This column is a look at brave souls who have taken a leap of faith to open their own businesses in and around Ann Arbor. Business owners who are following their dreams and thriving despite the odds.
Grace Proper
8071 Main St.
Dexter, MI 48130
(734) 726-4048
IG: @Grace_Proper
www.graceproper.com
Open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
When I first heard about Dexter, Michigan’s new boutique gift shop called Grace Proper, a memory passed through my mind. It was from roughly four years ago when I worked at a high-end retail store in Ann Arbor. I was getting to know a fellow employee named Breana Jackson as we worked on what the company referred to as standards—tidying up products to display them perfectly folding t-shirts symmetrically, lining up candle labels, and arranging sizes from smallest to largest. In this memory, Jackson told me where she lived and why she and her husband Dan and their two daughters loved the community of Dexter. She beamed about their country home, great schools, and proximity to Ann Arbor that made them fall in love with the town. She said another reason the Jacksons chose Dexter was that she eventually hoped to open a shop on bucolic Main Street which attracts shoppers and diners from surrounding cities.
As she spoke, Jackson reached out to organize the dresses hanging in front of her, leaving enough room for her 9-month-pregnant belly. Baby number three would join their family any day now. I wondered how many more days I would be lucky enough to work with this stylish and easy-going mom and whether she would be back after the baby was born. As it turns out, Jackson and I worked together one more time, right after she gave birth to their third daughter, and just before the pandemic emerged along with an ambiguous future. Soon we were both furloughed when the store closed to comply with Covid-19 mandates.
Imagine my surprise when I walked into Grace Proper recently to see my friend—looking exactly as I remembered her—beaming from behind the counter of her own store. We hugged, caught up a little, and I asked if she would like to be interviewed for our Leaps of Faith column to share how the pandemic affected her journey as a small business owner. We set a coffee/interview date where I learned how she went from our conversation years ago as fellow employees to now being surrounded by the real-life manifestation of her dream.
Laurel Decker: Were there any unexpected benefits that came from opening during the pandemic? If so, what were they and why do you think it’s unique to the pandemic?
Breana Jackson: Since we weren’t a store front or online business yet, it was a daydream mentality. However, being the mom of three kids ages four and under during lockdown, the business became one of the only places my brain could escape to and find peace. I clung to it with the deepest depths of my soul and grew in my confidence of what I could share.
Laurel Decker: What is the most useful personal skill or trait that you, and/or your staff, have implemented to keep the business going?
Breana Jackson: Perseverance and a purpose. At times it felt like having an actual store front might never happen, but in my gut, I truly felt the community needed it. I spent years soaking up what I could in other retail/small business locations so when the time came, I was ready. I like to think that now that we are open, the purpose gets to come through more and make an impact. It’s that connection that keeps the business going.
Laurel Decker: What keeps you motivated to persist through the challenges of business ownership?
Breana Jackson: I’ve known my entire life that I wanted to have kids. I have always felt that I had an exceptional amount of love in my soul and my girls have inspired so much of what I want out of life. They have always been my first choice; however, I did not realize how easy it would be to lose myself in being a mother. Grace Proper, although it has such a huge influence from those three graces of mine, is a pour directly out of who I am as a person—mother or not. It is an artistic outlet for all facets of my thoughts, dreams, and emotions. Just like a painter pours their feelings into their canvas, I take my whirlwind of life and channel it into Grace Proper. That release and connection helps me persist every time.
Laurel Decker: When did you first start planning to open the business and when did you actually open the doors?
Breana Jackson: I first started planning the business in late 2017. We incorporated in spring of 2018 but didn’t open the doors until August 2023.
Laurel Decker: How does it feel to see your business operating after all of that planning and work to get to this point?
Breana Jackson: It’s a flood of emotion. It’s pride, it’s calm, it’s contentment. As much as someone would describe me as an extrovert, most of my thoughts and processing stay inside my head. The store allows me to have an outlet where I feel like I’m sharing in the rawest way possible.
Laurel Decker: Is there anything else would you like our community to know about your business?
Breana Jackson: So many want to put the store into a box with a label on it. The truth is, as much as the store is mine, my hope is that Grace Proper can really be a little bit of something for everyone. The design is that we will hold tools to help people connect with themselves and others. To some that’s creating a space in their home to allow for meditation, for others that might be sending a card to let them know you care, or helping a child find their creative outlet. All of these things help us live lives more connected and more at peace.
On the morning that Jackson and I sat down for coffee, she was halfway into sharing her story when I simply had to ask, friend to friend, how it felt to stand in the actual store she had told me about when it was still an idea. “I am not a public crier, but I get emotional when I see people find something meaningful as I’m curating and placing things on the shelf. It feels like what I’m meant to be doing.” Immediately I teared up. She might be good at keeping the public tears in check, but I felt so much joy for Jackson in that full circle moment that I couldn’t help myself.
After coffee, we walked across the street to open Grace Proper for the day. I needed gifts for two upcoming birthdays. As soon as I started looking around, I knew this could take a while. Not only because I enjoyed the aesthetic environment, but also because there were so many unique items I had never seen before. Though it is not a large store, Jackson has packed it tastefully with fun, yet sophisticated products that are community minded: candles made in Detroit by a woman who immigrated from Romania, cards made in Mt. Pleasant, and a sun catcher made in Pinckney that I couldn’t resist buying as a birthday present to myself after I found the perfect gifts for my friends. As I shopped and we talked, Jackson reached for the stack of colorful dishes next to the handmade wooden spoons I was admiring. I laughed when she straightened them out meticulously and said, “It’s way more fun doing ‘standards’ in my own store.”
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