By: Jane Schuchardt
Editor’s Note: This continues a series of articles celebrating pride in our town and its surroundings shown through the experience of residents, businesses, and organizations.
Ashley Hunwardsen’s business, Western T Brand, is proof positive that high speed internet, along with hard work and a saleable idea, can lead to success.
She has an Elgin storefront at 110 N 2nd Street, right on main street. The door only gets unlocked to welcome customers for local pick-ups AFTER they’ve ordered online through the website at www.westerntbrand.com. The rented space is her headquarters — storeroom, work center, and business office.
After petting her ‘shop dog’ Nika, a Border-Aussie who’s been by her side since starting her business in 2020, she shared the back story. Following high school at Correctionville, IA (near Sioux City), she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in elementary education in 2019 from Northwest Missouri state in Marysville, MO.
Being a fourth-grade teacher, which she loved, was her calling. However, during her first year of teaching, the Covid pandemic hit and she found herself moving to an online classroom and dreaming of, and creating, Western T Brand. She kept teaching until her business took precedent.
“I taught two more years while running the business late nights and weekends. It’s all a blur now,” she lamented. “I knew I had to give something up.”
Rattling off stats from mid-November to mid-December with obvious pride, she sold 2,540 items in 999 orders. Most were shipped through UPS and USPS and the rest, 75 to be exact, were local pick-ups. She promises a two-day turn-around from the time the order is received until its shipped.
…see more at this week’s Elgin Review
