We were lucky to catch up with Nina Brito recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Nina thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What do you think it takes to be successful?
Success in business ventures can be measured in so many ways. It can be black and white – “is your company making money?” Which ultimately is key in sustaining your business and keeping the lights on. Taking success a step further – is the business gratifying for you and those involved? Does the business give something more than your product to your end consumer? I am 39 years old and it has taken me that long to pursue my childhood dream – I own a gift shop in Nashville, TN. Up until literally last week, my shop has been a side hustle, something I did while still having a full time job. One facet of my success was finally believing I could take the leap to put all my energy into my shop and quit my job. Another facet is providing more than a place for people to buy things, but a community hub. Somewhere for people to call their second home. I have many customers who come just to hang out and catch up and meet other people, maybe learn something at one of our many workshops. I’ve heard many many times that the shop and that I have made a positive impact on their lives. Now that – is success. At the end of each day, I come home to my husband and 6 animals and get asked not how much money did I make, but what was my greatest connection. Success is all around us and what it takes to get there is to have a vision, figure out the steps needed to get there, be flexible in the process because the vision takes many shapes as you are going and finally – be committed. It’s not always easy, but just believe in yourself and push push push no matter what.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My name is nina. I have always had a passion for retail from an early age. I have always loved the thrill of selling things to people. I can finally say, at the age of 39, that I have owned a colorfully and consciously curated gift shop in East Nashville, TN for one year now. We sell finely crafted items from small businesses around the world. We work hard to curate our collection so our customer’s dollars support the passion of artists, the livelihood of small communities abroad and the creation of items that are easier on our Mother Earth. We also dedicate a section of our shop to community. We host workshops, events and hang outs in the shop to foster a sense of belonging and family. I have actualized my dream and I could not be happier.
Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?
Money. It was always my biggest excuse to NOT open my own shop. How am I going to pay the rent? How am I going to pay for product? How am I going to hire someone? Or if I quit my job, how am I going to pay myself? And how much money would it really take to build a shop? It was a road block that kept me from obtaining my dream for most of my life. I didn’t have a parent who could help fund any part of my life, I didn’t have a partner who could cover our bills so I could be free from earning an income. I was terrible at saving, every time I had a big chunk of change, I would go in a big trip and blow it all. It seemed impossible. And probably like so many people, it took the pandemic to make me realize that I finally needed to chase what I felt would make me happiest. With no travel possible, I managed to save about $20k in the year and a half we were told to stay close to home. I took that money and sunk every bit of it into launching my storefront. It wasn’t much and was barely enough to get me what I needed to open, but we quickly turned that $20k into $60 by only buying really high margin items at first. I knew we needed to be very specific so we could max our return on investment. And with me being the only employee and having a full time job, I could sink every penny the shop made back into itself. One year later, we have still not taken a cent, but also have not invested any more than the initial $20k of our personal money. 2023 will be my first year taking a meager paycheck from the business since I quit my job last week to focus 100% on Thunder Moon.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
Oh social media. How I hate you, but adore you at the same time. It’s a time suck. For real. And it’s not easy to build up. I am still under 5k followers and engagement is hit or miss. I’ve only paid for an ad twice and regretted it both times. Mainly because I don’t know how it works. Going to work on that, but for now, I talk to the camera at least once a week, type out a story at least once a week and am 100% myself in captions on feed posts. I mean, I share it all. What’s troubling me, what’s making me happy, what I did last night, what I dreamt about. Ha. All of it. My people come to keep up with me and identify with my stories. They want to get to know me and as a side will entertain cute things they can buy to support. I am no one without the people who are generally a fan of me first. It’s such a weird thing to say people are a fan of me. I mean – I am truly nothing special, but I think their inlies the interest. I’m just like all the people who tune in. I’m not some glossy influencer. Im real. My shop is also not really in a walkable area and it’s hard to see the vibe from the outside, so social is the biggest way to get people in the door. But I won’t say that pretty photography and great lighting and great product don’t help. I still have a ton to learn about social and it’s on my list of areas to grow in now that I am full time in the biz.
Contact Info:
- Website: Thundermooncollective.com
- Instagram: Thundermooncollective
- Other: Thank you friends for including me!