We recently connected with Whitney Bennett and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Whitney, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
I would say my resilience comes from a combination of a strong support system and a lifetime of overcoming chronic pain. When I was 16 and playing sports, I discovered that several of my discs in my lower back were in pretty bad shape. This is where my chronic pain journey began; my back pain seemed to always play a roll in everything I did. In my adult life, when I found weightlifting, I was able to keep my pain minimal for a decade, that is until I suffered a debilitating injury while training for a competition. This injury ended competitive weightlifting and almost every other physical activity for me. I became depressed and my health was on a steady decline. After a few years passed, when I decided to open my shop, I began doing some physical activity and sought out medical interventions I hadn’t pursued before – I was determined to stop living a life of pain. That is when, a week after opening my storefront, I suffered nerve damage from an epidural in my spine, ultimately sending me to the emergency room where I then had to undergo emergency back surgery.
During this time, I had so many questions; why me? Why now? Why can’t my body do what I need it to do? Is my business going to die before I even get started? My friends and my family all rallied around me, and after a grueling 3 weeks of intensely painful recovery, I was able to get back into my shop with a new outlook. I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to walk again without pain – but here I was, making my dream come true, and every day my back was getting a little better.
I learned a lot about myself, of course, but I also learned that I have such great people around me who want me to not only succeed, but to thrive.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I am a recovering graphic designer! Haha, no but seriously, I worked in marketing and advertising as a designer for 15 years, and I loved it! Until I didn’t. Before I was laid off from my last job as a senior designer for big ad agency, my mental health was on the decline, and I felt that my life was at a crossroads. After taking a two month leave from work, I realized I needed to pursue my dream of opening a storefront. I began writing my business plan.
Fast forward to now and I am a full-fledged shop owner. Civil Stock General Store is a culmination of me, in retail form. Inspired by the old general stores of our past, and what they meant to their communities; Civil Stock General Store provides an ever-changing product list of well made utilitarian supplies and home goods, ranging from common groceries and nostalgic candies to eco-friendly, USA-made household staples and unique gifts to our local community. We strive to emphasize high quality, beautifully designed products and their incredible makers, mostly local, women- and BIPOC-owned small businesses.
While our first year of business has been nothing short of a challenge, our community has embraced us whole-heartedly and we can’t wait to see what the future holds. I hope to end 2024 on a high note and expand our business to another location before next year’s holiday season.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Retail/customer service experience, my knowledge in communication – both with people and as it pertains to your brand – and good old fashioned gumption.
My advice to anyone early in their journey is to work in customer service and learn as much as you can, and to utilize your local community’s and local library’s free resources; they were instrumental in the planning stages and in the development of my business plan.
Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
Our one major challenge we are facing is securing funding to help our business grow. As a new, solo, self-funded business owner, it has been extremely tough to get financial assistance and as a result, the shop is having trouble keeping up with the ebbs and flows of running a brand new business.
We are hoping that having an official year of business under our belts opens new doors in terms of qualifying for small business loans and are applying for grant opportunities regularly.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.civilstock.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/civilstockphl
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/civilstockphl
- Yelp: www.yelp.com/biz/civil-stock-general-store-philadelphia
