Shop local and support local: This neighborhood news is supported by neighbors like you. Join now to keep it going.
Small businesses really add to the character of a community, so we wanted to hear from a couple local small business owners. Today we’re getting insights and perspective from Sue Doyscher who started the local art gift store Poppy & Wonderments.
“It’s taken a lot of outside-the-box thinking,” said Doyscher.
These conversations come from our second members-only forum that we held in early October focused on small businesses with our guests, Sue Doyscher from Poppy & Wonderments and Krystell Theisen Escobar from Eco Chico and Soul aWear. These are members-only events, so join now to support local news and get an invite to our next member forum.
Meet Our Guest:
Sue Doyscher opened Poppy & Wonderments last year, and they host classes and sell artwork from 67 local artists. Before Poppy & Wonderments she worked as a manager, EMT, and did sleep studies. She lives in South St. Paul with her partner Dan and has four kids, ages 15 to 30, only one of whom still lives at home.
- Poppy & Wonderments is a gift store selling local art and hosting classes located on Annapolis just east of Smith in West St. Paul.
Insights from Poppy & Wonderments
Here are a few highlights from our conversation and see part one with Krystell Theisen Escobar from Eco Chico and Soul aWear.
Getting Started
- Local artists: Poppy & Wonderments boasts that they have work from 67 local artists—and they define local as about an hour and a half drive. “We have about 20 artists that can walk right to the shop, which is really cool,” Doyscher said.
- The name: “We were thinking of names, and then ‘wonderment’ came to mind, and I didn’t know if it was a real word or not,” Doyscher said. “So of course I asked Google, and he says it’s like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is full of wonderments, and I’m like, well, that’s perfect. So then I called my partner and said, ‘What’s your favorite flower?’ And she said, ‘Poppy.’ And I’m like, ‘What about Poppy and Wonderments?'”
- What got you into it: “Just dreaming, I think. I’ve had a lot of different jobs,” Doyscher said. “I just did so many years of ‘this is miserable,’—and they weren’t bad jobs, it’s just that I wasn’t happy in them. They weren’t for me.”
- Right fit: “I get so happy. I walk into the shop and I’m like, ‘Hello, shop,’ and when I leave, ‘I’ll see you tomorrow,'” Doyscher said. “I told my old boss, ‘If this doesn’t work, I don’t know what else I’d want to do.'”
- Location: “When we started Poppy’s, one of the main things was that we wanted to keep it on this side of the river,” said Doyscher. “Because you can find other stuff over there, but then my mom’s not going to drive over there. There’s a lot of people that just don’t want to go into St. Paul and deal with parking, or drive 20 minutes to get to a class and then drive home in the dark.”
- Unexpected challenges: “We opened September 9 a year ago, and then about six days into it, my partner came in and said she can’t do it,” Doyscher said. “So all of a sudden, my whole business plan that her and I were working on for a long time kind of flew away.”
Working With Artists
- Nervous artists: “There’s so many neat people that have come in, and you could tell they’re nervous or they just don’t know if their art’s good enough. But it’s not really about that. It’s just about having something different than we already have,” said Doyscher. “When new artists will be like, ‘What could I bring in?’ I’m like, ‘Why not try it?’ You don’t know what people are going to be into. One of our artists makes these possum earrings, beaded possum earrings, and my daughter’s the one who got Alabaster Raven into the shop, and I was like, ‘Who the heck is going to buy beaded possum earrings?’ and they’re so popular. So you have to know that there’s a variety of people out there that are looking at all types of art.”
- Platform for artists: “It’s just really neat to see people getting excited about selling their stuff,” said Doyscher. “I couldn’t imagine being in my 20s or 30s and going to a place and them going, ‘Yeah, come on in and sell your stuff.’ That’s kind of what artists want to be able to do is have it out so people can see it. So that’s kind of where we came from.”
- Artist markets: An unexpected way Poppy & Wonderments helps artists is that they don’t have to rely on the art market circuit. “I’ve heard that from so many people. Like, ‘Sometimes I don’t even make my money back at markets, or there was a really good turnout or there was nothing,’ and so this way they can leave it and trust it with us.”
- Helping artists: “I just got to call two artists that we just signed and say, ‘Hey, you just sold your first thing at the shop,’ and it just feels like you’re living the dream for all these different artists. I get a thrill out of it.”
- Future space: “I’d really like to be able to offer a space for artists. It might come sooner than that because if we have to move—our lease is up in a year and a half, which went really quick. But if we have to move, I want to find a spot that we would be able to have a space for artists to be able to set up shop and just work out of because I’m hearing a lot about people not having the space, especially if you have young kids at home because they take up a lot of space.”
How’s Business?
- Support & marketing: “It does get really tight with having the highs and the lows, and people when they come in and are like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m so glad you’re still here!’ And I’m like, ‘Oh, when were you last in?’ ‘Well, I came in at Christmas.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, I really wish you’d come in more often.’ And we’re off of Smith, and we hear all day long, ‘Oh, I didn’t even see you back here. I didn’t even know you were here.'”
- Affordability: “I feel like we should keep our rates lower, and people have said you could charge more for this, but we want to make it accessible for as many people as we can, and we’ll try to do that as long as we can,” said Doyscher.
- Highs and lows: “Certain times it’s really good. There’s times where, like we found out don’t be open on Fourth of July weekend. It’s just not worth it,” Doyscher said. “When there’s a lot of stuff going on, it gets a little quiet. But I feel like Dan and I are learning when to be able to expect that, especially since we made it past our year, now we have stuff to look back on and even just remember. Like, oh, we know that after Christmas, if we’re going anywhere, that’s the time to go because it gets real quiet for a little bit. But then that’s also when you can do more classes, and now we’ve started doing birthday parties.”
The Community
- Biggest surprise: “I think what surprised me the most is how many people have come in saying this is exactly what they needed in their neighborhood. I didn’t know how we would be received, but West St. Paul and the area we’re in, there are such good people here.”
- The people: “One thing I’ve really enjoyed is connecting with people, having people just tell us that they’re so happy we’re there because they needed art in the neighborhood, but I have cried with people sitting there. I’ve asked so many people, ‘Can I hug you?’ Because we’ve just—I don’t know. It’s so different than anything I’ve ever done before and it’s just really cool.”
- Gateway corner: “I love our corner here. We’ve talked about getting the girls together and chatting and stuff because there are a lot of women-owned businesses here. But the camaraderie that we’re feeling on that corner,” said Doyscher. “We keep coupons in our store for the antique mall, and we’re always telling people about Soul aWear and Centsibly Chic. And then people walk in with coffee. I’ll be like, ‘Oh my gosh, what’s your favorite thing at Amore?’ There’s this feeling of it coming together, and people going, ‘This is like a little Grand Avenue or a little Stillwater.'”
Marketing & How to Help
- Not loving tech: “I would much rather handwrite a calendar and stick it on the wall than do what I do with the Canva, and then the Mailchimp, and the Jotform, and putting all that together. Like I have fear when that time is coming because I’m like, ‘Oh, I have to spend 10 hours just to get out my class schedule.”
- Don’t call, stop in: “We don’t have a phone number because at my last job when I worked at the Pool & Yacht Club, the phone was constantly interrupting business the whole time,” Doyscher said. “One guy came into the store and was saying, ‘My wife wanted to know if she was in this class, and we didn’t see a phone number, so I had to stop in,’ and I started chatting with him, and I told him why, and then he’s looking around the store. And by the time he left, he’s like, ‘I am so glad I came in and just talked to you.’ That’s what is all about. Just come in and talk.”
- In-person: “It’s about being in person with people, and which kind of bucks the whole system of everything else. But if we can make it work that way, it makes me much happier.”
- Shop local: “Try getting back to shopping closer to where you live, especially at Christmas time and stuff. Because a lot of times Christmas will get us through January, February, March, and so you can get that unique thing,” Doyscher said. “I absolutely love when people are like, ‘I was going to go to Target, but then I remembered I can get this here, and you’re like, ‘Yes, you can, and I can tell you who made it, and they’ll be so happy.”
Business Advice
- Unexpected costs: “You are going to spend way more money than you thought, so plan ahead,” Doyscher said. “We put a lot of sweat equity into building the shop, just the bones of it. But there’s so many different parts where you’re pulling from over here and pulling from over here.”
- The lack of paycheck: “Unless you can figure out a way to pay yourself, the lack of paycheck at first is just so different. I’ve always put in my time and got paid, and put in my time and got paid, and now you put in your time because you know eventually it will pay off, which is totally different. And thank God I’ve had Dan there to help me too because I cannot afford to hire anyone.”
- Get help: “When I was writing my business plan, you can’t even comprehend why do you need this or what this is about until you’re in it,” said Doyscher. “Like having a mentor would have been fabulous because then you can ask like, ‘Wait, I have to pay sales tax quarterly?’ And that wouldn’t surprise you. And to know that it’s going to come again in three more months.”
Big thank you to Sue Doyscher for participating in our members-only forum and sharing her insights.
Shop local, learn local. Join now to support local news.
