Okie and personalized gifts you will want to keep for yourself.
My name is Brie Caywood, I’m a relatively average lady with the fortunate disposition of not liking to work for other people, so I went into business for myself. I own a boutique with my folks, Steve and Debbie Caywood called 1907, and we would love to tell you a bit about our entrepreneurial journey from opening our Oklahoma Mercantile in downtown to opening our Etsy.
Journey is an apt definition to describe our business. First things first, I was raised right. I have been immensely blessed to have loving parents who enjoy working together. Entrepreneurship was passed down in my family from my Granddaddy. He started his journey in 70s and 80s in houses and furniture, and he taught my Daddy everything he knew. His legacy lasts and the entrepreneurial spirit runs deep.
My folks make a great team. They always made sure we got to all our commitments and taught us the value of thinking outside the box and why its important to do things right the first time. And basically, if you want something - learn how to make it. They have always been supportive of my wild ideas and helped me learn problem-solving and how important family is.
Vision is something I’ve got in spades, you never know what you can get believing in a stubborn little girl! I knew I wanted to open a shop in downtown Broken Arrow, Oklahoma since I was about 12. I bounced around on what kind of shop for a while, but the goal was there, to be a part of the small town business community. So I went to work and got the best education and experience I could get to be ready when the time was right. I graduated, with honors, from the University of Tulsa with a Bachelors in Business Administration with a major in Management with a Specialization in Entrepreneurship and Small Business. Quite the mouthful – and have all but about 6 hours of a MBA, because the timing was right to open my shop. Also, I had some health issues which led to me having four brain surgeries and an intracranial hemorrhage in my early 20’s (fun, right? also not recommended), and I didn’t want to hurt my brain anymore trying to understand international finance. International finance for an artsy type definitely didn’t seem good for my health.
Our family began looking at mercantile property downtown in May 2013, when revitalizing Main Street was only rumored. It was a long road finding a landlord, building, fixing it up and getting ready to open.
Somewhere over the summer of 2013, 1907 was born. Okie pride wasn’t a wide spread concept then, but Oklahoma is home, and you ought to love your home. I also wanted locally made goods for our shop, because it makes no sense to ask customers to shop locally, if I wasn’t buying locally for them to shop from.
As we grew and evolved, we moved most of our merchandise in-house. This led to the purchase of a screen-print machine, now all the designs we do are printed in the back of the shop. It's very rewarding having a shop full of items you and your family make - that people love.
Over the years, we added more equipment to our shop. You can learn a lot from books and YouTube if you’re stubborn enough. My mom, Debbie's retirement present to herself was a laser, with is pretty fun! So, we continued to expand into laser engraving and soap making. Our problem-solving nature kicked in and we taught ourselves the skills needed to be successful with graphic design and skincare formulations.
Renting sucks, and we did it for years, but in 2019 we took the plunge and bought the abandoned garage and train depot on the south end of our little Broken Arrow, Oklahoma Main Street. Of course then the world exploded in 2020, so that was an adventure... But at least we had our buildings to work on. We remodeled and moved while we were closed. We painted, cleaned and got ready to re-open 1907 in May of 2020, in our Oklahoma Mercantile's permanent location, we even kicked out two raccoons. It's been an exciting journey! We were scared of COVID, we had a mortgage on one building, and rent in another and double utilities and insurance and all the things… It was a lot. So moving and getting out of our rental property literally made the most sense. We opened in our new spot as soon as we had the front doors in and the power on, and never followed a mask mandate or recommendation. We just required people to respect each other.
The couple of years have been wild. I have a deep level of pride in owning the building and dirt we do business in. It may not be the fanciest building on Main Street, but you can’t judge your story by someone else’s Chapter 20 of their journey and your Chapter 1. I’ll build my empire one brick at a time and keep pouring into my little block until it’s as amazing as the vision I have in my head. We have patio lights, flower beds and a sitting area with a firepit and a spot for Bigfoot selfies.
This is a journey I’ll be on for the rest of my life, and I can only hope I put entrepreneurial roots into the next generations of my family like the previous generations poured into me. Now my son is even old enough to help and learn about what we do and how to make things and that's an awesome thing to share.
We opened an Etsy to compliment what we have been making for customers in our physical location for almost 10 years. We pride ourselves in our quality and customer service. Check out our google reviews, we try real hard to take good care of people!
