Meet Nikole Christian
“I always joke that I'm so Houston I saw Destiny's Child at the Astrodome!”
Nikole Christian’s life began in the Houston area, has been heavily influenced by Houston, and Houston is now enjoying the success of being a part of this young, vibrant, successful business owner’s life.
“I grew up in Crosby, actually. My grandma lived there, my dad got transferred for his job, so we just moved in with her and it was just going to be kind of temporary. And then my grandma, who was in remission for cancer, ended up getting re-diagnosed. So we kind of stayed longer than we thought and just fell in love with the school and my friend group. My parents don't live there anymore, but I owe so much of who I am to growing up there.”
After graduating from Crosby High School, Nikole enrolled at Lonestar College Kingwood for two years and then transferred to University of Houston Downtown where she majored in Education. “I didn't really know what I wanted to do when I graduated. I kind of had an idea to tackle a startup business or my plan B was to be an elementary teacher. I graduated in 2011 during the recession and I had been substitute teaching and long term subbing. They were actually laying off first year teachers and new hires which was crazy because teaching jobs have always been so secure and vital. Careers like teaching and nursing are so important that they don't usually have a downfall like that and it just happened to happen in the year I was graduating. And it was good in a way because it made me pursue entrepreneurship. I always thought teaching could always happen but maybe I should try to open a store while all these other doors got slammed in my face.”
What seemed like slammed doors was exactly what Nikole needed to make a run at starting a business. What might seem like an overwhelming task, came quite naturally for Nikole thanks to her parents. “My parents are entrepreneurs. I'm an only child and I literally just watched my parents open their businesses from the ground up. I was there-- helping them paint the walls and just do everything. So, I really saw what it takes to open a business and run a business. I just did it my whole life. It kind of just felt natural. My parents never made it this huge endeavor-- it was just working hard at it every day. I graduated college in May of 2011 and then I took a year to write a business plan, look for a space, and I did an internship in Colorado at a little boutique for three months. I moved up there and just worked for the owner who taught me the ropes, went to market, studying all of the stuff that goes into it. We opened Pretty Little Things in Kingwood in August of 2012.
Pretty Little Things Boutique is a trendy boutique that caters to a younger demographic; although, Nikole loves to style women of any age. Nikole launched the brand, hired energetic young staff, and began her journey-- a journey that was going really well-- little did she know the challenges that she was about to face. “We had just celebrated five years in business, which was a huge deal to me because the statistics of small businesses that survive and/or are profitable for five years are really small, sadly. So that was a big deal to me, we celebrated huge! We had a big party and then two weeks later lost everything within 24 hours in Hurricane Harvey. I have lived in Houston my whole life-- hurricanes happen every year. But it was just such a random thing with Lake Houston being so high, and it was in and out in 24 hours, but enough to damage everything. I also lived in the apartment building behind my store, so I also simultaneously lost everything, every material possession I owned was gone in 24 hours. I had to move in with my parents. I just had a backpack of stuff. We just had to literally pick up from nothing.”
What Nikole did next made all the difference and truly makes her an overcomer and fighter. Nikole knew she had two choices: “I got to look for a job or we got to keep this business going. I mean, it's my livelihood.” Nikole quickly pivoted and opened a pop-up location for her boutique after realizing that the rebuilding process was going to take almost a year. “We had been scouting the Lake Houston area and we found a place that was a retail store that had closed a year prior and was sitting vacant. Crazy enough, a friend of the family had done maintenance work on this building and knew the owner. We had a contract within three weeks, we painted, salvaged any fixtures from the flood, and rerouted all of our packages to my parent’s house. We were up and running within three weeks, which is crazy to me when I look back on it. I can't believe we did all that in three weeks. It was amazing and it was really cool to open back up and see our customers again and just get to talk to people that had flooded also.” Harvey made Nikole and her team, “grow in ways that you couldn't unless you go through something like that.”
No one would have blamed Nikole for giving up after the “Harvey” experience but giving up isn’t in her DNA and suddenly dreams of spreading her influence with multiple locations began stirring. “In business, the hardships always teach you the most. I wouldn't want to do that again or wish it on anyone but one of my employees had asked, “How do we know you're ready to open a second location?” It was because we opened the pop up so quickly and then seven months later reopened the Kingwood store so we had kind of just learned how to do this process of opening up a store really quick and all that it takes.”
So one location turned into two! She launched her second location in an up-and-coming part of the Northeast side of Houston called Generation Park, a trendy mix-use development, in December 2019. She also used her “Harvey” experience to launch a larger online presence and figure out the logistics of the online shopping space. Little did she know the importance that online shopping would be for her business when four months later she would be forced to close her storefronts due to a global pandemic. “That became our only way of doing business. I don't feel like we're far enough on the other side [of the pandemic] to look back and reflect yet. But it is crazy. Harvey and the pop-up helped us open our second store and our online presence. I'm anxiously awaiting the moment that we can look back and have an “aha” from the pandemic, you know, we have learned little lessons so far but it will be nice to be on the other side of it and say “Okay, this helped with xyz”. Because running a business at this time can be exhausting and painful.”
Nikole tends to attract younger female employees that are drawn to her boutique because the clothes speak to them but with that comes a huge responsibility when employing that demographic. “I always say it's the hardest part of my job. Being a boss is the hardest part. It's also the most rewarding, and it just makes me want to cry when I think about it. I just love those girls and I am with them in such a vital, pivotal time in their life. So it's so important to me, but I'm also running a business. I feel like I'm always balancing “How can I be there for them? How can I be here for me? How can this be a win for the company?” I've had employees lose a parent. I've had them lose their home. I had their parents get diagnosed with something. I have a former employee who lost her brother. They never stop being a part of the family. Relationship challenges, where they are going to go to college, I don't envy all their decisions. Sometimes I'm overwhelmed. The pandemic was new for all of us and I wanted to sit down and cry but I needed to show them, “Hey, this is how you make it through hard things”. It's okay to cry, let's cry for a second. Okay, now what? Let's figure out what we're going to do. Let's talk about it. Let's have a game plan. I try to always teach them both sides of business and life”.
Nikole is discovering balance now that she is a business owner in her early 30’s. All of the long hours and hustle in her 20’s is paying dividends. She met Jackie Christian, the love of her life, when she was very young. He worked as a teacher at a karate school that her parents owned. They are celebrating 3 years of marriage in September 2021. In early 2020, they welcomed Baby Denver into the Christian family. He was such a bright spark during a rough, stressful year! She is looking forward to raising him right here in Houston. “I love Houston because it's so diverse. It's so diverse in every way. Obviously in ways like race and culture but it also extends into food, religion, politics, I just absolutely love this city. I saw every walk of life when I was at U of H, you see every type of person from every type of background. I can drive a couple of hours and be at the beach or be in the hill country or Louisiana. You can do and learn almost anything here. Denver will see every walk of life. He will go to these amazing museums, concerts, and sports. He will get to see so much of the world, in this city, in our backyard.”
When Nikole isn’t navigating her thriving business you will find her checking out the Houston food scene. “I always wanted to have a cooler hobby, but I like to eat and work out and work out to eat. So that's what I do.” She enjoys walking in many of the Houston parks or downtown. You will find her listening to modern Christian worship music or rap. It just depends on her mood! She attributes many of her successes to her fantastic support system. “I'm so thankful my parents did such a good job of teaching me and then throwing me out to figure it out at the same time. They didn't just give me what I wanted. I had to work from the moment I turned 15. Even now I go to them for business advice. They're not involved in the day to day of the business but we'll talk things through. They have great advice and great leadership, but they also just trust me to do what I think is best.”
Let’s all cheer on this Houston entrepreneur as she continues to influence her community and the Houston fashion scene.
