Elon University, with an undergraduate enrollment of about 6,000 students, is a considerably small school when compared to other universities across the country. There is no sprawling city with malls and corporate businesses for students and families to shop at; rather there is downtown Elon nestled next to campus. This downtown strip is comprised of small, independently owned shops. By shopping at these locally owned businesses, students are supporting their community, local girl bosses, and giving money directly back into the town. Two female owned businesses located in downtown, All That Jas and Simply Oak, sat down to talk about what it means to be a small business owner, their shops, and being a woman in business.
Michaelle Graybeal, owner of All That Jas, was the first person I interviewed in downtown.
How has moving to Downtown Elon changed business for All that Jas?
We started in Downtown Burlington but, immediately knew that was not where we needed to be. A student came in one summer and said we were too far from campus, so we immediately looked over here [Downtown Elon]. It’s all ‘location, location, location.’
How is being a local business different than being corporate company?
We react quicker to trends and things like that and we don’t need to ask anybody to make it happen, it’s all on our end. (Girl boss, am I right?)
What are some of the most popular things in the store?
Definitely puppy cooler shirts (you can find them here), a lot of drinkware like Lilly Pulitzer cups, and we just brought in more bohemian kind of things. Getting a little bit different than the preppy stuff, more funky/ vibey. We ask our students about stuff they want to see! We are as customer accommodating that we can be.
How was this business born?
I started out in cheerleading 15 years ago, selling uniforms. I had worked for a company, and that wasn’t working out, so I set out on my own. The girls that worked for me were Elon University students, and they said you know, ‘We need to do sorority stuff’. Back then they had no internet, so they were really struggling on finding sorority wear. We made it happen.
What does the name mean?
The cheerleading company was Jump and Shout, JAS, then we were going okay, Just About Shirts, Join a Sorority, all that. So, my students created and came up with where we are now with All That Jas.
What is it like being a woman running a small business?
I surround myself with good people, it takes a village to make it work. It’s always a challenge because my name is spelled like Michael, so I get calls for Michael or emails for him. Even when I’ve spelled it out, they’re like ‘hey, Mike!’ in emails.
Do you have a close knit community here at Elon?
We are constantly talking to everybody that are owners, and we are constantly going “what are you doing, how are you doing it”, things like that. We work closely with the city of Elon to pull things together as a community instead of just everybody on their own little island. I work closely with Elon University students as well to give back as much as we can, and be a good partner with the University. We work with sororities and other organizations for fundraising and profit shares.
What’s some of the hardest things about owning a small business, and the rise of shopping local?
Trying to figure out, getting in the minds of a 19 year old, like how do we convince them to come to us before shopping online. That keeps us in business instead of going online at 2 o’clock in the morning. How to get loyalty from people, its always a challenge to work with the different groups so we can have mutual support. Retail is declining because everything is online. Support the little guys, come in and support here. We employ other students, other women, we try really hard with customer service.
All That Jas is located at 108 E Williamson Ave, right beside the Oak House.
Follow them on Insta! @jasgreek