The holiday season is here! As many are filling their shopping carts with gifts for loved ones from businesses small and large, we interviewed small business owner and UF Food and Resource Economics alumna Emma Biggers for the latest episode of the F.R.E. Lunch podcast.
Managing a Small Business
Emma is now a law student at Stetson University in Gulfport, Florida. However, in addition to being a full-time student, she has also been the owner of the clothing boutique “Brooklynn’s by Emma” since 2022.
“My parents were in business, and I’ve been around it my whole life,” Emma said. “I’ve always loved kind of the hustle, and that it’s always a kind of mind game in terms of strategizing, looking at competitors, and doing all that analytical work which I love.”
The boutique was originally part of a small business chain of four stores, and Emma purchased the location from its original owner, who was able to serve as a mentor to her when starting to run the business.
Through her coursework in the Food and Resource Economics Department, Emma said she was able to develop financial analysis skills that have been critical to her success as a business owner, as well as learn more about different marketing techniques to employ in her store.
“One thing that sticks out from was from Dr. Chen’s marketing class, about loss leaders,” Emma said. “We talk about the Costco rotisserie chickens a lot, and how they intentionally take losses on that product so that customers have to walk through the whole store, and they ultimately end up picking up other products on their way to get the Costco chicken. So things like that I try to use strategically, and I guess that’s why a lot of clothing stores put the clearance racks at the back, so that you have to walk through the whole store to get to those.”
Potential Cotton T-Shirt Production in Florida
It was through her personal experiences with the global clothing supply chain as a business owner that Emma came up with the idea that would become her undergraduate honors thesis project.
At Brooklyn’s by Emma, many of the items sold are ordered at trade shows and shipped from overseas. When holidays occur, this can sometimes lead to longer waits to stock certain clothing items.
“At the time, a lot of my vendors were celebrating Chinese New Year, and so rightfully they take time off to celebrate and be with their families,” Emma explained.
This made Emma wonder if there would ever be a way to avoid that delay be producing certain items of clothing entirely in Florida, for distribution within Florida, starting with the cotton grown in the region.
“One of the biggest products I sell is graphic t-shirts,” Emma explained. “They are really trendy in the clothing space right now, and they are typically 100% cotton, so I wondered if there was ever, potentially in the future, a chance that 100% cotton clothing materials could be made from start to finish in Florida.”
Over the course of two semesters, Emma sought to answer this question by measuring the feasibility of a locally supported textile industry and products, as well as it’s worth to the local economies.
Want to Learn More?
To learn more about how Emma is applying the lessons she learned in the Food and Resource Economics program to her business, as well as her research project, listen to our latest episode available on your favorite podcasting platforms.
Tune in here: https://fred.ifas.ufl.edu/fre-lunch-podcast
F.R.E. Lunch is the official podcast of the UF/IFAS Food and Resource Economics Department, showcasing how economics can help us understand and address the complex issues facing agricultural and natural resource industries. Each month, a short 15—to 20-minute episode features FRE faculty and student research presented in a bite-sized, easily digestible format that will surely bring you back for seconds.
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