We were lucky to catch up with Rachel Miller recently and have shared our conversation below.

Rachel , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you manage your own social media?

We run our own social media for a few reasons. First of all, we’re a very small team and have only one location, so it’s feasible to stay on top of our operations. Also, while it is always fantastic to have professional social media, we don’t prioritize our budget for outside resources unless absolutely necessary. In our personal professional development, this has been, like so many things in running your own business, a great learning experience.

Running your own social media is more complex than you might imagine. It involves graphic design, communications, time management, internet optimization, and lots of decision making. Do not underestimate the time commitment for this! The good news is that social media is a constant, rolling target. This means that you always have the opportunity to learn from your mistakes, learn from your success, and improve on your next post, your next story, or your next campaign.

That being said, my advice is: just try it! See something someone else is doing and love it? Just try it! Want to collab with a fellow local business? Try a short social media exchange and see how it goes! For example, we have a coffee shop near us where we have a great relationship with the owners. Although our businesses do not overlap, we’re in the same neighborhood and we both wanted to incorporate more video into our social media presence. Our proximity and our shared goals made it easy to decide to make a few fun videos for us to co-post to our media channels. Our first effort was a great idea and looked great in real life. However, the video was too long and not suited for the most common social platforms. Editing the video down took an entire workday and still did not look as great as we hoped.

We shared the content regardless, and even with the less-than-stellar product, we saw a marked increase in engagement, especially with users who were not already in our followers. This confirmed for us the importance of incorporating more video into our online presence. Obviously, we also learned a lot about structuring content meant for video as well as editing the final product.

Additionally, the experience of working with another business inspired us to reach out more. We currently keep in regular contact with a half dozen small businesses near us. Because social media is so time-consuming, sharing posts and co-creating content with other business owners helps expand our reach more efficiently. Even something as simple as a story post that tags our account allows us to keep a steady stream of content. By keeping in mind that we should Just try it!, we ended up strengthening our professional network, expanding our audience, and still enjoying our time spent online.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

We are a sister-run business. We grew up and both live on the northwest side of Chicago. We’ve always kind of wanted to run a business together and in 2020 took steps to making that happen. Even better, the store is in the same part of the city, helping us to invest in an area and a community that we care about.

Rachel has been a bartender for a decade, working all over the city, focusing on craft cocktails. She is happy to have an outlet for so much of this accumulated expertise. Lindsey, meanwhile, has an extensive background in project management and excels at multitasking and problem solving and provides.the real backbone for the business.

There has never been a retail store in Chicago dedicated to bar tools and supplies in the same way, for example, as cooking supplies and kitchen ware. It’s always been a dream to have a place for bartenders and cocktail enthusiasts to have a place where they can find the products they really need, without having to rely on Amazon or other faceless vendors. We’re a small, local shop with expert opinions and personal service. Over our three years of business so far, we’ve been committed to providing the best possible products and service to bars and restaurants and to home bartenders alike.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

Kit: is co-owned by my sister and I. Of course, there are pros and cons to working with someone from your personal life. Rachel has the subject expertise in the business, having worked in cocktail bars for the last decade. She has industry connections, product knowledge, and customer service skills. Lindsey has spent significant time in both theater management and corporate administration. She is incredibly adept at managing moving pieces and long-term projects. Our skills are well-matched and we love being in business together.

However, there are tough decisions to make, and times where we have made a wrong choice, or let the other one down, or cost the business money. These conflicts can bleed into our personal lives and cause friction. It’s important that partnerships between friends or family separate the business side of the relationship from the personal.

Contact Info:

• Website: kitbarsupply.com
• Instagram: @kitbarsupplychicago
• Facebook: Facebook.com/kitbarsupply

Image Credits
All Photos courtesy Rachel Miller