We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kacie Obradovich a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Kacie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Often outsiders look at a successful business and think it became a success overnight. Even media and especially movies love to gloss over nitty, gritty details that went into that middle phase of your business – after you started but before you got to where you are today. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. Can you talk to us about your scaling up story – what are some of the nitty, gritty details folks should know about?
In 2013 I purchased an existing baby furniture store, Sugarfoo’ts Baby Boutique, along with a partner. I had worked for the original owner of the business years before. I had loved it and it never felt like work. My husband and I discussed purchasing the business off and on for several years but the timing was never right. A year after purchasing the business we decided to relocate just a couple miles down the road in a downtown location. The plan was to expand into childrens furniture as well and rebrand under a new name, Confetti Interiors. Shortly after the expensive renovation and move to the new location I found my self the sole owner of a business that was not living up to the potential that I had hoped. I had sacrificed so much money and time away from my elementary age children. At the time my father’s health was also rapidly deteriorating. We still had several years left in our lease and I just wasn’t sure how long we could hang on. It is uncomfortable looking back at those days. I learned a lot of lessons and I think I learned them all the hard way. I just knew I couldn’t just give up.
An unexpected plot twist really turned things around and started me on a path to my current success. Another business really wanted our new downtown location and our landlord asked if I would consider leaving. I ended up in a storefront that was less than half of what we had previously had but was more manageable for one person. It was also close to my home and to where my father lived. I struggled as a “furniture store” because of the lack of space but I was centrally located to a handful of schools and neighborhoods packed with families.
I quickly realized that it was easier to sell gift items than large ticket items like beds and dressers. I was not able to compete with the online store who would ship the same product to their doors. So I adjusted. The traffic for quick gifts continued to rise. I eventually eliminated all furniture and focused on children’s gifts.
All my problems were not solved. I still struggled with cash flow and it was hard to keep our shelved filled but for the first time I could see that I was headed in the right direction. Children’s gifts brought in adults who also needed gifts. I continued to expand what we offered. As a busy mother myself, I understood my customers so well. They had a long “to do” list and not much time. They needed quick gifts, (gift wrapping was a must), and they needed to be able to get it done between dropping off and picking up multiple kids from multiple locations.
If I had to pin my success on one factor, I would say it was the ability to offer busy women what they need most. More time in their day. I focused on customer services and good products. To this day the two things we hear most often continue to be our compass. “I don’t know what I would do if you were not here!” and “You have such cute stuff that I don’t see anywhere else.” Customers realized they could call ahead and we would have something wrapped and ready for them. They could even send their babysitter or husband by to pick up. We began pre wrapping our most popular item I got creative and worked harder. I started doing live videos to show our products and offered curbside pick up and delivery. We also saw our online sales grow. Our flexability allowed us to still serve current customers and build relationships with new customers. As our customer base grew, so did what we offered. So much of our business revolved around celebrations we started offering seasonal and party supplies. That is when we solidified our identity and began to thrive. not just survive.
During December of 2022 it was obvious we have maxed out our space. We either needed to grow in size or take something out of our product offering. There was an empty space at the other end of the shopping center that was twice as wide as our current space. It was partially divided which would make it perfect for our developing business model of half party store and half gift store. My husband likes to remind me that the previous year he mentioned moving to that location and I laughed in his face. At the time we were still just happy to be able to pay rent without having to contribute personally. We decided to take the leap. Before, we were a furniture store that morphed into a gift shop and the space was never set up to function as a gift shop. We knew that if we made the jump we had to do it right. With a clear identity of who we were, we carefully planned out the new space.
After signing the new lease we had 3 months to renovate the new space before we started paying rent on the new location. We did as much of the work as we could. I would go in early and work in the new space as much as possible before opening the store. May is one of our busiest months of the year but we were on the clock. I was doing construction in one spot then running, literally, to the other to help with a rush. Finally, in June of 2022 we opened in our current expanded location under a more accurate name, Confetti Gift & Party.
Over 10 years this business has had 4 locations and 3 name changes but I am 100 percent confident that we have become exactly what we were meant to be. I know they say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. For me I think the more accurate saying would be, “What doesn’t kill you makes you grateful.” I am obsessively grateful. We take our customers very seriously but not our selves. We have fun and want others to experience that too when they are in the shop. In a time where you can get most anything online we have to offer something special. For us, it is the personal touch. Guests like being in our beautiful bright space with cheerful faces. They know we will help them solve whatever gift delima they are in and help them get on with their day.
Kacie, 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?
My background is in commercial Interior Design. I received my degree is from Mississippi State University. After graduating I traveled with my husband who played professional baseball. Because we traveled part of the year I did not immediately start my career in my chosen field. During the off season I got a job at an adorable baby store that sold furniture as well and nursery bedding and decor. I loved every day of that job. After we settled back home for good in our hometown of Tuscaloosa, Al I worked for a local design firm but was contracted fulltime to a large university where I worked on new buildings, renovations, and furniture packages for departments all over a growing campus. I did that for just over 3 years. It was an amazing job but I could never love anything as much as I had loved working in the baby store. When the timing was right, or so I thought, I decided to make that my career and purchase the business that still held my heart. While my commercial design career was brief, it gave me so many tools that I use daily in maintaining a storefront.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
We don’t have a huge audience on social media but we have a consistent and engaged following. It is very easy to compare yourself to your “competition” on social media. I used to look at other retail stores and some had a huge following and their feed was beautiful and immaculate. I won’t say that ours is unattractive, but it is more about sharing what we think our customers might be looking for at the time. Our inventory changes rapidly so for us, it doesn’t make sense to spend a lot of time on pictures because what is here this week will probably be gone in 2 weeks. We like so show “staff picks” each week of what we love in the store. I also like to do videos and show various items that work well together for a gift or creative ways to gift an item. I let customer feedback guide how and what we post. For example, customers consistently comment how helpful our videos are so we make sure that we do them often. I don’t need 20,000 people to scroll over my post. I just need the important ones to see it and find something that they want or need. I had to stop focusing on quantity and realize that quality followers were where the value is.
Our store is not like other stores and our social media must reflect what we are so that when customers come in the first time they get exactly what they expect. We are fun, we cater to busy families, and if you walk in at any given time there are items that have been rearranged by a 4 year old. I think it is important that first time guests to walk in to a familiar face so we try to make sure we post our team often. I can tell that customers are comfortable with us even if they are not our regulars because of how easily they interact with us.
My best advise is to find your own style that reflects your business. Don’t get caught up in assuming that other businesses are more successful than yours. Set your goals and work toward them. I watch other businesses but I do it so that I don’t pick up lines others in my area carry. I also like to know what other businesses have so that I can direct my customers to other local businesses when I don’t have what they are looking for rather than them going straight to big box stores or online retailers.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
To be completely honest, I did not know a lot about owning a business when I became a business owner and I had some misconceptions that I had to debunk on my own. Like many new or inexperienced owners, I looked at the sales to tell me if we were doing well and growing. I was YEARS in before I really dug into my books and numbers. I had to teach myself to really see what they numbers were telling me. Sometimes you have to read between the lines. One January we had amazing sales. On the surface. What really happened was we sold off all our furniture floor models below our cost because they were not making us money. On the surface it was a great January. The next January’s sale numbers were not as good until I looked at what we sold and it was all full priced items with great margins. So the total was less but the profit was there. I have had to look hard at what items are just not making me money. Not because they don’t sell but because the cost of getting them is just too high. Especially with rising shipping costs. I can’t just look at the cost vs the retail price any more.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.confettigiftandparty.com
- Instagram: @confettigiftandparty
- Facebook: confettigiftandparty
Image Credits
I have rights to all photographs.