Neely Powell describes her entrepreneurial journey as "a 25-year overnight success” story. She shares how she started her company as a teenager by buying shoes from a cobbler in central Mexico and selling them at her mother's furniture markets and holding shoe parties. Over time, Neely built up a wholesale business with 300 accounts and continued to work multiple jobs.
After going back to school to study shoe design, Neely opened her first Charleston Shoe Co. store in Savannah, Georgia in 2010 with $5,000 she borrowed from her mom and her business partner. From there, she expanded her business, opening two to three stores per year and experiencing significant growth in 2017 and 2019. Despite facing challenges and uncertainties, Neely's business continued to thrive, and she now has more than 20 stores across the U.S. and sells her products through about 500 retailers.
Additionally, during the COVID-19 pandemic when her stores were closed, Neely started a clothing line. She also has a strong e-commerce business and participates in traveling trunk and home shows. Neely's stores are found all over the country, with a significant presence in Florida, the Northeast, Southern California, and the Southeast.
Neely's story reminds us that success does not come overnight and often involves years of hard work, dedication, and continuous learning. Her ability to navigate challenges, seize opportunities, and expand her business shows the resilience and entrepreneurial spirit needed to achieve long-term success.
What's been the most rewarding part of your journey?
I would say it’s the relationships that have been really rewarding for me. My employees are essentially my family. Some of them grew up with me, worked for me in college, babysat my daughter, and worked for me in the store. And now they're running divisions of the company. So, I’ve helped create careers for all these women. We have about 150 women that work for us and a lot of them run their own shops, so they are their own tiny entrepreneurs.
I’ve also built relationships with customers. Last week, I went to a trunk show in Florida that I've been going to for 15 years. I never miss it. The whole time, I saw customers that I've known forever who have watched my daughter grow up and watched me grow up. So, it's just so much more than shoes.
I also started a philanthropic side to this business during COVID where we gave half a million dollars’ worth of shoes to nurses on COVID floors in about 50 hospitals around the country. We coined the philanthropy side of the business as Shoe Joy. Because we like to spread Shoe Joy everywhere.
You're a female founder, and you’ve created this community of other female entrepreneurs. Were there challenges that you faced, and how did you overcome them? Tell us about the ups and downs of being a female founder and entrepreneur.
I love that you put challenges in the past tense because I deal with them every day. And I've yet to overcome any of them.
My biggest thing is that you can't sweat the small stuff. You just have to keep going, and you have to treat those challenges like opportunities because they are opportunities to change what you may have done wrong or what you didn't see.
I had a bookkeeper who stole half a million dollars from me. She was someone I was close to. She got married in my backyard. Maybe I was too trusting, but it's hard not to do that with people that you surround yourself with. So, you have to learn from the mistakes and the challenges and use them to pivot the company to make it stronger and healthier.
What do you think is the biggest challenge that female founders face?
As much as my greatest reward is my employees, I think that employees are hard. And no matter what business you're in, if you have a restaurant, or if you have an art studio ― it's a people business, regardless of what type of business it is.
Managing your team and trying to be everywhere you need to be, and at the same time, relinquishing some kind of control, is definitely the hardest part of my business. Managing people and their expectations while being friends with them but also being their boss and their mentor, and expecting certain things is hard. And I think that since COVID, employee work ethic and drive have gone downhill.
Talk about the process of getting into shoe design and how you approached it. Did you get into it just because you love shoes, and you were just fascinated with the construction?
So, I'm a woman and I love shoes. Someone asked me the other day, what's your favorite shoe? And I said, well if I have to sacrifice comfort, I can name a few. But when I was growing up, my mom had this furniture business in Mexico, and I met a cobbler there, and I started buying his shoes. They were so
comfortable, and they were magically intriguing to people. Every time we went back, I'd buy more for friends and family. So, I think it was more about a need than it was about fashion.
I've never been on the cutting edge of fashion, so my designs aren't revolutionary. They're not six-inch blue stilettos ― they're practical. But at the same time, they're classic, timeless, and super cute. And they’re functional as well, because they're amazingly comfortable and machine washable.
So, it's not as much about fashion as it is just a need for women to be comfortable and look nice and have timeless shoes. There are shoes in my line that I've had for 25 years because I listen to my customers. I listen to my employees. And that's how we design our shoes. Believe it or not, 70% of my line is great for bunions ― because that’s what my customers tell me they need.
When I started this business 20-something years ago, comfort was a bad word. I was in the same category as Easy Spirit, which didn't resonate with fashion or style. But over the decades, we've watched things change, and it's great to be able to have comfortable shoes that also look adorable. Shoes that are cute, sexy, fun, and easy.
You went from one or two stores to now more than 20 stores across the country. What do you think was the biggest catalyst or breakthrough for your growth?
We just started seeing this popularity in the shoe, and we have had so many customers that reach out and say, I live in Manhattan. Why don't you have a store here? Or I live in Nantucket. Why don't you have a store here?
I'm not a classic entrepreneur. I don't have a business plan. I don't have a budget. I don't check any of those boxes. I probably should have all those things, but it's never been intentional growth.
I just say, ‘That feels good. Let's go do that.’ And if it fails, we will try it three more times. So, I'm continuing with this momentum, and it's been fun. I only put stores in places I want to go visit because I know inevitably, I'm going to be working there at some point. So, I have stores in walking tourist towns and that keeps it fun for us too.
Are there routines or a structure that you have in place within your business to help manage and motivate your people?
Since all my stores are everywhere, we have a weekly manager call for everyone to hear updates. And every single one of my employees has my cell phone number.
I actually love to hear from people. Nothing makes me happier than someone saying, I can't find a blue size seven. Can you help me? I constantly stress to them that's what I want to be involved in - it's what excites me. I didn't start this business to be in HR and finance. I want to be part of it.
We have a big company retreat once a year, and we bring everyone from out of town into Charleston and rent houses. So, they get to see the warehouse and the stores here and get to meet everyone. And we do a lot of training and role-playing, but we have fun things, too. We have great dinners and oyster roasts and low country boils. They get to see what Charleston is about as well, which is kind of the heart of everything. I plan a scavenger hunt every year and it’s a lot of fun. Everyone has a great time. That's my Christmas present to everyone.
Some people feel like they're off on their own island. If the manager in Nantucket never gets to see anyone, she's technically on her own island. So, it's nice to get everyone together and touch base with them in person.
I do travel a lot. But, when I'm in the office, we have staff meetings with the corporate team to go over things.
Is there a piece of advice that you've gotten along the way that you took to heart and then put into practice?
My favorite advice came from one of my dad's best friends, and it was, you need a great CFO and an even better lawyer. And those are two things that everyone in business needs at the end of the day. So that is one piece of advice that I have taken to heart, and it's worked so far.
What word or words would you use to describe your entrepreneurial and founder journey?
I would say, creative, optimistic, and opportunity, with a little dash of chaos.
What advice would you give to other founders based on everything you've learned?
Just constantly remember that you're doing something you love. And you are the luckiest person in the world if you're able to find that and make a business out of it.
I say to my employees if I feel like they are struggling, ‘You spend more than half of your life doing this, so you need to enjoy it because life's too short and too precious.’ So, when the going gets tough, it's important to remember that you are one of the lucky ones who get to do what you love. Just keep giving it your all and don’t give up.
