Posts

Showing posts with the label The Author

Puppy Binders

Image
I guess in the end, it's natural to think about the beginning.  5 years ago today, I opened the Voxn flagship in downtown Boise. I still remember my very first customer--It was my neighbor's wife and her friend. I remember exactly what was bought. I remember what we talked about. I remember her ice cream earrings. I remember how red my face got because I was overthinking how to look natural and what to do with my hands. I was an official entrepreneur.  I remember meeting one of my first team members at a coffee shop when Voxn was chicken scratches on notebook paper and napkins inside some puppy binders. I bought the puppy binders because I thought that they were cute, they were on sale and I was ready for my idea to be taken seriously. I'm pretty sure we both thought I was crazy, but she was in. We rallied those in the community who were as excited about fashion as we were. Our first fashion show was a shot in the dark. We had no idea what we were really doing, but we survi...

Covid-19 From the Eyes of a Retail Business Owner

Image
"It's getting bad here. People are dying. The government is closing our doors. We have to stop all production and we are running out of medical supplies. I will let you know more as I know. Please take care of yourself, Erica. God bless."  A frantic email sent from on of my international manufacturing partners warning me of the severity of Covid-19, early January 2020.  Partners I have created great relationships with, spent years of business with. Respectable, hard working, never complaining. Then, a frantic email out of character followed by... radio silence.  Like most people, I was scared. Listening to the news and reading as much as I could, scavenging the internet. There was nothing. nothing. Thinking back to my relation to the BioTechnology field, it made sense why masks were backordered and harder to come by. What is going on with the Supply Chain? I fished out an old medical mask and took measurement on it. My intent was to send them overseas. They need help....

The Author

Image
Who am I? So glad you asked.  My name is Erica. I am a story teller and I will be your thought guide.  I am an entrepreneur. I didn't always know that, of course. It wasn't until I was standing in my storefront talking to one of my employees when she commented that I was an entrepreneur. I giggled. Then she proceeded to get very serious and squared my shoulders towards hers and said, "Erica, you know that right? You have to know that. You are an entrepreneur. We are standing in your store." And that's how I realized I was an entrepreneur.  Let me explain.  My whole life.. I was slightly... odd. Not to a point that I would send people running, but I was most definitely different. While most young girls were very interested in fashion and boys, I was hanging out with my dad--building things, wiring new gadgets and learning about convectional heat with coffee cups. By 4th grade, I was creating class projects for matching vocabulary words with definitions using insul...