Today we’d like to introduce you to Luisa Hincapie and Michael Van Jones. Them and their team share their story with us below:
Luisa Hincapie a native New Yorker was born and raised in Queens, her parents immigrated here from Colombia, her parents gave their two daughters the opportunities that they didn’t have and Luisa and her sister have made the best on those opportunities, her younger sister Eylin being the first in her family to get her bachelors degree in Biology and Luisa being a successful young Hispanic female entrepreneur. Michael Van Jones was born in Long Island, NY and lived in New Jersey where his parents bought a home near a golf course. Michael had the entrepreneurial spirit at a young age retrieving golf balls from the lake and selling them back to the golfers. “My parents taught me all about hard work and working hard for your dreams” those words stuck and I carried that wisdom with me.
Luisa & Michael met in Queens, NYC in the spring of 2016. Only after a few weeks of spending everyday together they decided to leave their jobs at Toyota and drive to California with Michael’s dog Honey. California was the place that sparked their vintage/antique sparkle as they traveled to various flea markets in the Bay Area selling vintage items they have found at yard sales or on the curb. California was amazing but the costs of living reminded them too much of NYC so they sought Austin, TX as their new home on Jan 2, 2017. They worked corporate jobs and decided they wanted to start their own business and work for themselves. This is where they started an estate sale company from scratch and also where they started to have booths in various local antique malls. The estate sale company Vintique Estate Sales started to gain traction and by mid-2018, it was a well-oiled machine. At one point, they were in three different antique malls selling their digs. They had an idea, “What if we start our own antique mall? We would be saving on paying all this rent at other malls, etc.”
Michael was browsing Craigslist for some sort of retail storefront, Austin yielded results if you wanted to pay $15k+ a month, the antique mall model is very simple: find a big enough space, high traffic area, rent it, fill it with booths that will cover your own rent plus a profit. They were able to find a 12,000sq ft. former sears store on a main highway in a small town called Taylor which is about 35 miles northeast of bustling Austin. Without knowing a soul in Taylor, they moved their home and started to recruit vendors for the mall. “The big risk was finding vendors, there was a two week period that was intense for us, we just rented this huge store, paid the monies and it was all vacant at the time, fear did set in from time to time during that period” after that two weeks mark and a successful open house they were able to fill up 35 vendors in three weeks time!
On Jan 2, 2019 Vintique Mall was born. Our dreams came true, all the hard work and determination was worth it. We poured our blood, sweat & tears into creating something and we did it! If you believe in yourself, anything can happen! In recent years we extended the mall into our warehouse area making up over fifty unique booths. We have an amazing record collection, vintage clothing booths, vintage kitchenware, antique furniture and tons of collectibles! We have Second Saturday market days out front in our parking lot with live music and free beer from our friends at Texas Beer Company.
We’ve been through a lot in 2020 for any young business to withstand especially during the pandemic so we want to thank all of our customers and local businesses who rallied and supported us through that time! We got past 2020 and the rest is history!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The main struggle for us was the Covid pandemic. We were a year into our new business when the world started to shut down. It was super scary because everything seemed to be hanging in the balance. Then in April 2020, there was a stay at home order and we couldn’t leave the house. After about two weeks of staying home, we thought we had to do something so we started a Facebook group called “Vintique Mall curbside to go” in mid-April. Our concept was to take 80 photos a day of our products, send prices to whoever commented, sent invoices to pay online and then deliver to their doorstep in Taylor. The group gained traction and after a couple of weeks, online orders were coming in hot! In May 2020 a month in and out storefront doors locked- we made the most sales ever selling on a Facebook group. If there is a Will, there is a Way. The stay at home orders were lifted in June but we stayed closed for that month and just sold via the group and has another stellar month, we reopened in July and we were back in business. The Facebook group is still active with just over 960 members and we do still post a couple of times a month.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
We own Vintique Mall- it’s a 12,000sq ft antique mall in Taylor, TX. We have fifty booths selling a wide array of different items such as antique furniture, vintage clothing, vinyl records, cast iron, mid-century modern, old toys, jewelry and lots of collectibles! I think what sets us apart from other malls is that we have some of the best dealers around who constantly bring in fresh inventory and are always changing up their booths. We also have special events like our second Saturday market days which allow the public to come setup in front of our store, we have live music by the cowboy crooner and free beer from Texas beer company. I think advertising for any business is important so I make it a point to post new photos of products each day on our Instagram, Facebook and Google accounts.
How do you think about luck?
I definitely think luck plays a part but I also believe dreams and manifestation play a bigger part. If you constantly believe in yourself, work really hard for what you want and never give up- 9/10, it’s going to work out for you. I remember sitting in traffic back in New York driving to my boring sales job thinking is this my life? I started listening to a guy named Eric Thomas who is now a motivational speaker. He’s known for “how bad do you want it?” It’s on YouTube. After I listened to that a few times, it hit me hard right in the face, gave me perspective and I have a post it on my computer always reminding me on how bad do you want it?
Contact Info:
- Email: Vintiqueoftaylor@gmail.com
- Website: www.vintiquemall.com
- Instagram: vintique_mall_taylor
- Facebook: Facebook.com/Vintiquemall/
