Dayanna Suarez:Fashionista Meets Entrepreneur

Entrepreneur Dayanna Suarez was 100 days into her adventure as owner of her new business, Chic & Chuc Vanity Store on Kings Highway in Myrtle Beach when we spoke to her for this story. Tasteful and modern, the boutique is well-appointed with all manner of fashion items – elegant shoes, handbags, clothing and accessories for women and a growing collection of shoes and clothing for men.

Originally from the Dominican Republic, Suarez moved to the Grand Strand from Rock Hill in December, but was back and forth for a year before that when she worked for a painting contractor based in Rock Hill. Before that, she came here on vacation.

Suarez, 33, has lived in the United States for five years. The rest of her family already lived in the U.S., and in fact Suarez was the last of the family to leave Santo Domingo.

“I was the only one that was still living there, because I was doing a business like this,” she said.

She was bitten by the fashion bug early on, in large part because one of her aunts was a model and is now a fashion designer in New York. Suarez went to a fashion school for two years – learning all about modeling, etiquette and protocol.

“I love it, “she said. “It was inside of me.”

But Suarez also holds a master’s degree in psychology – and this no doubt can be a useful tool in the business world.

Her entry into becoming a fashion retailer started when she was working for Verizon in the Dominican Republic. At one time, she was putting in long hours and working seven days a week until the general manager caught on to this and told her supervisor that Suarez could not continue at that pace. But by that time, Suarez was used to pulling in good money and did not want to operate on a 40-hour salary.

“I came up with the idea to start selling things – and then I started selling to everybody,” she said. “I was selling so much that I had my whole house full of merchandise – more than what I have got here.”

She was 22 at the time.

She said she wore some of the items she sold – like shoes for instance, and she would come to work with her car loaded full of new shoes for women and men. Ultimately, she had a shop of her own.

After she moved here – she went back to the Dominican Republic every three months or so because she was selling to companies there like Coca-Cola and Verizon.

“I had contracts with companies over there,” she said. “I would come with my merchandise and they would set up a showroom for me – I would set everything up, and the employees would come and get whatever they wanted. The company would pay me up front and give payment plans to their employees.”

This all changed when she got pregnant and gave birth to her son, Elijah, who is now 23 months old. But she wanted to be somewhere, doing what she loved to do – so she decided to open Chic & Chuc.

“I have been selling every day – but you know how it is with a new business and a new location,” she said. “You have got to have passion to let people know about you, keep the customers I have and bring everybody inside here.”

When we pulled up to Chic & Chuc, we saw Suarez confidently handing out flyers to folks outside her store, with a smile on her face. This is the entrepreneurial spirit at work.

She also promotes via postcard mailings – after choosing the postal routes she wants targeted, and is working on additional social media outlets. Currently, the shop is on Facebook as Chic & Chuc.

Because downtime is at a premium, Suarez joked that she almost forgot about the beach, but said she enjoys going out to dinner – especially to places with live music.

“I love Banditos [Restaurant & Cantina] because they have live music,” she said. “I love the guy who plays guitar over there, and my baby does too. We go there and everybody stops watching the guy and starts watching Elijah. He moves to the music.”

She said she hit up all of the touristy attractions when she used to vacation here.

“Rock Hill is quiet and laid back and I like it, but there are more things to do here – but if I want to I can just sit down by the Boardwalk and people-watch,” Suarez said. “I love this country and I love Myrtle Beach.”

This story was originally published October 10, 2015 at 4:42 AM with the headline "Dayanna Suarez:Fashionista Meets Entrepreneur."