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Expanding a Retail Business Wisely: Brooke Garber and Stephanie Nist

Stephanie and Brooke’s Story: Friends since childhood, Brooke Garber and Stephanie Nist are the proud owners of Mint Julep, operating two stores in strategic areas of metropolitan Boston.

They were both in the corporate world after college – Brooke, in advertising, and Stephanie, in fashion – but quickly came to their wit’s end. Instead of pouring their creativity and energy into new jobs with new companies, they thought, why don’t we just start our own store?

So while continuing to work their day jobs, Brooke and Stephanie spent every other waking moment doing research, talking to people and looking for space to open their first store. In July 2004 they took the wraps off Mint Julep in suburban Brookline, Massachusetts.

Mint Julep offers something unique and fresh in retailing: a welcoming shopping environment with plenty of earmarks of the owners’ personal flair. It’s seen most clearly in the wide variety and individuality of their merchandise. For one thing, while the target customer is 25 to 40 years old, the stores carry women’s clothing and accessories for all ages.

They also purchase very selectively. “We don’t buy whole collections,” Stephanie says. “We pick pieces from different vendors and designers” including Free People, Citizens of Humanity, Rock & Republic and Splendid.

Stephanie and Brooke’s Key Move: Expanding their Retail Business Wisely

Their store in Brookline already was a success when Brooke and Stephanie decided to open another one in Cambridge. “We could only fit in a 700 square-foot store for so long,” Stephanie recalls. “We had all this energy and ideas, and after a year, everything was running like clockwork. We were ready to move on to something else.”

But they went through an important checklist before pulling the trigger.

First, they had to make sure the numbers stacked up. Sales were increasing by strong double-digit percentages each month at the Brookline store. From the beginning, Stephanie and Brooke set aside a considerable portion of their cash flow in anticipation of opening more stores someday. And they were on track in paying back the family and friends who had lent them their initial capital.

After conferring with advisors at the Small Business Development Center at Boston College, Stephanie and Brooke decided that their finances, at least, were giving them the green light to open another location.

But there was more – much more – to expanding their retail business wisely. Choosing the right location was a crucial step. Having lived in Boston much of their lives, Brooke and Stephanie knew what areas of the city might be fertile for a Mint Julep. They settled on Harvard Square, site of Harvard University, in Cambridge.

“There was no store of our kind in Brookline, and there wasn’t one in Harvard Square either,” Stephanie says. “Also, there are a lot of people there in our target market.”

The next hurdle: the startup costs for a second store. In that regard, they had the advantage of having opened one store on a shoestring budget.

“We did everything we could possibly do ourselves,” says Stephanie. They painted the store themselves, shopped for furniture at yard sales and restored it themselves, designed the lighting themselves. And what they didn’t know how to do, Brooke and Stephanie found friends, or friends of friends, who knew how to do it – like wiring. And they were able to get the work done at reasonable rates.

They also knew that sweat equity would be important in throwing open the doors to the new store. “With the first store, Brooke and I worked every single day from July through September,” says Stephanie.

And when it came to timing, Brooke and Stephanie needed one more thing: the right moment! When an 800 square-foot space opened up late in 2005, the ladies took the leap: Mint Julep opened in Harvard Square in February, 2006.

There was one thing that Brooke and Stephanie hadn’t figured out well ahead of time: how to divide their own time as individuals and partners between the two locations. This wasn’t just a question of dividing management resources. Their emphasis on creating a welcoming and comfortable shopping environment was one of the biggest reasons for the success of the first Mint Julep, and the presence of the owners themselves was a major component of that aura.

“Customers like to see a familiar face and know they can trust us,” Stephanie says. “If we aren't there, they are less likely to buy.”

Fortunately, as they mulled over the Harvard Square move late in the game, Stephanie and Brooke realized that the clientele for the second store – while highly resembling their Brookline customers demographically – would consist of a much higher proportion of tourists. And these customers wouldn’t know Brooke and Stephanie from any of the other staffers.

Still, the owners of Mint Julep intend to keep both stores – and additional ones if they open them – as personal as possible. “We know,” Stephanie says, “that it’s nice to know who’s behind the counter.”

Stephanie and Brooke’s Bonus Insight

Sometimes it’s difficult for retail business startups to envision exactly who their customers will be. Obviously, one way to get an idea is by talking with as many people as possible who would be potential customers.

Brooke and Stephanie came up with a couple of others as well. First, they looked at themselves as “model customers”: young, current, and budget-conscious. “We would ask ourselves, ‘Would you pay that?’ about something,” Stephanie says. “We develop things based on what we would like.”

And they keep specific, actual customers in mind when they’re looking at wares at trade shows and other retail business events. “We have the actual identities of customers in mind,” Stephanie says. “’Would Laura like that style and that price point?’ Then we decide."