Mother makes room
for daughter’s business
Staff writer
Being the daughter of business people Troy and Sara Dawson, Grace Dawson Unruh naturally took an interest in starting her own business.
Now, she and her mother operate businesses together in downtown Florence.
Grace took a small-business class as a freshman at Kansas State University. She drew up a plan for a clothing business, which led to creation of Doyle Creek Boutique.
“I really enjoyed that,” she said.
She opened the business online in September 2021.
“It was nice being in Manhattan,” she said. “My college friends supported me.”
She also placed some clothes in her mother’s store in Florence and in a store in Wamego.
Grace graduated from KSU in December with a bachelor’s degree in animal science.
She married Jesse Unruh in November. He works for her grandparents’ cattle operation, Doyle Creek Cattle Company, and she is learning the bookkeeping side of the ranch.
To support her daughter’s ambition, Sara moved her Prairie Oaks Designs business to the back of the building in downtown Florence so Grace could set up shop in the front.
The boutique opened Nov. 19. It sells high-end women’s clothing and accessories.
Grace was excited about shipments of new items arriving this week after she and Sara visited a Dallas wholesale market.
Online sales continue, and another sales outlet is a traveling trailer that Grace sets up at rodeos and shows.
She and her mother plan to erect a billboard on US-50 to promote their businesses. Her parents will design a sign for on the building.
Mother and daughter are planning joint open houses in March.
“I am enjoying the business side of it and figuring out how to make some money,” Grace said.