Today we’d like to introduce you to Christopher Batts and Christian Fessler. Them and their team share their story with us below:
Christopher started his entrepreneurial life early on; working for a woman-owned business as her right hand, watching his mother pioneer in a predominantly male led industry to what is now majority female. Christian led a very similar upbringing where his draw to the hectic and rewarding lifestyle of small businesses brought him to where he and Christopher are today.
Christopher has an extensive background in event planning, and being a Nationally Certified Wedding Planner, he was always able to connect with people on a more personal level. Christian on the other hand excels in the more “backend” operations, his strengths lie in maintaining poise and understanding of the inner workings for business.
The soon-to-be husband team makes quite the force to be reckoned with when it comes to launching the first real-life ‘Rose Apothecary’.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
You know what they say…. If it was easy, everyone would do it.
Of course, there have been bumps in the road along the way, but Christian and Christopher continue to trek through the speedbumps and roll with any and all punches they’ve been presented with. The main challenge the two of them faced was staying authentically themselves through the launch of the couple’s first store. The Mercantile on Main is the first openly gay owned business in all of Franklin County, even more so, the couples tagline and even their social media handle, A Prideful Place, is a twofer; pride, stating the obvious of showing their pride for who they are, and finally every artisan that vends at the Mercantile must be proud of their work in order to be apart of the Prideful Family!
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
What sets Christian and Christopher apart from other consignment stores is our story and our passion for the locality of our merchants. We take pride in not only our work but their work and their stories. The couple continues to plan staged shoots with professional photographers/videographers to showcase their vendor family and lift them up to help catapult those small businesses to the next level!
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
In our opinion, the risk is almost always worth the reward. Our biggest risk was opening our first Mercantile. It was a rainy Sunday afternoon in early January. Christopher mentioned to Christian that he wanted to venture into the small town of Franklinton to look at a newly developed space that he thought would be perfect for a wedding venue. Now mind you, Christian is the one that keeps both feet planted firmly on the ground; long story short, the two were speaking to the developer Joe Ferrell that same rainy Sunday about their aspirations and ‘what was next’, and low and behold, Christian asked for a lease to be executed on what would be their Mercantile just 60 short days later. The two of them knew nothing about running a retail store, let alone much of anything of the small town of Franklinton.
Contact Info:
- Email: hello@apridefulplace.com
- Website: www.apridefulplace.com
- Instagram: @apridefulplace
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/apridefulplace
Image Credits
Morgan Caddell Lacy Matusik Christopher Batts
