When Erin Parrott launched After5, she and her husband packed orders together in the basement.
Today, After5 is a full-blown women’s clothing boutique in downtown Dayton’s Fireblocks District, complete with marble floors and gorgeous chandeliers. And she and her husband, Ed, now work together on a new venture — The Reserve on Third, an elevated lounge just a few blocks down Third St. that opened in January.
“It was a process, and that’s why I always encourage people, don’t give up,” Erin said. “Because it can it can look bleak, but if you remain the forever optimist, and you put positivity in the forefront, just know that the road will pave itself. You just got to stay on it.”
For Erin, the road to entrepreneurship was a long time coming.
“I’ve always been very independent because of how I grew up,” she recalled. “My mother was a single mother, and I just saw her get so much done alone, and she came from such a gentle, kind woman, my gammy.”
Her grandmother, Marlene, grew up poor in Tennessee. She became the first of her many siblings to graduate high school and go on to college. She met Erin’s grandfather at Ohio University, where they part of one of the first graduating Black classes. After college, she became the first Black speech pathologist in Dayton.
On her father’s side, Erin’s grandmother was an educator, and her grandfather was an engineer, “at a time when there weren’t a lot of Black men in engineering,” Erin said, recalling the thick island accent he brought with him from growing up in Saint Thomas.
“I think because I come from families that kind of have made a choice to do the difficult thing, and made a choice to go the difficult route, and made a choice to not give up, that it’s almost instilled in me,” she said.”I’ve also had a sense of independence and a bit of a hustle mentality.”
Erin’s hustle was further refined when she dropped out of college to raise her daughter as a young, single mother.
“I was always creatively thinking of how I can take care of my child and myself, cause I was a very young adult, and with that creative thinking process, I’m like, you know, there’s so many things that I can do,” she said. “But at that point in my life, time and circumstances and money just did not permit it. It wasn’t feasible for me at that point.”
Because you need money to grow a business, she said.
“People don’t talk about it enough I don’t think, how important capital is. I had to pour a lot of my own money into After5,” Erin said. “Even when we started making money, I was literally having to reinvest it to grow. Keep your 9-to-5 until you don’t have to keep your 9-to-5 anymore. Don’t quit too early that job, okay!”
For Erin, opportunity came knocking during the pandemic.
“When the pandemic hit in 2020, it was kind of like beautiful chaos for me personally, because it was a really trying time for the country, well the world, but it actually gave me the capacity to sit and really think about what I really wanted to do with my brand, and who I was, and what I wanted it to be, and what I wanted it to represent to my community,” she recalled.
After5 was less than a year old. Erin pulled back on social media posts, rebranded, and relaunched.
“In 2020, it was it was slow, but not really. We increased every month in sales. And then I just put my all into it,” she said. “In 2021, we just really took off, and it’s just been scaling ever since.”
In December of 2021, she signed the lease to bring her boutique downtown, as well as online. Doors opened May 2023.
“Let’s talk about the challenge of opening a brick and mortar, okay!” she said. “With After5, this was a shell. Everything in this space is new. That being said, kind of piggyback the conversation about capital and money, and when and knowing how to invest properly so you don’t end up going bankrupt because that can easily be done when you have a big dream.”
When she and Ed took on The Reserve, the construction process was even longer, a full 18 months.
“You have to be mentally prepared for that journey cause it can be a long one,” Erin said. “There are instances when you want to say, this may not be worth it. It goes back to that forever optimistic kind of point of view, you have to look at the glass half full, and you just have to visualize the finish line. Even when it was bare bones, that’s all I thought about — it’s going to be beautiful, I can’t wait for these chandeliers to go up, even though that was 16 months later.”
Erin is currently planning for After5’s second location, which will be downtown Cincinnati. Long-term, her goal is to break into the manufacturing of the clothing business.
“I think it’ll allow me to create the things I really want to see that can be hard to find, and then it’ll also allow me to be able to help other entrepreneurs,” she said. “There are some really wonderful designers, there’s really some wonderful apparel brands here in Dayton. I just feel like being able to produce that arm of my company will give other local entrepreneurs the resource where they can actually source what they need here at at a much cheaper rate than overseas or having to go to LA or having to go to Atlanta or having to go to New York.”
In August, After5 will turn 5 — look for a celebration, Erin said.
“Entrepreneurship is not easy, so five years, I feel pretty proud that!” she said. “Comparison is the thief of joy, and everybody’s journey looks and will always be different. As an entrepreneurial community, if we look to support and collaborate more with each other, then it’ll help in creating more avenues for those who may be struggling or having challenges in areas that other other of us have overcome.”
I am Erin Parrott, and I am an entrepreneur.
There’s no one way to be an entrepreneur.
You don’t have to look a certain way, operate in a particular industry, or pursue specific education. You don’t have to grow up in a particular household, or spend your free time nurturing any particular hobbies — entrepreneurs grow from all walks of life.
In this series, entrepreneurs, founders, and small business owners from across the Dayton Region share their individual stories to break down pervading stereotypes about who can or can’t be an entrepreneur.
They proudly declare, “I Am an Entrepreneur” — and you can be, too.
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