Amy Pedersen

I attribute my success to the support from my circle - my husband, my girls, even watching my girls grow. I want them to see that I worked hard and filled this bucket list dream, even though it might have seemed like a pipe dream to a lot of people. I'm 41 years old, and I took on this role at 40 - most people at this age are thinking about retirement, not starting a business. But at least it was already established, so I had that going for me. My circle is small, but it's mighty. My grandparents, who I lived with when I was young, really instilled that work-hard ethic in me - if you want something, you can get it, you just gotta work. You gotta work hard. And if you want it bad enough, you'll work hard enough. I wanted it, and my husband has that same hardworking mentality. He's like, if you want something, we gotta work for it, let's plan it, let's write this out, let's pro-con list it, let's do all the things, and we'll find a way. That support system and that work ethic are what got me here.

The best career advice I've received is really two things. First, you have to be really careful about donations. I want to donate to every single person that comes in and asks for gift cards, gift baskets, or monetary donations - I want to so bad, and it's so hard because I think every day I get at least one donation request. So my advice is to fill out an application, budget it in, and make sure that you stick to that budget, otherwise it's just so hard. The other piece of advice that's become my favorite is that we're not in competition with other boutique owners. What I've learned from the ones I've talked to and met is to take ideas from other places. If you have a great idea, they might take it from you and use it, and that's great - that's a compliment, not competition. Same with me - if I see somebody else has a great idea or a great setup on a table in their store, I'm like, oh, I should do that, that looks great. Really, we should be more connected and support each other and lift each other up, versus being in competition. We're all in this together. We all love fashion and love retail, and our stores are our babies, so we all want to make them good. We should all be lifting everybody up. Why are we ever putting people down anyway? It's a waste of time and energy.

Support your peers; treat great ideas from others as compliments and opportunities to learn.
Maintain integrity, be dependable, and lead with a kind heart.

The challenges I face are hiring and scheduling - those are always challenges in the retail world. That's kind of one of the reasons I've taken a pause on education and have been more present in the store. Another challenge is wanting to do all the things and not being able to say yes all the time. I really am a yes woman, and it's hard to have to say no sometimes. The guilt that comes along with not always being able to say yes is really challenging for me. As for opportunities, I think there's a lot, and the beauty of being in a small town is that it is very community-based. People want to support the small business. The community has really come out in full force when it matters. When I had a staff member doing a charitable marathon, we hosted a sale and gave a percentage of all sales to the cause, and the community showed up and rallied around it. It's so beautiful - it's like a little Hallmark town, and I'm proud of Valley City for how they step up and rally around their community members for a cause. Opportunities abound every day, or every quarter I guess I would say. The Chamber hosts a lot of events for the business community, the city has events, and in summer they have summer nights on Central. To be involved in those and collaborate with other businesses and other entities in the city really helps.

The value I pride myself on most is integrity. If you say you're gonna do it, do it. If you say you're gonna be there, be there. Follow up your word, back up your word, and be a woman of integrity, because it's so, so, so important. I have a tattoo on my wrist - it's the Chinese symbol for integrity - because it means so much to me. If you say you're gonna do something, just do that thing, because that's your legacy. Your integrity. The other value that's important to me is leading with a kind heart. Knowing that we don't know everybody's story. Somebody might seem like they're being unkind or unfriendly, but really, we don't know what happened that morning at their home, or in their life. A one-time thing is just a one-time thing - it doesn't mean that's who they are, it doesn't mean that's who I am. It just means that we're human beings living in a pretty tough world right now. So let's lift each other up and remember to lead with empathy, knowing that we don't know everything about everybody all the time. I never want to hear that my daughters were the ones being unkind or spreading gossip. You can't close your ears and eyes off to the world, but if you're not a part of the solution, you're a part of the problem. Make sure you're not the one being the mean girl. We're lifting girls up, we're not tearing them down.