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

Hi Karli, thanks for joining us today. Can you share a customer success story with us?

Our business is unique. We own brick and mortar gift shops built around local vendors and artisans. Each maker rents a portion of the store from us to create their own small “shop.” Our vendors are the heartbeat of our stores. Without them and their amazing products, we would not be the same. They really are our first customer.

Our next customer is our shopper. We are a happy place for them to come find unique, thoughtful items, gifts and a little pick-me-up. Without them our vendors wouldn’t be in business.

Enter 2020, when all brick and mortar shut down for in-person shopping. We were not selling online due to the breadth and volume of items from our makers. We needed to stay in business, but we had to be nimble and creative. Enter our Curate Care Packages. The day we closed our doors due to the mandates, we shot ourselves into action–to serve BOTH our customers…our vendors and our shoppers.

We launched the care packages on our social media accounts and they BLEW up! Our shoppers were still able to send amazing, carefully selected items to their loved ones for birthdays and anniversaries. Our vendors were able to stay in business because we still had money coming into the store while we were closed.

These individually curated gift boxes became such a hit, shoppers begged us to keep them after the pandemic closures and our vendors delight in being included in the boxes.

It has been a tipping point for BOTH our customers…yet another way we continue to be a happy place for all who enter!

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 spent nearly 16 years working a normal “8-5” corporate job in Public Relations and Marketing, running national campaigns you might recognize like “Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner.” On the side, I was painting furniture and hunting down the best vintage finds. I found an adorable store that rented space to local vendors, and jumped in with a booth that I shared with my mom.

With a degree in Merchandising, a passion for local small businesses and a love of retail, it soon became apparent to me that I wanted to be more involved in all that the store had to offer. In December of 2017, I became a co-owner of the store and worked for several years learning about the business from my partner.

In 2019, I became the sole owner of the store with a desire to grow upon past success. In January of 2020, I also became the owner of a similar store concept in the Denver area. Today, I run Curate: A Local Mercantile and the Makers Market stores with my husband!

We support the dream of more than 100 local small businesses as we connect the surrounding community to their amazing products. Our vendors create their own small shops, selling their one-of-a-kind handmade items, fabulous fashions, specialty goods, food gifts, home décor and so much more!

We’ve been chosen as neighborhood favorites by NextDoor for the last two years. We were named in the Westword 2019 “Best of Denver” awards for “Shops Inside a Shop!” In 2015 we were voted Reader’s Choice Top of the Town Best Gift Shop by 5280 Magazine, and in 2017 & 2018 we were voted as one of the top gift shops by the Denver A-List voters! We are so thankful for vendors and shoppers who make us their go-to shop for local artisan and boutique products! We are excited to continue providing unique products to South Denver over the coming years. If you haven’t been to the store yet, we would love to see you!

How did you build your audience on social media?

When I started out as the co-owner of my first store, social media was present, but never top of mind. It was something that was there with a Facebook page and Instagram. We’d share events on Facebook and static posts on Instagram.

I made an effort to post consistently on both of those platforms. I planned weekly posts and made it a goal to share stories throughout the week. Then I started showing up as myself. And that’s when things really changed!

I found that the more I showed my face and talked on the camera, the more engagement we had! People really started commenting and began to ask questions about the products.

Now people come in and see me in the stores and say, “I love following you on social media! I recognize you!”

I know it can be scary to put your face out there. I know you might not like your voice. I used to be the same! Back in my PR days I had to do media interviews and I would just cringe when I saw the clips. But you know what…the more you do it, the better you’ll get at it. Just keep showing up! Be a real person that your audience can connect with. People really want to support a person, not just a faceless nameless string of product photos.

Let’s move on to buying businesses – can you talk to us about your experience with business acquisitions?

I’ve purchased two businesses–both multi-vendor brick and mortar stores!

The first one, I bought in as a 50% owner. It was so intimidating! Business brokers, financial statements, lawyers, loans, and lots of deep conversations with my husband, who happens to be an accountant. We really had to get our ducks in a row and I really had to commit to “doing the dang thing.” It was a large enough amount of money that I knew I needed to really stick with it and want to do it long term!

About 1 1/2 years later, my partner decided she was done with the business and wanted to leave. I was heart broken, but had my husband cheering me on to keep going and keep the store alive! So we bought her out and did more legal documents and change of business ownership.

Two years ago, I was approached with a similar business that was for sale as the owner was stepping away. This time I knew more about the process, so I felt much more comfortable with all the legal documents, brokers, lawyers and business jargon. The transition process wasn’t quite as smooth since I was stepping in as a NEW owner vs a partner. But we managed through it all. And now that accountant husband of my, cheering me on the entire time, works beside me every day! He joined the company in late 2020!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.curatemercantile.com
• Instagram: /curatemercantile and /makersmarket_co and /karli_millspaugh
• Facebook: /curatemercantile and /makersmarketco