We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sybil Golin and Drew Ramsey. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with them below.
Hi Sybil and Drew, thanks for joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
We are on a mission to connect our hand selected inventory with its next loving home. We truly love our customers, the business we have built, and want everyone to have a wonderful experience shopping with us.
Our motto is “We are more about people than we are about business” and we strive to deliver the best vintage clothing and accessories to our customers.
We have always been fans of vintage fashion, and have been collecting for years. The allure of finding a diamond in the rough, and something that nobody else has, is addicting. The pleasure of giving a piece some TLC, and see it come to life and reimagined, is very fulfilling. We have always been free thinkers, appreciate all expressions of art and fashion, and think people should wear what they like.
The entire process feeds our soul. We get to shop, dress our friends, do arts and crafts, have dress up parties/shoots, and meet amazing people that share the same passion. The best part is finding a new home for every single item we sell.
Sybil and Drew, 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?
We are cousins who are also lifelong friends. Before Buzz Vintage, Sybil worked in many facets of the film and television industry, and Drew worked in the high end retail and service industry. We shared a dream of owning our own business and working from home in a creative capacity, so we took the leap.
A combined fifty-five years of experience in retail, service and entertainment instilled a solid work ethic, a desire to do our personal best, and we always strive to deliver exceptional customer service. A lifetime appreciation of art and fashion fuel our passions, and a love of vintage clothing and style has been constant.
Fans of all decades and styles, we only buy what we fall in love with and would wear ourselves. We never know what pieces are coming our way, so it’s really fun to add new finds to our existing inventory, and create themes for our shoots. The collaboration that takes place is magical and our shoots are everything to us.
We are crazy in love with what we do, and all we want are happy customers that look and feel great; our love and dedication is felt by our loyal customers.
The connection we make with our inventory begins with the selling customer. We do not thrift shop, we buy wardrobes. Many of our sellers have experienced loss or hardship, and being a shepherd for their beloved clothing is an honor and one we don’t take lightly. Having both experienced profound loss in our lives, we practice compassion and care with all our sellers.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
It’s frustrating when you’re working so hard to build a business and establish a brand, and then there’s a delay in sales picking up. This happened recently, and then one day, we got a really nice note from a customer, and that made everything worthwhile.
With world events and personal challenges, change and pivoting are a constant. Building and maintaining a business is a roller coaster ride, and it’s important to stay level headed and flexible.
We think building a business is like raising a child. There are basic rules and understandings, but every business and its owner is different. Do what’s right for you and your business, and never, ever give up.
Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?
We chose to open Buzz Vintage Boutique as a free-standing shop powered by Shopify.
The upside is we don’t have to share our revenue with other platforms nor abide by their rules. Platforms like Amazon and Etsy provide excellent foot traffic, but at a price.
The downside is it takes a bit longer to establish your foot traffic and build a solid customer base. We created an aggressive in-house social media plan, and partnered with Thrilling, theRemoda and gem, vintage clothing platforms that work with small e-commerce businesses like ours.
We have built our brand from the ground up, and are glad we stuck to it. Our patience and hard work is paying off, and other platforms are not profiting from our hard work.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.buzzvintageboutique.com
- Instagram: @buzzvintageboutique
- Facebook: Buzz Vintage Boutique
Image Credits
All Photography by DrewRamseyPhotography.com