Utah County woman goes from single mom to successful multi-location boutique owner
Alisha Merrill poses for a portrait in the warehouse of her business Bella Ella Boutique, on Wednesday, July 13, 2016. Merrill created the boutique after becoming a single mom. SAMMY JO HESTER, Daily Herald
Alisha Merrill poses for a portrait in the warehouse of her business Bella Ella Boutique, on Wednesday, July 13, 2016. Merrill created the boutique after becoming a single mom. SAMMY JO HESTER, Daily Herald
For Alisha Merrill, her path from young single mom with no formal education to thriving business owner all started with a necklace. And a whole lot of determination.
“Honestly, I’ve never met a woman more driven than I am. In business, it’s about never giving up. It’s about the person who gives up last. I’ll always be that last one standing,” Merrill said.
Just seven years ago, Merrill found herself a new mom with no real way to support herself and her new daughter. As a mother, she wanted to start a business so she could bring her daughter to work, because she couldn’t afford daycare. She was wandering through a boutique one day and saw a necklace that was priced at $80.
“No one can afford that,” she said. “And I thought, I could do that. I could make something of quality that was way more affordable. And that’s when the idea came.”
That kernel idea soon blossomed into the opening of her first store, Bella Ella Boutique — a name voted upon by friends and family. After months of researching and talking to fellow business owners, help from her boyfriend (who is now her husband) with paperwork and other business technicalities, and just $3,000, she found an inexpensive storefront in Lehi. She was the only employee that first year, bringing her daughter to work, and putting her to sleep in a playpen in the back.
She began her journey by selling affordable children’s clothing, but soon transitioned into exclusively selling women’s clothing. She taught herself, through Google and asking lots and lots of questions, how to source clothing wholesalers and vendors. She lived extremely cheaply, pouring any extra revenue back into Bella Ella. Her goal for that first year was just to survive.
“After that year, I was like, wow, if I had two stores I’d make twice as much money. So I opened the store in Spanish Fork,” Merrill said.
She hired two employees in Spanish Fork, but Merrill managed the store while still running the Lehi store on her own. The Spanish Fork store did so well, that within five months of its opening, she opened a third store in Pleasant Grove. Just six months later, she added a Heber location.
She was able to have her daughter with her while she worked, but by this time, Merrill was working most of her waking hours. In late 2012, she again turned to her boyfriend, Steve Merrill, who was a Brigham Young University business graduate, and asked him for help.
“She was going crazy busy, being a mom and managing all those stores. She was working crazy hours. I was working full time at my job at InsideSales.com, and helping her on the side,” Steve Merrill said.
They sat down together, and as he went over her numbers, they realized she was doing so well she could afford to officially hire a CEO. It took some convincing on both sides, but they decided that Steve was the right person for that position.
“When I saw that I could pay him a salary, that’s when I realized I’d made it,” Alisha Merrill said.
And though the statistics don’t encourage couples to run a business together, Alisha and Steve Merrill are one of the exceptions. He came into the business and was able to look at the larger picture, and really make solid business decisions. Alisha was able to go back to what she enjoyed the most, what got her into the business: buying, creating outfits, following fashions, building vendor relationships and branding. It also didn’t hurt that within that first year of bringing Steve on, his expertise doubled their yearly sales.
The original Lehi store moved to American Fork, and the Pleasant Grove store moved up to Layton, and Alisha and Steve Merrill now have eight locations total — seven in Utah and one in Boise, Idaho. Of the 50 employees that now work for Bella Ella, all but two (including Steve) are women.
Alisha and Steve’s daughter, Aspen, who is now seven, also considers herself a bona fide employee, and can be occasionally seen in board meetings, cleaning the warehouse in Orem, and helping with shipping.
“She’s grown up in the business, knows all the correct terms, and loves putting outfits together. Because this is what she’s known, she thinks everyone starts their own business, so she wants to start a bakery. She already brings in treats and sells them to the employees here,” Alisha Merrill said, referring to the warehouse location.
The Merrills, who married 2½ years ago and live in Highland, still both work 50 to 60 hours a week, but they also try to separate the business from family time, even though it is hard.
“There’s never a day when we say, ‘Wow, I got a lot done today, and it’s only four.’ It’s more like, ‘Wow, it’s already six and we need to make dinner,'” Steve Merrill said.
Interestingly, though the retail industry is in a decline nationally, Bella Ella Boutique stores are flourishing and still growing. Their margins, their profitability, hiring — it’s all up. From just a few thousand in the beginning, Bella Ella pulls in a couple million each year. Following the current retail trends, their online sales are also up — they’ve tripled in the last three months.
“In about a year, we’ll probably do more online that in all of our stores,” Alisha Merrill estimated.
