Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Lindsey Peusch. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Lindsey, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

I love this question! I can be a very indecisive person, so I knew when I was naming my boutique I had to come up with something that I would never get tired of. I wanted the name to be something short, sweet, and easy to remember; but also something meaningful. After months of brainstorming ideas, I decided to go with Ameliaj (uh-MEEL-yah-JAY). This is named after my niece, Amelia, and my nephew, JJ. I love the name and it has so much meaning to not only myself, but my entire family.

Lindsey, 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?

I was never that person who had a dream career and knew exactly what I wanted to do right out of high school. I always knew I wanted to do something creative and something that I truly loved.  I am thankful that I grew up with parents who did not force me to go to college right out of high school, but instead, allowed me to have time to figure out what it was that I really wanted to do while working different jobs and gaining experience. I eventually enrolled in college and after trying a few different majors, I still could not find anything that I fell in love with. Opening my own boutique had been in the back of my mind since I was in high school, but following through with the idea seemed impossible given that I had no experience running a business. I didn’t have a business degree, mentor, or startup money, but I did have a passion for it and a family that supported me every step of the way. After years of googling and a lot of stress I launched AMELIAJ in the summer of 2019 in a spare room of my parents house. I was and still am the buyer, customer service rep, social media manager and web designer. At first, this seemed overwhelming, but my love for it continued to grow and suddenly it didn’t feel like work anymore. I had finally found my creative career path that I fell in love with. AMELIAJ offers a variety of women’s clothing, accessories, and seasonal handmade candles. My main goal is to build relationships with my customers so that they feel like AMELIAJ was curated for them. We offer options that fit many different styles and body types so that our customers feels confident and ready to take on whatever comes their way when wearing any AMELIAJ item. There have been plenty of ups and downs since the start of AMELIAJ in 2019 and I continue to learn from this business every day.  If there is one thing that I hope people take from this article is that if I can do it, so can you. You don’t always have to have all the answers or knowledge, but as long as you’re passionate about something the possibilities are endless.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

As a small business owner I feel like pivoting can sometimes be constant, but one of the biggest decisions to pivot came when I decided to close my storefront. I opened a storefront in 2021 and was very proud of myself as it had been a longtime goal of mine. Unfortunately, like all things, you live and you learn and I learned that my original business model had more success and I decided to close the storefront and navigate back to online only and pop ups. I did not handle the store closure well and it took me a long time to get my motivation back as I felt I had failed since everything I had done to that point with the business had succeeded. I was hesitant to share this part of my journey, but I think it’s important for other people to know that you cannot grow unless you fail. You are going to make mistakes in business and the most important thing is how you pivot and how you learn from it.

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

I would say social media and pop ups have definitely been the best way for me to find new customers. I think social media is one of the most important tools you can utilize as a small business owner. It is free marketing and allows me to build a relationship with not only my customers, but also other small business owners.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.shopameliaj.com
• Instagram: @shopameliaj
• Facebook: shopameliaj

Image Credits
alexsimmsphoto