It’s no surprise the daughter of open-book management guru Jack Stack gravitated toward entrepreneurism. What Meghan Chambers did with it, however, was up to her.
Immediately after graduating with a marketing management degree from the University of Arkansas, Chambers opened a fashion boutique in the center of her hometown.
“She was one of the first businesspeople who saw the tremendous value of opening her business in the revitalized downtown area,” says Julie Turner Brown, a shareholder of law firm Carnahan, Evans, Cantwell & Brown PC and Chambers’ attorney.
In March 2004, the 23-year-old Chambers launched Staxx Boutique at the corner of South Avenue and Walnut Street.
The store reached its first monthly sales goal of $21,000 in just three days, and in the years since, she’s learned the delicate balance of product profit margins and inventory turns, while keeping up with rapidly changing clothing trends for young adults.
Yes, her financial-savvy father helped write the store’s original business plan, but Chambers, now 32, has been chasing her own dream.
“I feel that everyone should believe in a dream and do everything in his or her power to achieve it,” she says. “Discovering my passion early in life and developing it during my college years allowed me the opportunity to immediately pursue my vision upon graduation and enabled me to become an entrepreneur.”
After operating Staxx for six years, Chambers ventured into children’s attire by purchasing Jelly Beans Inc. in mid-2010 – a move that fulfilled a high school dream of hers. The roughly 15 employees between Staxx and Jellybeans Children’s Store operate under the transparent financial management style born out of the employee buyout her dad led to start Springfield ReManufacturing Corp. 30 years ago.
“Sharing the numbers and the business infrastructure with my employees and educating them on the fundamentals of the business and what it takes to win, enabled me to let go and allow them to succeed,” she says, noting three former employees have started retail businesses in other cities. “This also helped teach them aspects of a business that they can use outside the workplace.”
Chambers, who moved Staxx to south Springfield in 2012, has served the community as a past president of the Downtown Springfield Association and a board member of Urban Districts Alliance. She’s currently on the board of directors for the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce and the Springfield Convention & Visitors Bureau. She shares her entrepreneurial story with college students, having addressed groups at Drury and Missouri State universities and serving the MSU fashion advisory board.
Chambers has one more dream she’s fulfilled – she’s the mother of two young children. “My proudest accomplishment is proving to myself that I can live out my lifelong dream of being a mother without sacrificing my goals as an entrepreneur and as an actively involved member of the community,” she says.
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