First published August 19, 2019 by Voyage Denver
http://voyagedenver.com/interview/meet-allison-orr/
Today we’d like to introduce you to Allison Orr, owner of Dragonfly and Dragonfly Mini.
Allison, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Retail has always been a part of my life. My mom owned a gift shop in my small Kansas hometown that I helped at on the weekends and summer breaks. She taught me how to run the register and help customers and took me on my first buying trip. I learned early on that there was value in hard work and pride to be had in something of your own.
Then, as your typical teenage girl, I HAD to have a job at the mall. Cute boys and cute clothes were all I cared about so the mall was IT. As soon as I turned 16, I applied for a job at the hottest store in all Mid-western malls. I instantly found my groove as a savvy sales girl slinging Lucky Brand jeans and Dr. Martens. I bounced around the mall for my high school years and got some great experience working large scale retail for women and men.
I had caught the “retail bug” so to speak and continued working seasonal jobs as I went to college to get a degree in Psychology. I threw myself into a heavy class load but my passion continued to be fashion. However much I wanted to pursue a different kind of career my father was a big advocate of getting a “real job” that was secure – benefits, retirement packages, a salary and a way to support a family were the expectation. So I got my “real” degree, reluctantly applied to graduate schools and the day after I finished college, I packed up a U-Haul, moved to Kansas City and took a job with Urban Outfitters.
But you can’t make a career out of retail…..
Watch me.
I heard that a lot. There were doubters including members of my own family. But I loved retail and I was good at it.
So fast-forward through a crazy, winding road of life and an impromptu change found me unemployed and in Colorado.
I needed a fresh start and I needed to get back to what I was good at. Retail, customer service, fashion. I loved sewing and considered becoming a seamstress. I entertained the thought of going back to school for design. And then I turned to my comfort zone. I decided to go back to retail.
I started managing and buying for a Denver-based boutique and something happened. I started to FEEL like this was what I was meant to do. I had built all of this experience up so that maybe I could own my own store. We talked about me buying their store. We ran all kinds of numbers. It got me excited and gave me hope. Maybe this was it.
And then the store went under. It was like a rug had been pulled out from under me and I can only imagine what it felt like for the owners. I was with them until they locked the doors for good. It was an incredibly hard experience to go through and one that taught me a lot. I will be forever grateful for that experience.
And that is when I found Dragonfly. Or maybe Dragonfly found me. It was this fortuitous meeting of sorts. The owners of Dragonfly had relocated, and their manager was leaving and I had all of the experience they were looking for. Everything just clicked. But the most exciting part of it all was that there was potential for me to buy the business. When I was ready to have the conversation, the owners would be ready to have it too.
It took me a few years. Banks would not even consider me at the time because I was single with no assets and no credit and I was, therefore, no guarantee – I could show that I knew the business inside and out but it wasn’t enough which felt like “I wasn’t enough.” I heard a lot of “no’s” before I even had the chance to tell people what I was all about which was a frustrating and disheartening experience.
However, I was determined to find a way. As the talks to buy Dragonfly turned serious we worked through all of the legal documentation with the previous owners. Every document had our eyes and edits on it. And it was a tedious process.
With contracts nearly finalized, we turned back to funding and found an amazing bank to work with and they were so excited about what we were doing. They’d been to the store, they’d been emailing and calling and reassuring us every step of the way. We were set to close New Year’s Eve, 2014.
I can remember going home for the holidays and stepping out mid-conversation to take phone calls and answer emails, scrambling to get all of the pieces in place. I can vividly remember giving blood at my kitchen table for my life insurance paperwork at 7 AM on a snowy Sunday morning because they had squeezed us in to accommodate our end of year deadline. We busted our asses to pull it all together.
And then that wonderful, amazing bank pulled our business loan days before the deal was closing.
It was nothing short of devastating but weirdly enough I felt the worst about how absent I had been for my family at our holiday get-together’s because I was too busy having to take phone calls and answer emails so we could get this deal done that was not getting done. I felt like the worst sister, daughter, wife, friend ever…
But as life would have it, as devastating as the experience was it became one of my most valuable.
After about 24 hours of crying in my self-described pit of despair, I brushed myself off and got back to it. We pieced together financing. Our families and our friends were AMAZING. They turned around and helped pick us back up where we left off. They helped us buy the store. They saw the value in what I was doing and they believed in me! It gave me so much hope and drive and lit the biggest, raging fire in me that has not died down to this day.
From family and friends to working with the amazing team at Colorado Enterprise Fund we made it work in the biggest and most intense make-it-work moment ever.
When Dragonfly became mine and in how it came to be mine, it also became something for everyone. I have always been a hard-worker but that leap of faith from family and friends so that I could realize my dream – now the hard-work and Dragonfly wasn’t just something for me to be proud of but also for my family and my friends and the friends of the friends of the friends to be proud of. I think a lot of small business owners have that kind of magic moment and this was mine.
Now my “fairy tale” ending does not mean that ownership has been easy or that I haven’t had to deal with bullshit along the way but Dragonfly is my passion. It’s this wonderful thing that so many people care about and are proud of and are a part of. It makes me happy, it makes my customers happy. It makes my family happy. Dragonfly is what I like to think of as a giant, warm, gooey hug because you walk in and can feel all of the love that went into it and continues to go into every single day. I pinch myself frequently that THIS IS MY JOB! And despite the challenges, the heartaches and the occasional bullshit it is truly the best job ever.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Getting to the point of ownership has been a bumpy road. But it’s the bumps that make me appreciate it so much more. Those hardships and challenges became important lessons and have helped shaped the way I run my business.
Ownership itself is this wonderful, crazy thing that has it’s own unique challenges every single day.
From “boring” (but definitely very important stuff) like taxes and budgets and accounting to the things I deal with in-store, to the new challenges of trying to expand and grow my business, every day I’m dealing with something different which is exciting and stressful and amazing all at the same time. It’s the perk of being a business owner. You don’t always know what the days will bring.
You have all of these things happening behind the curtain that no one really sees and in retail you also have to be in front of the curtain so while I’m balancing huge budgets for the season and stressing over whether or not people are going to #1 LIKE and #2 BUY what I’ve invested in I’m also having to make sure my customers aren’t seeing or feeling that stress. They get HAPPY Allison. They do not get stressed out Allison.
Owning your own business can also be all-consuming of your time. That work/life balance is a real challenge for me because I love working and work is a hard thing for me to shut off. I have relationships with my customers that include them having my personal phone number so I may be out for the day with my niece but you better believe I’m also answering the text about “what should I wear with this.”
It’s all about balance and I’m constantly trying to figure out what kind of balance works best.
I spend a lot of hours at the shop. I fondly call my house my “second home” because Dragonfly is where I spend the majority of my time. If someone calls in sick, it’s up to me to cover the shift. What is a vacation? I don’t get one of those until next year. Personal relationships? Birthday parties? Oh, you’re getting married? Is the wedding on a Tuesday by chance?
Luckily, the hours are something a lot of my friends and family are used to. I joke that I’ve worked weekends since I was 15 which is something that can be shocking to other people, including people that I’ve interviewed. It’s retail! You work weekends! You work holidays! Christmas Eve at Dragonfly is one of those days I’m not sure I can ever give up because it’s become its own special tradition with my Dragonfly “Christmas Crew.” My family gets December 26th and they’re good with that.
I try to approach the challenges and struggles positively. I try to adapt and I’m always trying to learn. You make a mistake? You learn from it. Something doesn’t go your way? You adapt. You want to grow and build and make things bigger and better? You bet your ass I’m going to put my head down, put the hours in and work hard. Owning your own business is what you put into it and what you do with the challenges. Do you step up to the plate? Do you put in the work? Do you continually learn and grow? I sure as hell try to.
Please tell us about Dragonfly & Dragonfly Mini.
Dragonfly is a women’s clothing and accessory boutique. We specialize in moderately priced brands that are well-made and have long-lasting appeal with a mix of larger, established brands and great independent designers including several Colorado-made lines.
I am a fabric person and I like quality made goods. This is an investment for our customers and one that I don’t take lightly. I want to know we are selling you something that you will love for a very long time. We work with a lot of brands that are American made and consciously produced. These are companies that pay fair wages, inspect for quality issues and use factories that are trying to produce garments in a more responsible way. In a throw-away society, we will not sell throw=away clothing. Fabric, fit, function and quality – that is what you can expect when you shop with us.
Dragonfly has also expanded into Dragonfly Mini. Fall/Holiday 2018 we launched a small, curated collection of boys and girls items sized 2-12/14 with the same Dragonfly philosophies in mind. Many of our Mini brands are independently owned and operated by mom and pop teams, just like us! I call Mini my “Happy Place” and it’s currently located in the front corner of the store. Between the glitter, unicorns and rainbows, you just HAVE to smile when you see it.
Finally, we are getting ready to launch our e-commerce site www.shopdragonflydenver.com which will hopefully give you the same experience that you have when you come into the store whether or not you live in Denver. We pride ourselves on customer service and knowing our products inside and out and this is something we hope to translate and reach new customers via our e-commerce site.
So what sets us apart? Dragonfly is it’s own brand of happy. You can’t help but feel good when you come and shop at our store.
We are selling you products we love from brands that we believe in and many of which we have long-standing relationships with. When you come in you’re not just getting a shirt but you are getting a shirt that I know you’ll own for a very long time, that people will stop you on the street and ask you about, that years of experience have lead ME to buying it so that YOU can own it for forever and ever and ever. So when you pick it up and try it on and it feels SO GOOD and fits just right you can know that there’s a lot of love that went into that shirt getting to our sales floor.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
You know the typical what do you want to be when you grow up question everyone gets as a kid?
I wanted to be Indiana Jones (and I still kind of do). I was always digging for treasure and looking for fossils. I was/am obsessed with dinosaurs, history and archaeology. I am a complete nerd for shows like Mysteries at the Museum, The Curse of Oak Island and Josh Gates is my spirit animal. I think when I go to the DMNS, I have more fun then my niece does and no vacation is complete without at least one trip to a museum.
Contact Info:
Address: Dragonfly & Dragonfly Mini – 3615 West 32nd Avenue, Denver, CO 80211
Website: www.shopdragonflydenver.com
Phone: 3034336331
Email: dragonflyhighlands@yahoo.com
Instagram: ShopDragonflyDenver
Facebook: ShopDragonflyDenver
