoting, applying for loans and grants to pay our bills, and a continuing mindset that quitting wasn’t an option.

In 2021 we took a huge risk and opened a second location focused on home decor, gifts, and cards. We spent 2021 and 2022 building that business (Blank Inside) while continuing to grow our original Jenny in the City location. Post-pandemic felt very much like completely starting over for our business. We had to be flexible, creative, and continue to pivot to what our customers needed, and how to bring in new customers.

This year I knew a change needed to happen. Our clothing business was finally flourishing I knew we had outgrown the spaces we had. The summer of 2022 brought lots of searching and an unexpected find of a beautiful storefront in St. Paul on Selby Ave. It was a bigger space that would allow growth and the opportunity for us to combine a clothing store with our Blank Inside store (which was bringing in less income then we had hoped). We couldn’t move forward with it, however, until we subleased our Blank Inside space first. I knew we couldn’t afford the leases for both spaces even though I wanted to take the risk and move forward.

Months went by and I thought for sure we were going to lose the space in St. Paul. At the last minute another small local business came across our path and it was a perfect fit for her. She signed a sublease and we began the process of moving our Blank Inside store and ADDING a Jenny in the City store in our new space!

Weeks of long days, moving, (a week of influenza A!), and lots of designing and building, and we opened our new space on November 26th. A space that is twice the size of the space we moved from.

Never would I have dreamed that we would have two storefronts years ago when I first opened our little boutique in our basement. It is so fun seeing our newest store open and knowing we have survived through multiple years of challenges and unexpected turns. I have days of utter gratitude knowing we have come through the last few years-not unscathed- but we made it through. Just recently my business hit the 1,000,000 mark in gross sales (which a very small percentage of women owned businesses do). That doesn’t mean I have a big salary, or a lot of money in the bank, but it means we have used so much to continue to build our business, been able to pay a small staff, and have been able to work with that many people over the last few years.

Here’s to 2023 being our best year yet :)

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I have always loved fashion and clothes. Apparently as a 2 year old I was very opinionated about what I wore and would tell my mom “I not wear that, that ugly!” Very early signs of a future boutique owner apparently!

I worked retail throughout college and loved the opportunity to help style women and make them feel great in their clothes. I became even more passionate about what it meant to wear clothes that made us feel good after having children and experiencing a changing new body.

Our boutique began out of that passion of helping women feel great in what they wear. That they can find pieces that feel good and can transition across multiple parts of their life regardless of whether they are home, or go to an office everyday. I also love that we have been able to build a boutique with more inclusive sizing (which is hard to find in small boutiques for women!).

One of my favorite parts of our business is our original lines we have designed. Our Be a Kind Human line came out of the pandemic and was an opportunity for us to spread kindness, and also give back to our community. It is for sure my favorite thing we have done since opening. I love being around MN and seeing different people wearing our Be a Kind Human shirts. My husband calls it “seeing it in the wild!”

Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?

When the pandemic began we took such a huge hit in finances we couldn’t afford payroll or rent. There have been a number of times during the pandemic where we were short for payroll and I would have to borrow from our personal checking and savings to cover our bills.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

I think personal recommendations is the best source of new clients for us. There is nothing better then the personal story/testimony of a person who has shopped with us and loved their experience. My goal for the end of this year is to develop a new brand ambassador program because I have recognized how valuable the personal experience is when shared!

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.shopjennyinthecity.com
• Instagram: @jennyinthecitympls
• Facebook: @jennyinthecitympls
• Other: Tik tok: @jennyinthecitympls

Image Credits
Hannah Jo Photography Rebecca Mathison Photography Ashlyn Perkins Photography