NCEC in the News!
Living the Dream: Shellie Comer
Researched and written by Karla Davis
“You live and you learn... and you never lose hope.” Those are the words of Shellie Comer, the owner of a successful boutique in Monroe, North Carolina. Her jewelry and accessories boutique, The Silver Lining, carries significant meaning. Comer lost a dear friend five years ago, and someone told her, “Shellie, remember to find the silver lining in all things.” She carried what that person said with her, and it soon became the premise of her business dream.
Comer, a forty-eight year old mother of one and wife of twenty-six years, has always dreamed of accomplishing a great feat in her life. After graduating college in 1981 with a degree in business administration, Comer proceeded on like most other graduates and took a job that would offer a steady paycheck not because she had a passion for it. “I never had a passion for accounting or simply selling a useless product to someone.” After college, Comer became a salesperson for a local company, where she did well, but never truly loved her job. Outside of work she would constantly make jewelry as gifts for her friends; she loved creating jewelry, bags, and other accessories. “My friends started asking me if they could pay me to make jewelry for them . . . then I started thinking about starting something bigger.” From 1998 to 2002, Comer was saving money, investing, and networking with some local business owners to help her prepare to launch her own small business. After conserving her spending for four years, Comer had saved around $12,000; it would take a little over $30,000 to start her dream boutique. In January of 2003, Comer took out a loan of $20,000. “I had around $33,000 with savings and a loan, so I rented out a small building on a main highway and began designing the interior.” By this time Comer decided to quit her sales job and commit all of her time to her boutique. One of the first things she did was give the boutique a name. “The Silver Lining is what I decided to name the boutique; that name just stayed with me through the years.” After buying some hand-made jewelry, bags, and accessories from across the country, Comer added her self-made jewelry to what she had bought. In July of 2003, Comer opened the doors of The Silver Lining and hoped for the best.
Within a year, Comer had fully reimbursed the bank from which she got her initial loan; by January of 2005, she was making absolute profit. “I was out of the red for good,” Comer said enthusiastically. “My initial goal was to make enough profit to pay off the bank within two years; I accomplished that early, so then I just hoped to make as much profit as possible.” Comer got to know her customers on a personal level because she was working from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. everyday. “I eventually started hiring more employees to take some of the work load,” she told me. “I wanted to learn more about the business.” Comer began attending conventions and networking workshops; she started buying differently. She learned to really see what the customers were interested in and started making and buying items that would sell more quickly. Also, she began buying at off-invoice prices and getting to know the sellers personally. She was finally starting to understand how to run a successful business.
The old saying, “failure to prepare is just preparation for failure,” carries a lot of weight in the business world. Comer said that her degree certainly helped her in understanding the basic concepts of business, but only experience could serve as true preparation. “College just can’t prepare you for something like this,” Comer said, “it’s a lot of trial and error at the start.” Along with trial and error came inevitable obstacles. For Comer, an obstacle came in the form of planning, or lack there of. “I lacked the initial planning at the start,” she admitted, “. . . it was definitely a struggle when I was buying because I couldn’t plan well enough to know what I would need.” Now Comer makes new plans every two weeks for her buying, selling, and production. Her new obstacle is getting new customers. “Because I don’t have online availability to consumers, I’ve lost some selling opportunities.” However, Comer believes that every customer buys an experience, not just a product. She wants all customers of The Silver Lining to get a personal, welcoming, and enjoyable experience when they walk through the front door.
As Shellie Comer looks back at what she has done, one piece of advice reigns above every other thought. “In life, you find something that you really want, and you work, and push, and fight as hard as you can for it . . . that is how you live your dream.” The Silver Lining will have its four-year anniversary in July of 2008. When asked if Comer still had a passion for her business after almost four years, she said, “I still drive to work as fast as I did my first day on the job!”
This case study was conducted in November 2007 by Karla Davis, a News and Documentary major in the Media Studies Department. Her work was part of an undergraduate research assistantship funded by the Office of Undergraduate Research, under the directorship of Dr. Mary Crowe.
These case studies were compiled and archived as part of the former BELL (Building Entrepreneuruial Learning for Life) Program's Entrepreneurial Innovation in the Arts (EIA) initiative to provide a library of examples of how artists in many different fields have achieved success. The cases were researched and written by UNCG students.