Small Business, Big Advice: Normans Bridal

Liz Stoner, Normans Bridal
Title: Owner and operations manager
Years in Position: Owner as of Jan. 1; five as operations manager
Founded: 1980

In 1980, Brenda Norman started Normans Bridal with her husband, Blake, a jeweler in Lebanon. There was one dressing room and a couple dozen wedding dresses. Fast forward 41 years, Liz Stoner is a second-generation owner of the shop, which now strategically focuses on a single store in downtown Springfield.

Five questions with Stoner:

What are ways you and your team have demonstrated small-business grit?
We’re always striving to be better. You can’t ever get complacent in where you’re at. My mom started the business and was always willing to put in the hard work and long days, just to improve each year.

It’s so easy when you have slower days to relax. But we ask what can we do to improve, especially now with social media so important. We take those slow times and go out and do photo shoots or learn something new on social media. My prom kids this year absolutely rocked TikTok. We have millions of views. You’ve got to make sure you have those young people on your team that keep putting you out there at the front.

What’s your No. 1 survival tip?
To hire people who you want to represent your business. They are the faces of your business. So, if they don’t act in a way you are OK with, it brings your whole company’s reptation down.

We started with a new hiring process, several phone interviews before an in-person interview. We say go with your gut. If you think it’s a good fit, have them come in and do some shadowing to see how they interact with your staff. Don’t be afraid to do a couple of those trials. Once you get those right people who fit well and are hard workers, reward them for that.

What’s one trend your company has bucked?
We decided not to do online wedding dress sales. We think it’s more than an experience than clicking and adding to cart. We focus on our staff in the store and giving the customers that experience. We’ve grown every year. For us to keep our reputation, it was important to not do online wedding dress sales.

(Another) thing we did was to drop alterations. If there’s something in your business not making you money and causing lots of stress, drop it. It’s not worth it.

What’s the one thing that will propel you forward in the next year?
We’re getting ready to do a big remodel. It’s been 10 years since we’ve been in the Springfield store. It pumps up the staff and gives us a fresh look.

Our store is really pretty as it is on South Avenue. We’re going to be getting new front desks, a new accent wall; the whole store will be repainted, new furniture, new rugs, things like that, sprucing it all up. It’s going to be this summer.

Biggest failure/lesson learned the hard way?
This happened many years ago. My mom hired a manager because she was running three stores at that time. We have found every time we have had somebody manage a store for us, it has never worked. They are never as invested in the success of your business as you are. We decided if we’re not in it, we will sell the business. We’re not going to have someone run it for us. We have to be there day in and day out.

We’re just to the one location in Springfield now. That way, we can split and so almost every day at least one of us is there.