Today we’d like to introduce you to Chloe Jones.
Hi Chloe, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
After graduating from the New Prague High School in 2020, I went to school initially thinking I was going for elementary education. I love kids, making an impact, and always thought that’s what I’d do. My gut told me toget my generals done with no commitment to a major just in case I found another interest. I went to the University of St Thomas for a year during covid times, which was hard – I was home every single weekend. That following summer, I started to come across online boutiques that popped up on my feed. I started to follow some and went into their shops to talk to the owners about the industry. After talking to Rachel, owner of Cedar & Sage, I knew this was what I wanted to do, and I was offered a job!
After 2.5 years of spending my weekends at the shop, I was so passionate, and detail oriented with everything as I finally saw what happens behind the scenes and what it takes to run a business. I decided to detour from the 4-year school and enrolled to a technical college to get my Associates in Technical Management and a Certificate in Small Business Entrepreneurship to start my own online boutique one day. After 1.5 years of taking these classes all online while still nannying 5 days a week, I opened Honey Lou Boutique from my parents’ basement in March of 2023. My family unexpectedly lost my grandpa that November before, which gave me a push to not wait, just take the leap and live life to the fullest for him.
The first year was SO fun. Sales were amazing that first couple weeks, then it slowed down a bit and I struggled to get the name out there, so I started doing vender events/pop-ups. That is where I grew, learned, and met some incredible business owners. Fast forward to May of 2024, the owner of the local shop I was still working at, decided to sell her business. I knew I couldn’t pass up the opportunity, and now here we are on Main Street of my hometown of New Prague running Honey Lou Boutique in an incredible, small-town community.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has not always been smooth sailing, when we spent about a month getting the shop ready to re-open after I took over, I spent long days and late nights at the shop getting things cleaned, painted, moved around, replaced, and thankfully, my supportive family was by my side to help. We had some trouble getting the previous owner’s inventory transferred into my system, I’d spend 5-6 hours a day staring at the computer trying to fix the CSV file and thousands of listings on it, we eventually found a company who could do it for us… thank goodness!!
I also had a few hiccups when barcoding all of the inventory… let’s just say I had to barcode all thousands of items THREE times for them to work, and we ended up needing to order a new $400 scanner at the end of it. I laugh through all of the struggles; it’s life and the only thing you can really do!
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Honey Lou Boutique is a cozy, everyday style, women’s clothing boutique in our small town of New Prague. We carry something for everyone – women’s clothing, shoes, accessories, home & gifts, kids & baby, athleisure, Minnesota wear, and more. We are best known for our comfy, soft fabrics. This is something we are very specific about – nobody wants an itchy sweater or uncomfortable pair of jeans.
We are proud to be customer focused and community generous. We have donated to numerous local organizations and some larger scale, like Special Olympics. Giving is truly one of my greatest joys. We also love getting our community together for special monthly events – it’s a great way to get friends together!
We are also proud to carry a Plus Size section in our store. Not many boutiques offer XL-3XL options, and nothing makes our day more than when people acknowledge our inclusivity and thank us for it. We want our customers to feel loved, welcomed, and calm when they enter our store. Honey Lou is a place to unplug, browse around our store enjoying some well-deserved “me time”.
Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
Our #1 bestselling item is our New Prague Ceramic Mug. This was a project we worked on while we were an online-only store, and we sold hundreds when they released right before Christmas. They are unique to our community, featuring some of our highlights – Cedar Lake, 56071, Trojans, Dozinky Days, etc. We sent the high school, local Minnesotan artist what we wanted on the mugs, and she made it come to life. They are definitely a New Prague treasure.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.honeylouboutique.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/honeylou.boutique/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100083059132885
