Today we’d like to introduce you to Cat Wimer
Hi Cat, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Ever since I was little I’ve been drawn to entrepreneurship and doing something of my own. Whether it was car washes or peddling art (that the glue wasn’t even dry on…) to my neighbors, I have always loved being creative and independent.
In middle school my entrepreneurial mind landed on wanting a cafe, something my adult self would realize I wasn’t cut out for since I didn’t like getting up early, and I didn’t really cook or bake. I figured I should just stay a customer at a cafe. But I started preparing in middle school for this dream by brainstorming what I would have, the names, and actually starting to collect furniture and displays by the time I was 15.
When college rolled around I was able to find an entrepreneurship program and I continued to push forward. The summer before my senior year in college I was given a unique opportunity to buy an established paint your own pottery studio (PYOP). I knew this wasn’t my dream but I thought that it would be an amazing opportunity to get my feet wet and understand the business world without all of the risks of a startup. It would also continue to develop my love of creativity. Being only 21 at the time, I was having extreme difficulty getting a business loan even with co-signers. I was very blessed to get loan help from my grandparents and was able to buy the studio right after graduating. This was back in 2014. Fast forward several years–I had grown the business, but not to the point to where I could have enough full time help to start on my real dream business. I was getting closer, but then unfortunately COVID hit. I was thankfully able to get the PPP help so I didn’t have to close, but I was never able to fully recover to where I was before and my dream got pushed back even further. In 2022 I decided that I would not be able to open my dream business in addition to running the studio and I decided to sell and pursue my calling.
As I grew up and realized what I would and would not like to do, my dream business went from a café to a unique boutique and retro candy store. I came to understand that what my younger self had loved about a café was the comfort and welcoming nature of small cafes. My true love was going on adventures in small towns and visiting all of their unique stores—especially historic towns that had the old general stores. I wanted to incorporate my myriad of interests into one spot, and that was when my true dream business, Copper Brick Market, finally came to fruition in my mind. I wanted to bring people an experience, not just shopping. I wanted everyone to feel like they were welcome and that it was a place that you could enjoy even if you didn’t end up buying anything. I would bring my love of “the hunt” for quirky items by finding products that you didn’t find often and also by housing small artists on consignment and giving them a safe space to get their art out into the world. I’m proud to say that I’ve accomplished that and finally feel like I’m where I’m supposed to be.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I wish I could say it was smooth, but it’s felt more like hitting every pothole in the road while riding a bike. Unfortunately, the start of Copper Brick Market was immediately in the hole. I had secured a private loan by the summer of 2022 for the market. I signed the lease for the building at the end of November 2022 and already had a contracting team that I could trust to carry out renovations. Large chunks of the renovation depended on the completion of equipment work on the building that another set of contractors were doing for my landlords, and it ended up pushing me and my team back 6 months. This led to missing 5 major holidays and having to pay 6 extra months of business and home bills—and I was a single income household with no income at the time. I had planned for my home sustainability as well as plenty of room for other pop-up problems in the loan and it would have still left me with a cushion for when I opened so that there was cash flow as a fledgling business, giving me the ability to adapt. The sale of my studio had run into many unforeseen problems and ended up not being paid in full immediately which eliminated that influx of cash I was going to forward towards the market. Then the surprise of those extra 6 months of bills ended up fully draining the loan by the time I opened on February 29th, 2024. March was an amazing month, but by April and tax season, sales had halved and never really improved until December. Having stayed in town with the market, I was confident about knowing the sales flow of our downtown, but all of my 9 years of knowledge was flipped upside down and backwards this past year and nothing has been typical for any of our city’s small businesses.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Copper Brick Market specializes in retro and unique candy, snacks, and drinks as well as small artists’ work. You never quite know what you’ll find when you pop in and I like to joke and call it an “everything” store.
I’ve created a place that I love to call work. The design of the building and my displays make the atmosphere something I look forward to being submersed in all day, but is also part of what sets me apart from other stores. Then, when you add the products on top of that it really just becomes an experience rather than just a shopping trip. I want people to feel welcomed and amazed at what they’ve stepped into and looking forward to coming back the moment they leave.
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
I have been collecting all of my furniture and displays since I was 15! Now that the market is open, I can almost park in my garage lol. I have a knack for finding some bizarre pieces that I turn into a display. Oftentimes my friends and family would see something I’ve gotten and wonder what I could possibly do with it. It’s a lot of fun to show them the completed display and prove I’m not crazy.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://copper-brick-market.square.site/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/copperbrickmarket/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100089283435499
Image Credits
My “headshot” photo was taken by Missy Seslar, owner of Periwinkle Photography.
