Today we’d like to introduce you to Lovely West
Lovely, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I have a passion for supporting local small businesses. During the COVID pandemic, many St. Louis local small businesses were struggling to keep their doors open. At that time, I created the Instagram account STLSUPPORTLOCAL to highlight local small businesses in the St. Louis metro area. A few years later (2022), I wanted to find an additional way to spread the support local message. I love t-shirts and sweatshirts that have a message. I noticed lots of St. Louis apparel being worn around town. However, I didn’t notice any with the St. Louis Support Local message. That’s how I came up with the idea of starting Support Plus Local, which creates apparel and other merchandise with the support local message, mainly St. Louis Support Local. The goal is for our apparel to be a gentle reminder to the St. Louis community, and out of town visitors, to support local small businesses.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Starting a small business is not something to take lightly. There’s a lot more to running a business, then what meets the eye. The paperwork, including registrations, licenses, and bookkeeping are more time consuming than I imagined. Also, it can be a bit lonely and exhausting working by yourself trying to get everything done. In addition, when you don’t have a physical store, you have to sign-up for lots of vendor markets. It’s important to get your apparel/merchandise in front of customers, as much as possible. There’s also the creative side of coming up with new designs for your apparel. It’s hit or miss. You don’t know what the hot sellers will be, until you bring your designs to your vendor markets and see how your customers respond. Having your own small business is a lot of work, but it’s all worth it when you are doing something you are passionate about.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Support Plus Local?
Support Plus Local is a St. Louis woman-owned and minority-owned local small business. The “support local” message is at the forefront of our apparel. We want to spread the St. Louis Support Local message all over town. At Support Plus Local, we know that local small businesses are the heart beat of a city and important to the growth of the community. Therefore, our goal is to spread the St. Louis Support Local message through our apparel and other merchandise.
We love seeing our customers wearing our St. Louis Support Local apparel around town. Our St. Louis Support Local Neighborhood Series, highlighting different neighborhoods in St. Louis, has become quite popular! We hope that when you see our St. Louis Support Local apparel being worn around town, that it reminds you to go out and support a local small business. Supporting local is important to the economic growth of our community.
Last year, the Missouri History Museum started carrying some of our apparel in their Sold On St. Louis gift shop. This upcoming season, you will also see some of our apparel available at Grant’s Farm, in their General’s Store. We are starting to have our St. Louis Support Local Neighborhood Series apparel at local shops throughout the different neighborhoods in St. Louis, making them easily accessible to our customers who live in those neighborhoods. If you are a local business that wants to carry our apparel, please reach out. I would love to have a conversation with you.
At Support Plus Local we also do wholesale and custom orders. You can find our apparel on our website. Our on-line store contains our T-shirt, Sweatshirt, and Hoodie apparel. However, if you come to one of our local vendor markets, you will often also find some of our St. Louis Support Local Stickers, St. Louis Support Local Hats, and St. Louis Support Local Tote Bags.
My favorite part of being a small business owner is being in front of my customers and interacting with them and getting to know them. It makes me happy to see that they share my passion for supporting local. You can typically find Support Plus Local on Saturdays, at either the Soulard Market or Tower Grove Farmer’s Market, as we are usually at one or the other. If you are at one of our vendor markets, please stop by and say hello!
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
Life is full of risks! We take risks everyday, whether we realize it or not. Most of the time the risk that we take is minor, so we don’t think about it all, or very little. However, it’s the big risks that we worry about. The ones that have a significant impact on our finances, health, time, and/or relationships. The amount of risk that we all tend to take, has to do with our personal situation at the time. Risk is scary, as it could result in something unpleasant happening. However, with risk comes reward! You have to be able to honestly answer whether the risk is worth the reward, before taking on that risk.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.supportpluslocal.com
- Instagram: @supportpluslocal
