Meet Nicki Smith | Owner/Founder

We had the good fortune of connecting with Nicki Smith and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Nicki, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I think this question is fundamentally flawed, as a ‘thought process’ behind a business implies everything going the way you intended. I would argue most people who are in business after 20 years will tell you that the end of the road of intention is the start of the real story. What I can do is tell you a story.

I guess you could say I’ve been interested business my whole life. At 10 years old, while the other kids were out playing, I was catching frogs and selling them to the local pet store down the street for a healthy profit. And a 25-years old, I had a mortgage on a piece of commercial real estate that I couldn’t believe a bank was bold (or foolish) enough to lend to me.

From the very beginning, business was a place where education and pragmatism converged in a way that lit up the world for me. Rounding my senior year at CU, with my family relocating to Pagosa Springs, I hatched a plan to start a clothing boutique. To understand why that was a terrible idea at the time, is to understand what Pagosa Springs looked like in 2004. A ‘post-ranch-era’ community yet to be discovered by second homeowners, Pagosa was a place where the only color you could get your truck in was ‘dirt’. And while urban fashion would have been about as natural as a Tesla rolling up to the McDonalds drive through, what Pagosa DID need was a good cup of coffee. So, in 2004, with boundless energy for 80-hour weeks, my mother and I started a coffee shop called Higher Grounds Coffee.

Over the next 15 years, our team worked tirelessly to keep Pagosa buzzing with caffeine. Somewhere along the way, my mother retired (although you’ll still find her there on a warm summer day sipping away on a honey-breve with our daughter in tow), and the coffee business grew into a full-fledged community hot-spot with fresh in-house baked goods and fancy Saturday brunches. For anyone who stood in line at the door on a Saturday, they would have assumed that the dream of a clothing boutique was a long-gone thing of the past. They would be wrong.

In late 2019, we got a phone call from our tenant next door. An entrepreneurial local realtor (and good friend) who had occupied that space was ‘moving up in the world’ and needed more room. With a soon to be empty 1000sqft of retail space, I decided it was time to bring back my dream of a clothing and gift boutique. With nothing but optimism on the horizon, I ventured out and started loading up our inventory in October 2019, with the goal of opening by Spring break (March 2020). Three days before we opened, the world shut down due to something called Covid-19.

I think most people who look at a business buzzing with customers think it’s a straight line up from the day the doors open. What most don’t know (and neither did I), was that the real journey is littered with ups, downs, and storms so intense that only in hindsight do they tell a reasonably cohesive story. Covid was certainly one of those storms. I can’t even communicate what it felt like to have a brand-new retail space overflowing with tens-of-thousands of dollars of inventory, and then to be told it was illegal to open the doors. What was deemed a non-critical business sure felt critical to me.

Like most things in the rearview mirror, it turned out that my worst fear at the time became the blessing I never could have foreseen. As everything started coming back to life, everybody in the civilized world decided they wanted out – in search of places like our humble community of Pagosa Springs. Before we knew it, our town was overflowing with folks looking to escape their crazy confines and venture out. And as the highways into town filled with cars, so did those same people come to shop.

What we offered at Tangled (our new boutique) was a piece of the fashion and sophistication that those folks left behind – served up with the personalized service that only a small town could offer. Nestled at the foothills of the San Juan mountains, we became a place where people could come to discover new things, get real (and honest) feedback from other women what looked good (and didn’t), and simply enjoy the act of getting ‘lost in time’ while the rest of their party sipped away on coffee next door. Today, that’s the place I’m proud of the 20 year journey it took to get here.

What should our readers know about your business?
Re: Story/Challenges/Lessons – Pls see prior question (What was your though process….)

Regarding what sets Tangled apart today, it really comes down to time & curation we put in to each and every piece of merchandise on our shelves. Even as a young woman, I’ve always had a passion for travel and culture. For me, Tangled provides an outlet to share that with our community.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Well of course, we’d start every day at Higher Grounds Coffee, followed by a shopping excursion to Tangled 🙂

As far as ‘must do’s – Pagosa is a place to be outside. From the hundreds of miles of single track in our Turkey Springs trail system, to hiking Alberta Peak in the Summer – or Skiing Wolf Creek in the winter, there’s plenty to take on. Personally, there’s no better day to me than riding a gravel bike over Plumtaw Road and ending with a Margarita at Riff Raff.

In terms of Shopping downtown, you have to make sure to stop by VOORMI for the absolute best in local gear, and don’t miss PJ’s Fine Bamboo Rods to sign up for a class to make your own custom rod for the river down the street

Of course, no trip to Pagosa Springs would be complete without a trip to the Springs Resort – one of the best Hot Springs in the State.

And to end the night, a cocktail at the Neon Mallard – probably the coolest underground lounge in town.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My mother, Marge Alley has always been a source of inspiration for me. From setting the compass as a young woman, to being there at each and every turn for advice (or a shoulder to lean on), she is truly the mother I wish everybody could have on their side.

Website: https://www.tangledmercantile.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tangledmercantile/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/facebook.com/tangledmercantile

Image Credits
Brooklyn Bass