We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rhonda Byers a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Rhonda, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today One of the most important things we can do as business owners is ensure that our customers feel appreciated. What’s something you’ve done or seen a business owner do to help a customer feel valued?

I own an Antique and Vintage Shop in Athens, Ga. I try to show customers daily how much we appreciate them. One thing we do, in particular, is to do everything we can to find whatever a customer may be looking for. Vintage customers often come in looking for particular nostalgic items. We don’t stop at just trying to help them find it in the shop. If we don’t have it, we get in contact with our 30 vendors to see if they have the item somewhere else. If none of our vendors have the item, we will direct the customer to a competitor we think is most likely to have it. We ask our vendors to keep an eye out for the item as they are out sourcing, and we keep the customer’s contact info on file, so we can let them know in the future if the item comes in. We love and appreciate our customers, and want to help them find that piece they want!

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

Owning a vintage shop was not my original goal in life. In fact, in a past life, I was a criminal defense attorney. Then, one day, I saw a sign for an Estate Sale. I wasn’t even certain what an Estate Sale was at the time, but I decided to check it out. I was hooked. I began going to Estate Sales all the time. I was finding amazing vintage items that I loved. I was also running out of space in my house and fun money that I used for the sales. I decided I would try my hand at selling things I no longer needed or used. I ended up renting a booth in a local vintage shop, and now, I am the proud owner of Lexington Vintage!

I discovered pretty quickly after purchasing the store, that owning a vintage shop and having a booth in one are very very different. I was so fortunate to have most of the vendors stay with me, and I inherited the most amazing Manager in the world. I received so much support from from all of them as I navigated the world of business ownership. I also discovered the UGA Innovation Hub. They offer several free classes for entrepreneurs. I was fortunate to be accepted into their Boot Camp course; which was appropriately named. The instructors and Mentors were serious about teaching how to start and run a successful business. It was free, but that didn’t equate to easy. That class was one of the best things I did for myself in this business journey.

I have learned so much and have come so far since I purchased Lexington Vintage one year ago. I can’t wait to see what the future has in store for our shop!

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

I think the best source of new clients for Lexington Vintage has been our social media. We primarily focus on Facebook and Instagram. The first thing I did after taking over was to find someone much younger than myself to handle the Instagram account. She has been fantastic. She has grown our account so much. We constantly have people coming into the store showing us screen shots of an Instagram post of an item they wanted. We have had people come into our store shortly after moving to Athens, because they had been following us on Instagram from as far away as California. They came to visit us as soon as they got moved in!

Another source of new clients, and also a marketing risk I took that has paid off, is the brochure “Athens Vintage Voyage”. This is a brochure of all the vintage and antique shops around Athens. I modelled it on the “Antique Trail” brochures available all over the Southeast. When I started researching for it, I discovered we had a lot more vintage and antique shops in Athens than I was aware of. There are about 20 shops, ranging from multi-vendor marketplaces, like Lexington Vintage, to a very niche shop that sells nothing but vintage guitars. I was so excited to discover all of these places, and knew that vintage shoppers would be also. I had the idea of a brochure showing all the shops on a treasure map, because, well, vintage and antique shopping is a treasure hunt. I found a fantastic graphic artist, who is now also an employee at the shop, who created exactly what I had in mind. About 7500 brochures have been distributed around Athens so far, and customers really appreciate them. We are currently in the process of updating the brochure to reflect changes over the past year.

Any fun sales or marketing stories?

One of my favorite marketing stories is from a monthly event that I started at Lexington Vintage. The verdict is still out on whether or not it is a financially successful marketing idea, but I love it. First, I have to give some context. I personally sell vintage toys. I love vintage toys. I think they are so well made, fun, and so nostalgic! I love seeing and hearing people’s reactions when they go to my Toy Booth. I’ve seen everything from tears to hysterical laughter! The event I started is a monthly “First Friday Retro Playtime”. I decided to have one night a month, on every First Friday of the month from 5-8 pm after normal hours, where people can come in and actually play with vintage toys and games. We set up tables throughout the shop with everything from viewmasters and seriographs to jacks and pogs, and lots of vintage board games. We also have a retro candy bar, with lots of old style candies. The best thing I have seen from the few Retro Playtimes we have had, is when a family came in with a son who was around 10. He absolutely loved the old toys. He went from table to table trying everything out. He was so excited, they stayed for 2 hours. It just made my month seeing a child get excited about a bunch of “old toys”!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://lexingtonvintageathens.com
• Instagram: @lexingtonvintage
• Facebook: Lexington Vintage: Reclaimed Restored Repurposed