WINNSBORO – Jerrica Beam, the owner of one of Winnsboro’s new crop of fashionable boutiques – To Be Stitched – has a new business model – she’s taking her shop on the road, literally.
Beam recently purchased an RV, and with the help of her family, converted it into a mobile extension of her shop on S. Congress Street in downtown Winnsboro.
“I’ll still have my shop here in town, but now I can take it to Chester, Blythewood, Ridgeway and other towns and to area events,” Beam said. “We carry ladies clothing, shoes, jewelry, custom embroidery and engraving,” Beam said. “Customers may also bring in their own items to be embroidered or engraved.”
The store also offers custom woodwork décor for nurseries and classrooms as well as farmhouse decor.
Beam started her business in her home in Chester but soon outgrew it and rented a store front in downtown Winnsboro last fall. She said business has been booming from day one.
Beam was inspired to go mobile by her children’s love of food trucks.
“Charlotte has a Food Truck Saturday and we’ve been up there. There are food trucks for miles and miles,” she said. “They’re [trucks] everywhere now. So, I thought, why not go mobile with a boutique to add to our business?”
After a short search, Beam and her husband Mitch found just the truck they were looking for and made it happen.
“My husband, my mother and I upfitted the inside,” Beam said.
The mobile boutique includes racks for clothing, shelves for shoes and accessories and even a dressing room. The exterior of the truck was colorfully wrapped by 321 Graphics in Chester.
Beam said she is especially grateful to her husband for supporting her idea for an additional direction for her business.
“He listens to my ideas and just runs with it,” Beam said. “Bless his heart, now he’s like, ‘I don’t know what’s next…I don’t know if I can hang with this…’” she said, laughing.
Beam attended her first mobile event last month in the Sheffield neighborhood in Irmo and is already receiving invitations to bring the truck to other nearby communities.
“I’m looking forward to serving them all,” she said.
Jerrica Beam can be contacted by email at [email protected]. Follow her event schedule at http://www.tobestitched.com/
