TN Vacation Turns Into Business Venture and Life Changing Events
Sonya Nix and here husband were having a weekend away in TN when they wandered into a strange new kind of shop – a Consignment Store. Sonya, being the ever-creative and talented woman that she is, immediately starting thinking about all the fun and cool things she could do with a consignment store. She was at a point in her life when a little change was a welcomed opportunity and she (now laughing hysterically at the thought) said that at the time she thought to herself, “this doesn’t look that hard.”
On January 7, 1997 Sonya Nix opened Better Than Before in a very small office with just 3 rooms. What was once an insurance agency was now home to a consignment store. The store was initially called “Twice As Nice” but Sonya quickly realized there were other consignment stores across the country with the same name. One of her co-workers in the health care industry suggested Better Than Before and Sonya quickly filed all the paperwork to make the name hers.
The first Consignors were Sonya and her Mother because they had to get the store stocked, and the first Customers were truly divine intervention because they had no budget for advertising, just word of mouth. Sonya’s first sign was hand made out of sheet metal and wood and was painted and constructed much to her family’s dismay, in the living room of their home.
When asked, “why do you do what you do,” Sonya responded, “Women tell me every single day how much we mean to them and how much we help them and how they don’t know what they would do without us. I mean, every single day, we hear this. That is why we do what we do. We mean a lot to an awful lot of people, what a great way to spend your days, helping others.”
We also asked Sonya for some sage advice to others who are thinking of starting their own business and here is what she said, “ Be ready to sacrifice because you will and I don’t mean to be negative but no one should go into owning their own business with a false sense of glamour. We do a lot of grunt work and dirty non-glamorous activities. You need to be prepared for all that is required. You are serving people, you are a servant, if you don’t have a servant’s heart to serve other people and try and make their life better than you will have a harder time succeeding because serving others is really what owning your own business is all about.”
Better Than Before has grown from a 3 room insurance office in Cullman to 2 large scale stores, one in Cullman, AL and one in Decatur, AL and now Sonya sells literally to the world through her online website BTBConsignments.com and she sells through LIVE Facebook Videos and on Instagram. What’s next for Sonya? Well, let’s just say she just signed up for a YouTube channel, so keep an eye out!
