Today we’d like to introduce you to Katherine Mitchell.
Hi Katherine, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I previously worked as a group sales coordinator and yielding manager for a hotel/casino in Tunica, Mississippi, where I was laid off as the result of a decrease in tourism. We had been wanting to move from the area for a while, and this was the push that we needed to get out of the Memphis area. My partner and I moved to Sevier County in early 2018 with no jobs. We had no plan in place and took a big risk. We are both college-educated, but the types of jobs that we were used to we’re not available to us in this area.
One afternoon, we were perusing indeed ads and I stumbled across a position as a horseback riding guide with Cades Cove riding stables in the Great Smoky Mountains. As a joke, I forwarded it to my fiancé, Jon Lanier. To my surprise, he stated that we needed to go up there immediately so that he could apply for the position. He informed me that he was raised around horses and that his mother used to breed them and he was really excited about the job. He was hired on the spot and I ended up picking up a job as a hostess for the famous pancake pantry in Gatlinburg, TN. We only had one mode of transportation and I had to get up early every morning to drive him to work and have him dropped off by 7 AM at the Cove and then I had to drive an additional 45 minutes through the mountains to get to my job in Gatlinburg.
Jon came to me and indicated that he had applied as a horseback riding guide for the Big Rock Dude Ranch at the Ponderosa riding stables in Pigeon Forge. I am an avid photographer and he mentioned that they were also looking for a photographer for their souvenir photo booth and that I would be starting on Friday. I told him that I had not even met the lady, why was she going to hire me? He indicated that she really liked him and that if he had a significant other that was anything like him, she would hire me without meeting me first.
And so our journey began. After a year of working hard and proving ourselves, Becky and Rocky Ogle, the owners, offered to allow me to open up the little café on their property as my own business. They put a lot of trust in us and decided to allow us to lease the photo booth as well as the ATV rental business from them. During that time period, we decided we wanted to serve our community and we both joined the Waldens Creek Volunteer Fire Department. Jon is now a Lieutenant and I am a member of the Auxiliary. We hired volunteer firefighters as independent contractors and also donated a portion of our business proceeds to our fire department.
When March 2020 came around, Covid-19 had made a significant impact on our business and we were shut down for two months. We were still responsible under our contract for caring for the petting zoo animals as well as mucking the horse fields despite, the lack of revenue from being closed. We still had contractors to pay and had to refrain from paying ourselves so that we could get our jobs completed and our contractors paid. We were heavily relying on the tourism that spring break would typically bring so that we would have the funds to stock the café for the summer season. Unfortunately, Covid-19 ruined that for us and we were unable to open the café when the area began reopening. We had applied for a small business loan to help save our business and it was not approved in time and we, unfortunately, had to close our doors at the ranch.
Several months later, we received a notification from the SBA that we had been approved for a business loan. We happened to be driving over to the fire department when we noticed a small storefront was sitting empty on the side of the road, around the block from our neighborhood. We had no idea that the former tenant had closed her business. We immediately located the owner of the building and decided that we wanted to open an old-time general store. The rest is history.
Neither of us had ever run our own business, other than leasing an already existing business as we had at the ranch. Jon has a Master’s Degree in Business and I have a Bachelor of Arts Degree and he has previous experience in running other people’s businesses and that was a great help to us on our first venture together.
By the end of 2020, Jon realized that there is a huge market for cabin maintenance in the area. While I solely operated the store, we formed a separate business beginning in 2021, offering maintenance to cabin rental owners in the area. We have successfully kept our business doors open a year after opening, despite the pandemic.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Definitely not. We had just given up our last business because of Covid-19. When our small business loan came in, we ended up having to start a brand new retail establishment from scratch right in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Thankfully, we were located in a high-traffic, tourist town that continued running nonstop, after the two or three months shutdown. Honestly, if it hadn’t been for Covid-19, we may never have been able to open our store. Business suffered a bit for us due to the lack of the ability to purchase storefront signage and I happened to stumble across a business that was putting in a restaurant at the location of a former gift shop that had a General Store sign out front and I asked them if they were going to dispose of it and they donated it to our business.
It’s very important to me to build strong networking relationships with other businesses in the area and in exchange for their donation, I place their menus in my shopping bags with every purchase made in the store. It’s my mission to make sure that the tourists know about this brand new restaurant. It’s the least that I can do for them. Our business has significantly increased as a result of this new signage.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about J.K. Lanier’s General Store?
We are a family, firefighter, and veteran-owned small business. We believe in giving back to our community through volunteering and supporting our locals by giving them an outlet to sell local-made items.
When we decided to open our store, we promised we wouldn’t sell anything political and we wouldn’t sell junk trinkets like the keychains that have everyone’s name on them except yours. We’ve kept that promise. I carefully source our items so that we can literally sell something that someone will want. We carry novelty wooden toys, candy and bottled sodas, home and cabin decor, antiques, pet-related items, jams, honey and other gourmet items, hiking and fishing supplies, and lots of locally made goodies ranging from hand-turned bowls and pens, wreaths, wood slab furniture, blown glass, and so much more. Currently, our petting zoo is off exhibit, but we plan to reopen to visitors next season.
We provide exceptional customer service and have proudly earned all 5-star reviews across multiple platforms. We found a great opportunity through the company “Wish!” We participate in a free local pickup program that helps small businesses like us, by allowing Wish! customers to save on shipping, by allowing their items to be shipped to our store for pick up. They pay us for every package that gets picked up and it has brought more customers through our door that never would have had a reason to come inside. There are so many wonderful ways big corporations are supporting small businesses like ours & we are excited to be a part of it.
I have managed to make friends with several moonshiners from the TV show “Moonshiners”. As a boost to business, Crazy Chuck from NC and Henry and Kenny Law from VA, have agreed to allow us to sell their T-shirts, books and other autographed merchandise. I’m working with several other well-known moonshiners to get their merchandise in-store as moonshine is a big seller in this area. As a bonus, we are the only store in Sevier County that will carry their items.
As an additional way to support our local crafters, we have craft fairs several times a year and allow them to sell their items that aren’t already on display within the store with no booth rental fee and we don’t take any commission from those sales.
What are your plans for the future?
I have had some great ideas come to me recently and I have started tapping into networking with other small businesses so that we can all be successful and keep our doors open. I created a local business networking group on Facebook where businesses who have been around a while can join up with newer businesses and mentor one another, help answer questions for new owners who don’t know much about permitting, taxes, and other complex items that may pop up from time to time.
Contact Info:
- Email: katherine@laniergeneralstores.com
- Website: Www.LanierGeneralStores.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lanier_general_store/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LanierGeneralStores/
- Youtube: https://youtu.be/VfSFcRHuAFA
- Yelp: https://yelp.to/rWx5bBpjjjb
- Other: https://www.thesmokies.com/jk-laniers-pigeon-forge-mark-cuban/
