It’s Personal

We take a look into Take It Personally’s customized success story.

It all started five years ago on July 25, with an idea Samantha Grier saw while scrolling through Instagram: a post of a vinyl coating machine printing out decals.

“Sam texted me and said, ‘Hey, I saw this idea and I think I’m going to get this machine and start making some decals,’” says Brooke Barrett-Quick, Grier’s sister. “And I said, ‘OK, well I will invite myself on this journey, so I did and the rest is kind of a blur to be honest.”

Today, the sisters are co-owners of Take It Personally, an incredibly successful personalized vinyl and embroidery boutique in downtown Cheraw. Before their store front opened two years ago, however, they said their humble beginnings involved a travel-size ironing board on the floor of the spare bedroom in the house they both grew up in.

“And then fast forward two years later, we have a storefront and both of us quit our jobs and are doing this full time,” says Barrett-Quick.

The ladies’ former jobs as office managers, they both say, helped to guide them on their entrepreneurial journey. Their first sales were monogram decaled earrings on their Etsy account.

“It very quickly took off from there,” says Barrett-Quick. “I mean, we got a little overwhelmed with those kinds of orders.”

Monogram earring orders were quickly followed by requests for earrings with baseball and anchor decals, which was followed by monogram long-sleeve T-shirts sold locally and shipped out from July to Christmas during the first year. In 2020, Take It Personally is in the top 1 percent of Etsy sellers worldwide. The duo is also staying busy at the store, delivering a steady flow of personalized products – from T-shirts to tumblers to baby gifts and more – to customers curbside.

“We also have a monthly monogram box subscription,” says Barrett-Quick. “And there are certain items we keep in stock to personalize, but we’ll personalize outside items as well if you want to bring something in.”

The sisters, also full-time moms, juggle a system with one other employee, a college student, who manages the customer service in the store, while Grier covers the vinyl orders (decals and customized tees) and Barrett-Quick handles all of the embroidery work.

“I’ve learned that it’s a lot easier to work for somebody else: you go in, you do your job, you leave and you have the weekend off,” says Barrett-Quick. “But when you are self-employed, you don’t have a day off. Even when we’re closed, we’re keeping up with the inventory, keeping up with shipments when they arrive, keeping up with answering questions on our social media accounts. And we have people texting us. I don’t mind it … we just have to be mindful because we are always working. We are our own marketing, customer service and sales team every day.”

Having just celebrated their fifth anniversary of the business, the sisters are looking to continue their successful journey in the future.

“I think that we feel excited about expanding on things, like our monthly monogram subscription program,” says Barrett-Quick.

Take It Personally is located at 121 Chesterfield Highway, Suite B. You can order via phone at 843-865-7137 or email at takeitpersonallysb@gmail.com. Their online stores and VIP announcements are located on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/TakeItPersonallySB/ and Etsy at https://www.etsy.com/shop/TakeItPersonallySB?fbclid=IwAR3QkTSUThmYZEb928P8m.