Brookfield Small Business Spotlight: PREGASTYLE

BROOKFIELD, CT — Our Small Business Spotlight shines a light on local businesses we may not know that well.

Business: PREGASTYLE
Owners: Tracy A. Gravius
Website: https://www.pregastyle.com
Address: Home-based Brookfield business

How did you come up with the name?

PREGASTYLE wasn't our first choice but became the best fit as the vision for the company came to life. We wanted to come up with an easy identifiable name that would fuse pregnancy and style together. Maternity is just a size and we want our company name, PREGASTYLE, to become a way to describe your style throughout your pregnancy. Our brand strategy is simple; we want moms to replace the word maternity with PREGASTYLE, and use it to describe their pregnancy style vibe. What's your #pregastyle?!

Why start a business in this town?

I have a young family and we are Brookfield residents. We love our town. I recently transitioned from a 16 year career in financial services that came with a 1hr+ required commute each way every day. Despite enjoying a rewarding career, it took a toll on me and my family. This was the perfect opportunity to launch a company from my hometown, initially out of my home, with the goal to move into a business location located in the greater Brookfield area. It allows for a much better quality of life for me and my family.

Briefly, what business are you in?

PREGASTYLE is an online maternity resale company, lifestyle brand and style advisor to pregnant women. We pride ourselves for being an accepting community of mothers. As parents ourselves, we know what expecting moms want and need. So through our firsthand experience, we bring you the online storefront you see today. Our mission is to bring convenience, affordability and style to expecting mothers. It is our duty to bring you the best maternity apparel out there, but at low costs! We promote a maternity lifestyle company that connects and empowers expecting moms so they can look and feel beautiful, without spending a fortune. We buy and sell high-quality and gently-used maternity clothes. Through our commitment to quality, low price points, and community we wish to show expecting moms the love, attention and maternity store they deserve.

What’s the most difficult moment or challenge you’ve faced as a business owner?

Launching a business is certainly a challenge; one I enjoyed very much. There's so much to do and the learning curve is very steep. I have such a deeper level of appreciation for every business owner that has opened their doors, let alone, kept the lights running. It takes a lot of discipline. I think the hardest aspect is remaining focused on the longer term plan all while staying on top of all the to-dos. I relied heavily on my business plan and broke every aspect of the business down into action items that I prioritized and assigned due dates to. While this was very involved and seems straight forward, it quickly becomes complicated when you play phone tag with the vendor you're trying to establish a relationship with or finally receive the information you were looking for and realize there's so much more to consider before a decision can be made.

As much as every detail is extremely important, I had to remind myself to pick my head up and ask myself if the task I was working on at the moment would bring me closer to my long term goal. If the answer was yes, I would put my head down and keep working on it. If the answer was no, I knew in that moment that I must stop and move on to the next task.

What’s been your favorite moment or proudest achievement since opening?

When we earned our first sale. It validated all the hard work put into the business is worth it. As the business owner, you have vision and think it's a great idea but don't know how great it is until someone is willing to pay money for your offering because they trust you and believe in your mission and product. It's very rewarding.

How does your business give back or get involved in the community?

We are doing wonderful things for a lot of local moms! While we believe our expecting mothers deserve a maternity clothing shop that promotes the values of convenience, affordability, and style, keep in mind, our inventory is sourced from moms that have beautiful maternity clothes in their closet that they no longer need. They send us their maternity clothes in a clutter bag that is provided by PREGASTYLE.

We have very high standards and only purchase items that appear as if the original sales tag was unknowingly removed. Often times, we are in receipt of clothes that look great but don't quite meet our standards, mostly because a tag is missing or there is a minor blemish that discredits it from looking brand new. While moms have the option to have their unaccepted items returned to them for a fee, all unaccepted items are donated. We continue to look for affiliates to partner with in the local community that could benefit from receiving these maternity clothes that are in good condition. Please email customerservice@pregastyle.comif you know of a local organization that should be considered.