By Karen Axelton
Location plays a huge part in a small business’s success—especially in today’s economy. Across the country, thousands of entrepreneurs are struggling with locations that aren’t working, and leases they can’t break. Entrepreneur Julia Hutton has a solution for entrepreneurs looking for a lower-cost option to a store. Hutton’s company, ExTreme ReTrailers, builds state-of-the-art, fully-functional retail outlets that operate from trailers. Complete with exterior and interior branding, music systems and LED lighting for night use, the trailers can be custom designed for almost any type of business and used to create a mobile shop at events, festivals, fairs, parking lots or wherever your customers are.
Hutton got the idea after owning two motorcycle apparel shops in Arizona for several years. Her stores were located in premier biker destinations, but after the economy crashed in 2008, her store traffic and sales slumped. Hutton outfitted the original ExTreme ReTrailer with the merchandise from her store and began selling at motorcycle rallies, bike weeks, and car and bike shows across the U.S. The mobile store grossed double in just one weekend what the brick and mortar store had ever sold in one week’s time.
Seeing the potential for mobile stores, Hutton decided to help other small business owners take advantage of the mobile solution and ExTreme ReTrailers was born. In addition to retail, the trailers can be designed for service and instruction-oriented businesses such as personal trainers. They can be styled in any theme, such as country western, biker, contemporary, retro, or juvenile.
“The minute we started doing motorcycle rallies, state fairs and the like with Biker Babes and Beyond selling out of an ExTreme ReTrailer, we realized the enormous potential for these trailers,” says Hutton. In addition to these venues, she takes her ExTreme ReTrailer to charity functions. “We sell our clothing and donate a percentage of the proceeds minus costs to the charity, while having a lot of fun at the same time.”
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