And Now We're SEVEN!

It’s hard to believe that we have had a retail location for 7 years now…7 years! 

This past weekend I had a chance to reminisce with a friend who is expecting (Yay!) about how Elegant Mommy started. Back in the day, there used to be a message board locally called Sioux Falls Moms. We had an incredible group of Moms who built a network to support each other and meet other Moms. One day someone asked a question about where to buy maternity clothing and it got me thinking about what was available in the Sioux Falls area for maternity clothing and the answer at the time was: very little! However, I had a great job that I had worked really hard to get and I was thinking I’d start a website, just for fun. 

So when Elegant Mommy first started, it was a website that sold pre-owned maternity clothing. My friend and I would “model” the clothing with a fake belly and edit our faces out of the pictures, and that is how Elegant Mommy was born! We had a fantastic response and we did a few “home” shows where we would bring the clothes to people’s homes, however, shortly after starting the website I found I was pregnant! So hauling clothing in and out of peoples homes in a South Dakota winter while I was pregnant was not the best way to approach this business. We kept getting phone calls asking where we were located and where people could try on the clothes. On January 31, 2008 we took a leap of faith and signed a lease for 750 square feet at 2109 W 49^th St. 

We opened the doors for the first time on Saturday, March 1^st, 2008 and I remember bawling my eyes out on the way home that day. I was so overwhelmed with what God had blessed us with and I knew that this is what God was calling me to do in my life. 

But here was the predicament…I loved what I was doing at the time. I was working for a major bank’s Mortgage division as an Assistant Vice President. I had a dream job that I had worked very hard for. Even though my position offered me a lot of flexibility, I still didn't like how much I was away from my children. By the time our son was born that year and my maternity leave was up that fall, I knew something had to change. The store had grown to the point that I knew I couldn't keep doing both things. I had to choose: Either I followed the path that God was laying out for me and my family (which would bring me much more flexibility to spend more time with my children and make a difference in my community, however, it also meant that we would cut our family’s income more than in half) OR I could close the store and continue climbing the corporate ladder and being away from my family more than I liked, but we’d have a six figure income as a family. 

After much prayer and buckets of tears, it was decided that I would leave the corporate world on December 31, 2008 and pursue Elegant Mommy full time! It was such an incredible leap of faith and many people (including a lot of my family) thought I was absolutely insane to walk away from the corporate world that I had worked so hard for. But 7 years later, I still believe that God always has your back J

~Shelly