Jacquelyne Lusardi opened her own business about seven years ago on Wickenden Street in Providence, a shop named Refind, where she sold high-end gifts, furniture and antiques.
But then the economy soured, business dipped and Lusardi, like many small-business owners, realized she had some tough decisions to make about the future of her store. One thing she knew for sure, she wanted to stay on Wickenden.
“[It] has the right vibe, the right feel,” she said recently. “It’s all independent businesses on this street, and that was very important to me. Its quirkiness is its delight.”
So when Christina Chandler, owner of Studio 539 Flowers on Wickenden, approached her a few months ago to see if the two could somehow work together, sharing the rent, the proposal seemed heaven-sent. Chandler was already sharing space with Emily Hostetler, a Colorado native who runs a customized stationery business, PaperMoss.
Drawn together by recession, the three businesswomen are now surviving, if not thriving, as a result. The arrangement has created new opportunities for each member of what in good economic times would have been an unlikely partnership under the same roof.
The three work out of Studio 539 Flowers. The flower shop is located on the first floor of an historic, three-story building and has a stone fireplace, wood-plank floors and low wood-beam ceilings reminiscent of the Colonial area. The sweet smell of fresh flowers permeates the place. And the store has a parking lot in the back.
Each woman operates her own enterprise as a separate entity. Each deals with her own taxes and the ordering of inventory, for instance. They share the rent, which includes utilities. There’s just one table available for sit-down meetings with customers, so they use a common calendar that they can access on the Internet at all times so their schedules won’t conflict.
Lusardi lost about 1,000 square feet, so she has had to cut back on what she sells, dropping the antiques and furniture for space reasons and adapting her merchandise to be more responsive to the bridal market.
Refind now carries unusual pieces of jewelry, some of it vintage and some locally crafted, a variety of decorative household goods, and snazzy kitchenware like a salad set from Maine consisting of an oversized fork and spoon with colorful handles made from lobster shells – “a perfect wedding gift,” she said.
“My overhead has diminished greatly,” Lusardi said, “but, obviously, that comes with a trade-off. My inventory and offerings have decreased but … this is a business model that works because it works for the customer.”
Chandler approached Lusardi because her flower business relies on weddings in particular, as well as graduations and special occasions like Mother’s Day when many buyers frequent gift shops. Chandler said she realized that this could be a “perfect opportunity” for both because “my customers are actually Jacquelyne’s customers, it’s just a perfect combo.”
Hostetler’s business requires the least space – essentially, a good-sized desk near the entry is enough to display dozens of samples of her work.
She designs each piece herself and showed a visitor wedding invitations with such personalized touches as decorative scrolls based on the lace of a wedding dress or incorporating the star of Texas to match the engagement ring of a bride from that state. For a groom who is a fan of the San Diego Padres, an invitation replicates a ticket to a Padres game, complete with the team’s “SD” logo.
Hostetler admits it’s been tough for her to relinquish some control over her business, but said she “totally trusts” Lusardi and Chandler to represent her interests when she is not at the shop. “I always want to be the face of my business,” Hostetler said. “But, to maximize the potential of the business, you’ve got to team up.”
Those who work in the wedding industry are a “tight-knit” group, Chandler said, “so it helps to know someone with a foot in the door,” especially in tiny Rhode Island where personal referrals can be all-important. So, when a bride-to-be comes in looking for flowers, she’ll be told about Hostetler’s line of stationery and Lusardi’s unique gifts.
The Ocean State and the Bay State are hot spots for the latest industry trend, destination weddings, the three women say, with venues on Aquidneck Island, Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. Married in Newport, Hostetler was a destination bride. At least half of the brides she works with, Chandler said, are from out of state. She and Hostetler say they have had bridal clients from as far away as California and Denmark.
While the economy is creating undeniable hardship for many businesses, the women say their partnership is an example of how opportunities are always out there.
They feel fortunate to have found each other and, over the months, have become good friends as well as business partners. “What we’re doing is very new. It’s a collaborative effort at meeting the needs of a very well-defined market,” Lusardi suggested.
“It energizes us together and we’ve learned a lot from each other,” Chandler said. •
