Across America, the failure rate of small businesses tops 50 percent during their first years.
For Valerie Carter, the chief executive officer of Valique?s Fabric Boutique, her goals reach beyond not becoming a statistic and out into the community.
“It?s a small place with a lot of things happening,” Carter said. “I didn?t think people would be so interested in sewing.”
Opening its doors in November, Valique?s, based in Pikesville and located just off of Route 1, has become a destination for residents to combine their love of sewing and fabric. Carter?s business sells sewing machines, offers three different levels of sewing classes and provides a seamstress/dressmaking service for fabric purchased at her store.
Choosing the right location proved a key ingredient for Carter, who within three months and some help from the bank, kick-started her dream.
Along the way she has beaten the odds. In the most recent figures provided the by the U.S. Small Business Administration, Carter is an anomaly as a woman in charge of her own business, with the number of self-employed women dropping 7.2 percent. As a black woman, she has overcome even more. Minority-owned businesses reportedly accounted for $4.7 billion in receipts, the newest SBA data indicted, totaling more than 69,410 companies.
Looking back, the hardest part for Carter was her leap of faith to start the company. With a greater than 82 percent increase in business bankruptcies in 2005, she had to let her services speak for themselves.
“I really hesitated, because there is no turning back once you do it,” Carter said.
Kate Hohman is glad Carter went ahead.
Relocating to Pikesville, Hohman was welcomed into the fold, taking sewing classes and developing roots in the community at Valique?s.
“It?s very much a community feeling here [at the store],” Hohman, 28, said. “Moving to a new area, I had people not only open up their stores but their hearts.”
Taking advantage of prom season, Carter has reached out to Baltimore City and Baltimore County high schools. Launching her prom season campaign, she is trying to make her boutique the prom headquarters of 2007.
“My goal is to have a specialty store where customers can come and feel comfortable and special,” Carter said.
Welcome to the party
This Thursday, The Examiner turns one. In celebration, the paper will profile five companies that also have joined the local community in the last calendar year. From large corporations who moved into the area to small locally owned businesses, each day there will be a different company profiled in the Business section.
» Monday: Blue Point 2Go
» Today: Valique?s Fabric Boutique
» Wednesday: Challenge Financial Investors Corp.
» Thursday: Boscov?s
» Friday: PEI WEI
More information
» Valique?s Fabric Boutique
1430 Reisterstown Road, Pikesville
www.valiquesfabrics.com
