Distinctive Interiors


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	Love of Fine Furnishings Turns Into A Business




			Annie Bratton, Founder

Annie Bratton loves beautiful furnishings and decorative accents. That love of being surrounded by beautiful things inspired her to find a way to start a business purchasing and re-selling fine furnishings at deeply discounted prices.

“After speaking with peers, I realized that many of them settled for low quality furnishings while others had no choice but to pay incredibly high prices to furnish their homes.” Therefore, she decided to go into the furniture business in order to be able to offer family, friends and residents in the vicinity of Rock Hill more affordable options for quality furnishings. Her new business, Distinctive Interiors, also offers affordable high end decorative accents.

For Annie, starting a full-time business that required her constant presence was not an immediate option. She needed to set up a business that would allow her to start small and continue working another job until Distinctive Interiors would have time to develop and grow into the mature, profitable business that she envisioned. So Annie opted to begin small. With a small investment of her own funds, Annie began by placing some classic and unique items in a multi-vendor mall in Rock Hill known as the Shoppes at River’s Edge, located where Celanese and Cherry Roads meet near I-77 at 951 Cel-River Road.

Utilizing this type of start-up business location Annie is able to make use of the utilities, sales staff and security offered by River’s Edge, keeping her overhead and operational costs to a minimum. And she’s proud of the lines she will represent that include: Aico, American Drew, Bassett, Broyhill, Drexel Heritage, Hooker, Howard Miller, Lane, Lexington, Soflex, Universal, and Wesley Allen.




	This eight-seat dining group by Bernhardt is transitional in styling, and is representative of the quality of furniture available through Distinctive Interiors

With a Bachelor’s degree from Montreat College and more than 15 years experience as a buyer and Certified Purchasing Manager, Annie was well-positioned to understand the do’s and don’ts of making a profit in retail. She was also aware that even a sole proprietor needs to call upon others with expertise to fill in the gaps of her own experience. In that regard, she has retained an attorney and a tax and general accounting consultant. She has also developed key contacts in the furniture industry, which helps her stay on top of trends and recognize what customers want. She’s also aware that as her business grows, she will need more people to keep things running smoothly; but at this point she is utilizing contract support, with plans to add a small staff as the business progresses.

While some might question the timing of starting a business in 2010, Annie used the economic downturn as an actual stepping stone, taking advantage of new relaxed rules for wholesale purchasing which have allowed her to buy more for much lower terms than required in past years.

Distinctive Interiors has not yet reached its full potential, but Annie Bratton’s business is already a success story in that she has purchased starting inventory on terms she can afford, opened a shop, is making sales and developing a client base through personalized marketing efforts, has vowed to create good customer service standards, and realizes that to grow or even survive in this economy, she needs to keep moving forward, but take smaller well-planned steps to get there -- and she’s done all this without formal loans.

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