Sassy Ruffles: A Classy Way to Shop Local

Starla Haney set out to bring something unique to our area when opening her store, Sassy Ruffles Boutique, in Rainsville. Sassy Ruffles carries a range of women’s and girls’ clothes, shoes, candles, and accessories. Foremost among these is her line of girls’ outfits which she carefully designs by hand. Starla takes days perfecting each new outfit right down to the specific fabric that she uses to make her creations come to life.

Starla has long had a passion for girls' clothing, but never seemed to find the right opportunity to get started. Eventually, after leaving her job at Goodyear to stay home with her girls, Brooklynn (4) and Carlie (3), she decided to take the plunge, starting Sassy Ruffles. (A name that comes from her daughter’s sassiness and from her love of ruffled girl’s clothing.)

“I’ve always liked the ruffled outfits and always wanted to open a boutique, but I was never in a position where I could go out on a limb and open up. Once I had my girls I thought it would be neat to open up a store. I started online just because it seemed safest, and once I saw it was doing well I started looking at buildings to open a location because I had so many local customers.”

She started selling her creations online on both her website and Facebook in December of 2014 and began steadily growing her business. By 2016, she says she had so many customers in the area that a huge part of her time was driving to meet them. She soon decided to open up a storefront, opening at her current location on Highway 75 in Rainsville in May of this year.

Transitioning from a successful online business to a successful brick and mortar one is hard work, however, especially when you’re both the owner and sole employee, but Starla says the extra work has definitely been worth it.

“I really didn’t realize how much went into steaming all the outfits, hanging them all, and tagging them all when you’re the only person there doing it. That was my biggest surprise. It’ll take all day just putting out new outfits. It’s been rough transitioning because I have been focusing so much on the store, and my online sales have suffered, but I really like it. I like getting to meet face to face with people. I like the personal experience with my customers.”

With all the work of keeping up with both an online and physical business, Starla doesn’t get much free time, but when she does, she enjoys spending time with her husband, Jason, her daughters, and son Dylan (15). They spend time at the library, going to the park, rollerblading, watching movies, and attending Dylan’s games.

Starla says she has learned a lot in her experiences starting and running a small business, and she believes one of the most important of those lessons has been the importance of shopping locally and supporting other small businesses.

“Shopping locally helps put money back into the community. When you’re shopping local you’re not helping out the big CEO’s, you’re helping out local people that you actually know. Local businesses also support local causes, charities,and school organizations. You also get better customer service and a more personal experience shopping with a small, local business. At Walmart, they don’t really care if you buy it or not, they’re not really going to go out of their way to help you like a small business owner will.”

Starla also believes in the importance of local businesses working together, both to help each other get their businesses’ names out there by referring customers to each other or working together in advertising, and to let people know just why it’s so important to shop locally. She says Native has been great for her in both regards.

“The biggest obstacle I’ve faced is just getting my name out there. Even with all of the resources that there are, it’s still hard, because there’s so many people that drive by everyday, but don’t know what the store is. I saw that one of my friends had won money from Native at a local place just as I was about to open and I was curious. I just thought it was a great idea. As for as other options for advertising, people don’t read the newspaper as much anymore, and they may listen to Pandora instead of the radio. As far as advertising, Native has been the best for our money, and a lot of it gets spent back here anyway. People get excited about being entered into the drawing and finding out who’s going to win each week.”

You can use the Native Rewards app to support the local small business community. You get great deals and a chance to win money every time you shop with local businesses like Sassy Ruffles!

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