- Words by TessVan StraatenPhotography by Lia Crowe
Devon Bird never thought of herself as an entrepreneur, but after launching a successful clothing store in Sidney two years ago, sheâs now preparing to open another boutique next doorâand she couldnât be happier.
âBuilding this business and being connected with what I love to doâitâs not a job,â says the 31-year-old owner of Moden Boutique. âItâs entirely consuming in the best possible way. Iâm doing exactly what I want and what I should be doing.â
Devon started working in retail when she was just 16 years oldâit was her first jobâbut despite her love of fashion, she didnât think it would be her career.
âI always worked in retail because I liked the discount, and it was somewhere I felt comfortable,â she says. âI got my degree in sociology with a concentration in health and aging, and I thought I was going to run an assisted living facility for independent seniors.â
But after getting into merchandising a few years ago, Devon found her passion and decided to push herself out of her comfort zone. She packed up her life in Vancouver and moved back to her hometown of Victoria to open up Moden, which means âmatureâ in Norwegian (a nod to her grandmother who came to Canada after the Second World War and had a unique fashion sense).
âItâs not an age to me, itâs a mental space,â Devon explains. âI donât really relate to my millennial generation much, so mature was a state of being, a state of mind, a comfort in oneselfâa mature place to be. You know who you are and youâre living that truth and thatâs what Moden meant to me.â
That philosophy, of being true to oneself, is also how Devon is running her business. But itâs a lesson she had to learn the hard way.
âWhenyou start a business, you donât have somebody telling you whatâs right or wrong, and I think I started trying to be everything to all people,â she admits. âAfter I opened, people would say, âOh, the store is too emptyâ or âyou need to carry thisâ or âyou need to carry thatâ or âwhy donât you carry skirts?â and I would think, âOh gosh, I need to carry more skirts and dresses, I need to do more evening stuff,â and it started to impact the vision I had for the store, which is everyday comfortable dressing.â
Devon felt like she was being pulled in too many directions and had to stop, re-evaluate, and learn to trust her gut.
âYou canât let people tell you who you are,â she says. âYou need to know what your business is about. And itâs a reflection of you, so you have to be true to that, and everythingâfrom how you decorate to what you have in the storeâhas to come from that vision, or the message is totally lost.â
For Devon, who says she always thought sheâd make a better employee than employer, learning to run a business has come with a steep learning curve. But she says the key is not being afraid to ask questions.
âI think what you learn is that you have to be quite shameless and ask questions and not be afraid to look silly,â she advises. âI had to really get over not looking qualified, which was a very humbling experience. But it was also encouraging to see how willing people are to help you when you do ask.â
The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic just 15 months after she opened the store posed a unexpected and unique challengeâone that many new businesses struggled to survive. But itâs also been a valuable learning experience.
âItâs made us more nimble and one of the positives out of COVID-19 is that peopleâs habits are broken up,â she says. âNobody wants to go to a big mall full of people now, so theyâre looking for their outdoor shopping centres; theyâre looking for their local, independent boutiques.Iâve been so encouraged to see people coming back, people really worried about my business and buying gift cards or shopping online for the first time just to support me.â
Devonâs so encouraged, sheâs planning to expand and open a new storeâModen Essentials, which will carry lingerie, loungewear and basicsâin March.
âOpening a business at anytime is a risk, but you mitigate that risk by being really clear,â she says. âAre you offering something that people need? I want to continue to do what Moden did, which is offer whatâs missing and I think the next space that could really be elevated is lingerie and lounge.â
It all comes back to Devonâs approach to business and lifeâknowing who you are and being authentic.
âIf youâre doing exactly what youâre supposed to be doing, youâre using your skills and your heart is in it. So itâs really difficult to fail because youâre using all of your strengths and putting that out there,â Devon says. âThatâs really the key to success.â
Story courtesy of , a Black Press Media publication
Like Boulevard Magazine on and follow them on
