Yates’ love of holidays expands into business

     On Monday, July 16, Carrie Yates opened her new business, Holiday & Home, inside of Shine On Gifts & Specialties in downtown Monticello.

     Holiday & Home opened with one goal–to sell home décor with a focus on Christmas decorations year-round. Yates loves the holidays and recalls only happy memories every time it’s passed.

     Other holiday decorations, lake house and camping décor, and sports décor will also be sold at the shop.

     Yates is determined to make her store as unique as she can by ordering limited amounts of each item she sells.

  As of right now, Yates is working with four different wholesalers who she collects inventory from. She puts an emphasis on the quality and uniqueness of the products that the wholesalers can offer.

     Although different businesses, Yates’ ideal location became Shine On, when her friend Denise Miossi, one of the Shine On owners, offered her a spot in the store to sell her merchandise.

     “All three owners were kind enough to let me have this space so I can try to open my business and see what the response is going to be.”

     Holiday & Home hopes to attract a wide range of people. This coming winter, there will be children’s activities such as decorating cookies and ornaments. In addition, there will also be an official letters to Santa drop-off.

      Yates said the process of starting her business was pretty simple in addition to having a great support group.

     “With the help of my husband and son and Denise I think that cut down the learning curves tremendously.”             

     Yates goal for Holiday & Home is to bring in the type of merchandise that customers want to see.

     “I’m always open to suggestions. I’ve had customers bring in ideas on what they’d like to see or different items.”

     A suggestion one person brought to Yates was incorporating a service where she would come to customers’ homes and set up their Christmas decorations.

     In the future, Yates plans to expand her business by getting her own space and begin selling more merchandise that is non-holiday décor.

     Although she does not currently have any employees, Yates added that the Shine On staff assists her with running Holiday & Home and vice versa.

     Yates attended Hamilton Business College in Cedar Rapids with a major in Business Administration. For 15 years, she worked in insurance until she decided to start her own business.

     Holiday & Home is located at 408 E. 1^st St., inside of Shine On. The hours are 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Friday and 9 a.m.-1 p.m. on Saturday. More information is available on the Holiday & Home Facebook page or call Yates’ phone at 319-480-0157.