Meet Shannon Faile | Owner of Image Boutique

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

Hi Shannon, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
For my husband and I, we really wanted a small business that was able to offer convenience and affordability to our community and at the same time, be able to give back and support our community.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
We started our boutique a little later in life, although my husband would have loved to start a little earlier. I began my career as a high school history teacher and loved every minute of it. It was definitely, my husband, Scott’s, idea to have a small business and with us having all girls, and not a boutique close by, it seemed like a great opportunity and idea for us. My hesitation was definitely the risk factor and all of the negative “what if’s”. We opened our first store in 2013 and when the second store opened in 2016, I left teaching and ran the stores full time and we were blessed enough to be able to open a third store in 2018. There have obviously been tons of challenges, starting with running your own business with no background in business but I think what continues to get us through each day is our foundation that we always just want the stores to be a place where people felt seen and comfortable when they shop with us and that we genuinely care about our customers. If someone doesn’t buy anything, as long as it’s been a good experience, that’s what matters the most, that they just enjoyed coming into the store and hopefully will come back.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Well, our offices are in our Gainesville store, which is where I spend the most time, so I would definitely invite them to come to the square to meet up. We have the cutest downtown area that is still growing so we are very proud of it. We would meet up at the store and then take a stroll around to grab some of the best coffee at one of our coffee shops, stop into all of the other cute stores on the square including a few other boutiques like Garment + Grace, Dress Up or Gypsy Threads and home decor stores like Upsy Daisy or Rahab’s Rope. We also have some amazing places to grab lunch or dinner with Atlas pizza a few doors down or the best chicken salad around at Sweet Magnolia’s. After that, it’s easy to just take a seat on one of the park benches in the middle of the square and just catch up or take a walk down one of the trails off the square over to Midland or all the way down to Lake Lanier. On a warm, sunny day, it’s a beautiful place to visit with some of the best people.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
It’s hard to say a specific person, but honestly, we wouldn’t be where we are today if it weren’t for our all of our employees. Most of our employees are part-time young adults/college students. For most of them, this is a steppingstone as they are preparing for their future careers, and we have been so blessed with some amazing young ladies. They are trustworthy, hardworking and dependable and are so very kind and helpful to our customers. As a small business owner, it’s often hard to hand over your “baby” to someone you may not know very well, but we have truly been blessed and would not be where we are today without each one of them.

Website: www.shopimageboutique.com

Instagram: @image_boutique

Facebook: Image Boutique