By Morgan Mizell

NATCHEZ — Any venture into the world of business can be a bit scary, but for the Campbell sisters, Ivori and Raven, it is dream fueled by faith.

After much prayer and research the sisters, and co-owners, opened their downtown shoe and accessory boutique called My Shoe Kloset.

“We knew we wanted to do something different,” Ivori said. “We looked around and discovered our idea of a shoe and accessory boutique was something downtown could use.”

Ivori knew Claire’s was no longer in the mall and she felt there wasn’t really any place in the area focusing on shoes and accessories.

“We began in August of 2014 by getting everything ready and selecting our merchandise,” Ivori said. “In November of that year we were here opening our doors.”

The sisters and their family members, as well as their church members, prayed over the business from the start.

“We are a very spiritual family,” Raven said. “It is the core of who we are and there were so many people who supported and encouraged us from the beginning and who still pray for us now.”

With just over a year in business, they have faced the challenges all small businesses do and they are finding ways to better themselves for their customers.

“Because we are a women’s boutique one of the challenges we faced, as do most in the fashion business, was the fact many women did not want to have the same shoes or jewelry as the next woman,” Ivori said. “We decided we needed to become more selective with our inventory and not overload on every item. It has helped us because our customers know when they buy something they are not likely to run into a lot of other women, if any, wearing the same thing.”

The sisters, who both have other jobs, are grateful for all who have been supportive of their business so far and look forward to finding new ways to reach out to more customers in the new year.

“Our faith keeps us going,” Raven said. “We pray daily for God’s will to be done and we feel that if He wants us to grow, we will and if He wants us to change, we will do that as well.”

Both sisters have additional full time jobs. Ivori works for Wilkinson County Correctional Center and Raven is a nurse practitioner for a clinic affiliated with Christus St. Frances Cabrini Hospital in Alexandria, Louisiana. They have a full-time employee, Kelly Thomas, who runs the business during the times they are working; however, both sisters do work in the boutique at various times during the week.

Family and friends have been a big part of their success as they have helped them in the store as well as being models and talking the business up to others in the area.

“Our family is very large and they have always been supportive of us,” Raven said. “They help us out in various ways and they are a big part of our business.”

All of the business decisions are carefully planned and prayed about as the sisters invested personal finances to start the business. This fact has helped to keep them more accountable on inventory selection and more focused on customer satisfaction.

“We are looking to be more productive this year,” Raven said. “We are so thankful to our customers and we hope to expand and reach out to more and more people in the Miss-Lou and surrounding areas.”

The boutique is open Tuesday – Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.