We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ani Barrington And Peri Bolts a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Ani Barrington, thank you so much for joining us. You are such a positive person and it’s something we really admire and so we wanted to start by asking you where you think your optimism comes from?
Being the co-owners of Eclectic CO., we can’t help but to have optimism about where our community is headed and the impact that models like ours make in the world. The nature of our work is retail, yes, but it is so much more than that. Our community of 150+ artists and small businesses run and manage their own spaces inside of our storefronts and it creates a tight-knit web of humans that are all working towards a shared goal of creativity, financial stability, and betterment of our communities/environment/world. We get to see all of the real and raw parts of the human experience: moves, births, deaths, jobs gained and jobs lost, relationship changes, all of it. Getting to celebrate all of these amazing humans at their highest highs and support them at their lowest lows is a big job, but our vendors continually show up for each other and make special bonds. This love and care for one another translates into spaces where customers feel seen, included and like their purchases truly make a difference. Words really fall short of describing how special our spaces are and that gives us great optimism!
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
Eclectic CO. is a family of community-powered shops in Colorado Springs. Our shops consist of 150+ artists, makers, curators and other micro businesses that are local to the front range of Colorado. We focus on all aspects of sustainability, ethical practices, and creativity. We pride ourselves on our mission of consciously transforming consumerism in our community. We are an experiential retail destination for all!
Peri Bolts founded Eclectic CO. on Tejon St. in 2018, Ani Barrington who was originally a vendor, became co-owner in 2020 when they opened the Old Colorado City location. They knew quickly that their mission for supporting small businesses was bigger than them and that the concept needed to expand. Supporting the creative and financial dreams of local makers, about 90% women-owned businesses is near and dear to both Peri and Ani’s hearts and compliments their respective career histories beautifully. They strive to create beautiful, inclusive, and supportive spaces for creatives of all walks of life.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
The three things that have made us most successful are transparency, strong mission, and really diving into community. Transparency is so important in relationships, especially business relationships and we really lean into this by having transparent communication with our vendors, whether it be about the state of the business or how the dynamics of someone’s product in our spaces is going. Our strong mission at the company level has made making hard decisions about the business easier: when the mission is the North Star, it makes things that may otherwise be difficult or ambiguous become clearer. Diving into our community means that whenever we hit a rough patch, personally or professionally, we ask our community what their capacity is for help first. We have truly overcome some huge obstacles together!
Our biggest advice is just to start. If you have a dream that has service to others at its core, it will grow and become a reality. The small details and the “how” become more apparent, as long as you have a strong “what”.
What would you advise – going all in on your strengths or investing on areas where you aren’t as strong to be more well-rounded?
It is a balancing act of both. Leading with your strengths is a positive thing in that only you have the unique life experiences that you’ve endured and those can be used as fuel for what makes your “thing” special. But in some ways, there is an obligation to get better at the things you aren’t as strong at, if you’re going to be a successful small business owner. There are some caveats of course: sometimes, it is better to outsource your weaknesses to a professional (like accounting for instance), or you can make the conscious decision to not use those skills (TikTok as an example). But there are many other tasks that may not be your strength that will require some skill-building in order to keep the ship afloat.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.shopeclecticco.com
- Instagram: @eclecticco._ @eclecticocc._
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eclecticcolorado
Image Credits
DJ Photography
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
