Matthew Moore: Earlier this month, the Fayetteville-based boutique Freckled Hen closed its doors. Natalie Freeman was the owner of the shop, one that she ended on her own terms. She recently joined me in the Bruce Nan Applegate News Studio Two to discuss her experience, her journey into motherhood and why she’s decided to close her business despite continued growth.
Freeman says she’s always been a creative person. That external creativity really took shape while she was a student at the University of Missouri in the late 2000s, where she found herself on Blogspot and Flickr.
Natalie Freeman: I was sharing images that I had taken with my film camera that I was getting developed. My husband and I both have a passion for photography. I’ve kind of, because of time and convenience, not leaning into that as much anymore. But we both love photography, and so I was using my film camera and was posting on Flickr, and that’s kind of how I developed a community online.
Moore: What did it mean for you to have this sort of online community that perhaps encouraged and stoked this creativity that you found in yourself and were finding in ways that made you think that maybe this is more than just like me sharing my thoughts online?
Freeman: Yeah, I look back and I’m like, wow, Natalie, that was super brave of you to do what I did. But I had been blogging for about, gosh, probably nine years at the time. My husband and I bought a farm and I would get comments all the time like, ‘Oh wow, I love sort of the home that you’ve created. Where did you get this? Where did you get that?’ And you couldn’t just tap on Instagram and like to go to a link. I mean, that was just like literally you’re putting in the URL code through Blogger, all of those type of things. There was no affiliate linking. You didn’t make money off of a click. I mean, nothing like that.
And so I thought, it would be a really incredible thing for me to kind of offer an online store that had similar or the same things that I was putting in my home. And so I at the time had an Etsy shop where I was hand-making items, and that was so challenging because I was advertising, I was trying to push them. I was also making them, like all that kind of stuff.
So I saved up enough money to be able to start Freckled Hen. I had about $3,000 and I just opened an online store. I was connected with the online community, and so I was able to send out promotional packages about Freckled Hen. And I just kind of let people know, like, hey, I’m doing this. If you want to shop with us, you can. And the first day I sold out.
Moore: Wow.
Freeman: Yeah. And so it was really such an encouragement to have started that way because it was very small. It was such a small beginning. And people who always asked me for business advice, I’m like, start small because you have nothing to lose but the dream. If you’re starting small, you don’t have much to lose, and you can make a fool of yourself, and that’s okay. And so I started small. We sold out, and then I just kept growing inventory from there.
Moore: You think back to that first day of selling out, did you feel confident after day one of, like, this is probably going to work?
Freeman: No. From the day I mean, when we closed this past month, I was like, how did that work? I think I’ve learned a lot. And I grew in confidence of what my customers were going to buy. If I was excited about something, then I felt like they might be excited about it, too. But I mean, literally, I don’t know any business owner who’s like, they’re not just taking a risk every single day. I think we learn a lot, but I think at the end of the day we’re like, is this going to work? What am I doing?”
Moore: The first iteration of Freckled Hen was off Nelson Hackett Boulevard in what was previously a tiny old motel with about 200 square feet of room. The store sold gifts, home decor, seasonal products and gardening supplies. Eventually, they outgrew that space and moved to a location off Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard near the Walmart Neighborhood Market.
Freeman: And we stayed there. But it was a handshake lease. He wouldn't actually write out a physical lease or anything like that. And when you walked throughout the store, the foundation was so awful that you would walk like a display and stuff would fall off the shelves because the floors were so uneven. It was terrible. But the rent was cheap. And like I said, I was doing it on a shoestring budget.
After that, we were like, OK, this is getting serious. At the time when I started Freckled Hen, I was still working three jobs. And so I was like, OK, I can’t do this anymore. We’ve got to get serious about this. So we moved to that location on College, and that was such a wonderful location. But we ended up moving eventually because we grew out of the space. Also, all of our back-end inventory and where we shipped was down in the basement. It constantly flooded. And also snow, rain, ice, we were having to go up exterior stairs to be able to get to the store area. And it was just a nightmare for employees.
Moore: The final location of Freckled Hen was farther north on College Avenue, which also included a cottage they would run as an Airbnb. Freeman says this space is tied to growth in more than just a business sense.
Freeman: So my husband and I were under contract for the property where Freckled Hen finished up and we were under contract, and I found out that I was pregnant. And so I went in to the appointment and they were like, you’re having twins. And I was like, what… What? We decided to move forward, even though that meant opening up our Airbnb. It meant doubling our retail space. And when I look back on that decision, I’m super grateful because it taught me a whole lot. But that was a very hard decision because it meant growing my staff. It meant more responsibility. All of these things.
My husband and I, like I said, waited 12 years to have kids because I wanted to be the one who raised my kids. And I wanted to make sure I had the availability to be able to do that. So from day one, I said, I’m a mom first and then I’m a business owner. That came with a lot of challenges.
My first year of having my oldest boys, my team turned over 75%, so only 25% of my team was left because they were so used to me being there every single day. And my boys were in the NICU for a month. I mean, it was a hard transition, but it fundamentally changed me for the absolute best, but it was painful. I had to make decisions that were based on my family and not based on the business for the first time ever. And… Yeah, in the end, it was such an incredible experience. But it was hard. It was hard.
Moore: Were you surprised that you had a turnover like that?
Freeman: Looking back, no. Because I mean, but yes, in the moment I definitely was. I mean, it was so painful to experience, having grown as a brand with these particular people and then them leaving. They owe me nothing. I mean, they have to go on with their lives, too, and I totally get that. But I put a lot of pressure on myself at the time.
I tried to pretend when I was at the store that I wasn’t a mother, and when I was at home, I wasn’t a business owner. And if I could go back and do anything, I would have just from the very beginning not apologized for either of those things and tried to blend them as much as possible, but I just didn’t know how to do that. And I honestly wasn’t looking around seeing a lot of people doing that.
Moore: I think about my capacity here, I’ve got two little boys, and I think about I’m very aware of how I was able to work and the capacity at which I was able to work prior to having kids, and how that capacity may not necessarily be any less, but it’s different.
Freeman: Oh, yeah.
Moore: And I think about how externally that is perceived.
Freeman: Mhm.
Moore: Was that something you experienced?
Freeman: Yes. I think what I can achieve now in an hour is incredible compared to what I could achieve before I had kids. I also, from the get-go, only had my kids in care for like two and a half days a week. So I was fully… Anytime I had childcare, I was racing to the store to get as much done as I possibly could.
Customers would often say, ‘Oh, I never see you in the store anymore.’ And my employees, I think, kind of held on to this like, ‘Oh, she’s never here’ mentality. But I was doing so much after hours that people didn’t necessarily see because there’s so much that’s a part of business that’s not just being in the store. And now that I’m not working, I realize how many tabs were open that I simply could never close. If we went on a family vacation, we always joked the craziest things were going to happen. So it was like I never was off. And that was so hard.
Moore: When her twins were 3 years old, Freeman found out she was pregnant, again, with twins, again.
Freeman: Again. When I found out I was pregnant with my second set of twins, I spiraled. And a lot of twin moms will come to me and they’re like, ‘I’m not excited about this.’ And I’m like, that’s OK. It is a lot. You don’t have to be excited. I’m so incredibly grateful for my life. But I struggled so much in the beginning.
And so when I found out I was having that second set of twins, I talked to my husband and we started praying about it and decided that we were going to sell the business. So I presented this to my team and one of the employees that was working for me at the time, she came home, talked to her husband about it, and they wanted to buy the business from me. And so we kind of started that process and learned a whole lot through that process. About three weeks before I gave birth to my boys, when we were supposed to transition to her buying the business from me, she pulled out.
And so that was hard because I thought I was finishing up Freckled Hen. I thought I was selling it to someone who I deeply trusted. But in the end, for a whole lot of decisions that were made, people are allowed to change their mind. In the end, that’s what I kind of like ended on, is just like people are allowed to change their mind. This wasn’t for her. I ended up having newborns when I thought I wasn’t going to be working anymore. And so I’m like scrambling. I didn’t really get a maternity leave. Like it was so incredibly challenging.
And so from that point of having my second set of twins thinking I was going to be staying at home, I started going to counseling. I started to get deeply in prayer of saying, ‘Lord, this is not what I planned. Like, what do you have for our lives? I thought I was obeying you by staying at home. You’ve given me this gift of these four boys and I feel like I can’t do this well.’
And it was such a gift to have that struggle because–
Moore: It’s ok, take your time.
Freeman: When you are so reliant on the Lord, that sustenance comes that you didn’t think you had, and that strength comes that you didn’t think you had. And I am so grateful for that time. It was so challenging for our family. But after I was able to just say, ‘Lord, like, I give this to you. I thought I was going to be staying at home, but you have so much more for me in this time,’ he really allowed my husband and I to have conversations about what our future could look like. About two years into that process, we finally had the opportunity to sell our building. And now I’m so grateful for that time because I know how special it is to be at home with my boys now.
Moore: When you think about that time between your second set of twins are born and where we are now and the growth that happened there, what specific anecdote or moment sticks out to you that you see in hindsight as realizing this needed to happen, or perhaps this should have happened the way that it did?
Freeman: There are a thousand things I could say. The Lord brought a team into our lives for the store that were deeply supportive of motherhood, and I was able to be as vulnerable as you can be as a boss just about the struggles and the pull that I had as a mom. And they were all deeply supportive up until the very end when I told them I’m closing Freckled Hen. They didn’t have to be, and they were, and I’m so grateful for that. So that’s one big thing.
Also, just whenever that opportunity to sell my business was pulled from me, I kind of just decided, OK, if I’m not supposed to be staying at home right now, there is a role for me at this store, and how can I make that as meaningful as possible? And I did.
I made some business choices, opened up a custom charm bar that hadn’t been done in Fayetteville, and that was so special. And then bringing in apparel was such an important part of our business. I learned a lot about leaning in even when I didn’t want to, and that led to a very profitable last year for us. And I’m super grateful for us because it’s given me the freedom to be able to be at home on a single income. And so I think just the way this is all aligned, I was supposed to have that really difficult two years to know how special this time is now.
Moore: After the sale of the business fell through, Freeman says she realized how closely related the name Freckled Hen was to her personally.
Freeman: That was associated to my blog name for a decade before I opened the business. Our farm is named Freckled Hen Farm. And so after that sale fell through, we put the business back on the market and several people were sending in offers. And our business broker, I think was like so over us because I was like, ‘I’m sorry. No. I’m sorry, no. I’m sorry, no.’ And he was like, ‘Are you even wanting to sell this business?’ And at the end of the day, I said, ‘No, I don’t. Actually, I don’t.’
And so we put the property up for sale instead of the business. And once we had someone buy that property, I was like, OK, this is the end. We wanted to give our customers enough time to be able to grieve that loss, but also to be able to come in and shop. And so it was the most beautiful ending that I could ever ask for. I’m so grateful for that gift.
But it means that now whenever people think of Freckled Hen, they have a very positive connotation of it, rather than me potentially selling it and not feeling or looking the same way. Not that there’s anything special about me, but it’s just I kind of built this from our lifestyle, and it’s really hard for someone to come in and fill those shoes when that’s not necessarily the life that they live.
Moore: Ten, 15 years from now, when your boys are older, do you see yourself getting back into retail space?
Freeman: Yes. I am.
Moore: Maybe sooner than 10, 15 years?
Freeman: I’m like a hustler at heart. I am. I love to create things. And so even now I’ve been scheming and dreaming and my husband’s like, ‘You realize you don’t have to do that, right?’ And I’m like, ‘I know, but I love it so much.’ So being able to give up Freckled Hen when I loved it so much is a gift, because I don’t feel necessarily burnt out. I realize how much I was carrying on my shoulders that I didn’t even realize I was carrying. But now looking back, I’m like, oh yeah, I could do something again. Like, this isn’t the end.
I wildly appreciate and admire women who are like, I’m in my 50s, I’m in my 60s, I’m starting something. I will say, I want to do a little something while my kids are still young. That’s what keeps me going. And that’s what keeps me energized. So I’m going to have a little farm stand. I’m going to be doing some small things here and there.
Moore: Freeman says for now, though, she’s going to slow down and soak in that she gets to be the one who picks her kids up from daycare.
Freeman: The last day that I took them to school as a working mom, I told them as we were going to school drop-off, I said, ‘Boys, this is my very last day to work. This is your mommy’s very last day to work.’ And I was looking at them in the rearview mirror and their faces lit up.
And it’s one of those things that I think when I die, and I’m looking back and my life is flashing before me, those faces I will remember forever. Because it’s hard to let that piece of yourself go to lean into motherhood, but it’s also the best decision I could have ever made for myself. And that was the payoff. Seeing their sweet faces.
And they were like, ‘Mom, this is your last day. Like you’re picking us up from school,’ because I had a nanny picking them up. And even my little boy, who was 18 months old, he goes, ‘Yay!’ And it was just the best moment. It was the best moment. And it was so clear that this is exactly what I was supposed to be doing. And I’m so grateful for this time with them. We’re having fun.
Moore: Freeman has almost 50,000 followers on her personal Instagram account, but she says she’s going to be slowing down her posting online for a bit. The Instagram account for Freckled Hen has more than 68,000 followers. The bio for the shop reads, “Permanently closed, but please stay tuned for what’s next.”
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