Help a Local Small Business

In May of 2014 I began a journey that is very dear to my heart. I homeschool my son who has medical issues, and my daughter who is adopted from Guatemala. So being there for them has always come first when any career for me comes into question. My husband is also self-employed, so like thousands of other Americans, we are un-insured. We have spent most of our lives as a one-income family, trying to keep up with medical bills for our son. We have given our lives to many causes in the recent past, spending nearly 6 years caring for extra children through foster care. We place a high value on family and helping others, and have enjoyed the time we were able to spend doing that through the Elkhart County foster care system. We are still in touch with most of the children we homed and enjoy watching as they grow into adults.

Last summer, after a big change in my career as a gymnastics coach and gym co-owner (again, a job where I was blessed to be able to work evenings and care full-time for my children, and even coach my daughter on the gymnastics team!), we decided to take a huge step and open a clothing boutique. This was very scary, as it meant downsizing our home and literally putting every dollar we owned into purchasing clothing to sell, remodeling a space, and advertising the new business. But we felt strongly that this was God's next step for our lives and we jumped in whole-heartedly. 


My husband's career and training is in construction and he was able to make all of our store fixtures himself. We even picked through junk yards and bargained with local farmers and welders for gears, barn wood, metal and other things we used for decor! We had so much fun meeting people in our community and being creative with this process and made friends along the way.


We support other small business as much as possible. We love to provide jewlery to our customers from local artists, and even offer clothing lines from some local designers.

With the cost of advertising, utilities, and rent in an affluent area of town, it is very hard to make it through the first several years of non-profit that all businesses go through. We do not pay employees at this point, as we cannot afford it. We do all the work ourselves.

We would like to raise $40,000+ to help pay for advertising and overhead costs as we develop a customer base during these early years, and have commited to giving every penny back to the community through local charity donations and support as our business grows and becomes profitable. And that is why we feel ok with setting up this fund... We have never been the type of people who are comfortable asking for financial help, but we feel in this manner, we are helping the community, both by building up a small business, and by comitting to "paying it forward" through support of other small business and local charities when we get on our feet.

Please consider helping our business (and family) survive these very tough growing pains as we build a better community in St Joseph County through small business ownership and support of other local small businesses. And if you get the chance, stop in to Steam Couture and introduce yourself. We love to meet our neighbors! Come see what we have to offer the community! Visit our Facebook Page for more photos and to keep up with our progress.