A lot of entrepreneurs worry about driving customers to their store. BethAnn Vann’s situation is a little different: She drives her store, BethAnn’’s Boutique, to customers.
Though she’s a retailer, Vann doesn’t have a brick-and-mortar shop. She operates her store inside a 1986 Chevy P-30 truck wrapped bright pink. That allows her to take BethAnn’s Boutique to trade shows, festivals and other events around the metro. The Platte City-based business launched back in April.
“A lot of people ask me if it’s hard to drive,” Vann said. (It’s not, really—she’s an Army veteran who used to fly Apache helicopters. So the truck is relatively uncomplicated.)
BethAnn’s Boutique isn’t Vann’s first time as an entrepreneur. After she left military service in 2007, she started an event planning service. It was successful, but it demanded more time and resources to scale up than she had at the time.
“I absolutely loved being a business owner,” Vann said. “I had so much to learn, and I had a young family and a great husband who was still active-duty Army, and that just wasn’t the right time.”
Even after she decided to work for someone else, Vann still felt the urge to be her own boss. She saw another retail truck last fall and got inspired to start BethAnn’s Boutique. She researched the business model and reached out to local experts for assistance—Susan Brown at Platte Valley Bank and Morgan Perry at Mid-Continent Public Library both helped a great deal, she said.
Vann found her truck through Craigslist. An electrician from rural Missouri was getting ready to retire and wanted to sell. “I drove out there as fast as I could to look at it and took it home the next day,” Vann said.
The truck had been well-maintained, but Vann wasn’t too worried about technical issues. Her husband, Bobby, is a mechanic by training.
Vann is planning to launch an online store in the coming weeks, so that customers can buy from her even if they can’t make it to one of the events she’s attending. Vann still plans to be a presence out in the community.
“If there’s something big in town,” she said, “I get to go be part of it.”
