Meet Adriene Billet | Gift Shop Owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Adriene Billet and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Adriene, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
Prior to starting my business, I was social media coordinator for our local Main Street non profit. My job was to encourage more people to visit our small town and even open businesses. E are currently in the midst of a revitalization. I had lots of grand ideas and plans that just weren’t what the organization was looking for. So after two years of working with them, I thought it would better suit the community if I opened up my own businesses and put my ideas to work. It took a year of planning but I turned the front of my home into a store front, that sits along the Main Street in town. I opened during the 2nd year of the pandemic and wanted to bring joy to our community. A place to laugh, buy a unique gift that you can ‘t find on Amazon or Target. I wanted a shop that would pull people into town and make them want to explore it and the other businesses. The way to make our town successful is for all the businesses to work together. Nowadays, shopping has to be an experience. A small business has some huge competitors like Amazon, that we need to make it worth shopping at our stores to override the convenience of online ordering. I use my background in floral and event design and my love of pop culture to host pop ups and events to draw people into town. I’ve thrown a birthday party for Harry Styles, a Pep Rally for Taylor Swift before she played her show in Philadelphia and more! I also like to bring in other vendors to host pop ups in our spare room like a local henna artist, aura photographer, a tea leaf reader and sticker designer to draw people into my shop on days where they normally wouldn’t.
While my business plan has changed slightly from the beginning, it still focuses on my community and bringing people to my town.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Owning a gift shop was never on my radar. I think all of my career paths led me here. I graduated from Tyler School of Art in 2005 and had majored in textiles. While working for a textile designer, I had got a part time job in a flower shop. After working in textiles for a few years, I went full time into flowers. I began working for florists doing large scale weddings and events. It was creative and a lot of hard work. In 2018 my husbands job relocated a little over an hour from Philadelphia and I tried to continue to freelance but it was hard. I was fortunate enough to get a job doing social media for our town. While not as creative as textiles or flowers, I quickly was learning our towns history and learning what our town needed to be a thriving destination. I had worked retail since I was 15 and had a love of shopping. Our town really needed more retail stores. My job a social media coordinator didn’t allow for me to do everything I had wanted for the town, so I figured, why not me? I can open a gift shop with all things I love, throw events, be creative, be my own boss and bring people to my town! My biggest challenge is not having employees to help pull off some of my grand plans. I do have great friends that step in when I need them. In a year or two I hope to change that. I also am only able to be open 3 days a week, as finding childcare is difficult. But I make the most of those three days!
I have met a lot of amazing people in this community that I never would have, had I not opened my gift shop. I love and appreciate all of my customers. My shop is definitely known for making people laugh and have a good time and honestly that’s all I care about.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
We are a small town but we have lots to do. A trip definitely makes for a nice getaway weekend. I would set them up at The Atherton Inn, our historic bed and breakfast. I’d walk them around town to our shops, specifically stopping at The Peppermint Stick Candy Store. They have the best ice cream and my favorite chocolates! We’d walk over to The Boyertown Museum of Historic Vehicles. The museum has a large collection of historic vehicles from sleighs, to bikes, to cars and more! All made with in the tri state area and dating back to 1872. Then we would head over to Grind restaurant for some upscale eating. The next day I would suggest breakfast at our local cafe, Brakeman’s Cafe and then hop over to ride the historic Colebrookdale Railroad. This beautifully restored Civil War era takes you on a two hour historic ride. When we get back, I would walk over to The Other Farm Brewing Company for lunch. They serve farm to table food and have an awesome alcoholic cider menu, made from the apples on their family orchard. Afterwards, we would walk a few blocks to world renowned, Taylor Backes Glass Studio for glass blowing lessons.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
There are two people who have been incredibly supportive in this crazy shop owning journey! The first is Jillian Magee. She was my boss at the time when I decided to pursue this. She was the manager at our local Main Street non profit and helped guide me in all of the steps on opening a business in town and also just a constant source of encouragement (not to mention three years in and she’s still my best most supportive customer). The other is Sammi Bateman. She owns The Merrygold Shop and The Wallflower Paper and Party Shop in Philly. I met Sammi when I worked in floral and event design in Philadelphia before moving west to Boyertown. Watching her open and curate her own shop was so inspiring. She is a creative powerhouse and has a great for design. I had many conversations about gift shop owning with her and she even came two days before I opened to price everything for me! I couldn’t have done this without her support.

Website: www.stellarhousegiftshop.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stellarhousegifts/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stellarhousegiftshop

Image Credits
Adriene Billet