I live outside of Montevideo. I am a women’s clothing boutique owner and operator. I have been married to my crop-farming husband for 9 years and we have a 2 year old son. I grew up in northern and central Minnesota. I met my husband at Bible camp when we were teenagers. He is a farmer and I moved here to live our lives together. We are happy to raise a family in Western Minnesota because of the safety, the educational and sports-related opportunities, as well as the close community.
? I actually started out with a photography business the year my husband and I got married. After renting a studio for a couple years, we decided to look for a space to purchase. I worked in commercial retail for 6 years as a teen and young adult so I liked the idea of selling items in my studio my photo clients could purchase to wear for their pictures. Once we found the space, the idea of opening a full clothing boutique quickly became what I wanted. Since I already had a loyal following on social media of photography clients, word spread so easily about the expansion and new business.
It’s interesting to me, I had a second store for 3 years in a community two and a half times the size of Montevideo but the Montevideo store always had more business. There’s a sense of loyalty that small town people have. You get to know people, their loved ones, and what their needs are. It’s more personable to service people you know. Also, the direct competition here is less. I’m providing items that aren’t sold at many places in our community. To get the type of items I sell, you have to drive an hour or more to get them. As the clothing boutiques have expanded in our downtown, it seems business keeps getting better. We have options for our customers to shop.
There isn’t just one place in town anymore. If you can’t find it at one boutique, you can look at another.We’re working together to give our community some fun pieces to purchase and have fun places to shop!
We have the pleasure of living in the country so our family does quite a bit of being outside. We garden, horseback ride, and enjoy all things in the sun. We have a couple great places to eat out in town that we enjoy. We head to the park, coffee shop, or any place that’s great to be with friends and family!
During my time off, I love being outside and hanging out with my husband and son. We love to explore the county and state parks! The Upper Sioux and Redwood Falls parks are some of our favorite places to be! Hinterland Vineyard is one of our go to spots for date night or girls night!
The community you get to share with others here is hard to beat. When you make friends here you become family. The opportunity to come to a place that has open, pretty parks, country, and cute downtowns is hard to beat. You get to be well rounded in your experiences and there are multiple things to enjoy doing.