{"id":22679,"date":"2025-06-01T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-01T04:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/?post_type=essay&p=22679"},"modified":"2025-05-29T11:03:32","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T15:03:32","slug":"business-by-design-brooke-lucas-shares-her-unique-entrepreneurial-journey","status":"publish","type":"essay","link":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/essay\/business-by-design-brooke-lucas-shares-her-unique-entrepreneurial-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"Business by Design: Brooke Lucas Shares her Unique Entrepreneurial Journey"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By: Ashley Daniels<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Brooke Lucas, owner of Nicole\u2019s Resale and Design, was born to be a business owner. Her grandfather once ran a Magnavox store, and her father, Bebe Finklea, opened the first video rental store in her hometown of Florence called Finklea\u2019s Movies, which then expanded into 13 locations across South Carolina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy sister Britton and I grew up working at Finklea\u2019s,\u201d says Lucas. \u201cIf I had a dollar for every time I said the phrase, \u2018Be kind, rewind,\u2019 I could have retired already.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But she is nowhere near retirement (and she\u2019s OK with that), and her winding path to entrepreneurship has been uniquely hers along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After graduating from the University of South Carolina with a bachelor\u2019s degree in management, Lucas worked in the home health and hospice field. When her mom got sick and her daughter was 4 months old, Lucas quit her job and moved her mom into her home so she could take care of her over the next year and a half. Her mom passed away in 2009.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI went back to work in hospice because I wanted to make a difference, but you\u2019re meeting people on the worst day of their lives, so I wanted something really just easy and light,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lucas, who said she always had a thing for interior design, started working part-time at Nicole\u2019s Consignment in Murrells Inlet. Six years later, she worked her way to becoming office manager, and in 2020, she purchased owner Nicole\u2019s house and her business because Nicole had plans to move to Florida after she married. But Covid had other plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had to close down in March for an unprecedented global pandemic [because we were deemed non-essential],\u201d recalls Lucas. \u201cAll I could picture in my head was the orchestra on the Titanic playing as it sank. But I decided to give it a shot, so I bought her out on June 1, 2020.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since then, Lucas has flourished in her renamed Nicole\u2019s Resale and Design business, making her own imprint on the inventory, falling in love with the customers, and coming full circle with her former work in hospice by helping people in their time of need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen a parent passes away, and I\u2019ve been through this myself, you have to go through all their stuff,\u201d she says. \u201cI help a lot of folks with that, and we also work with realtors because a lot of people are moving here, or selling their vacation homes here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nicole\u2019s is stocked with furniture, floor samples, home d\u00e9cor, local art, and more \u2013 and Lucas says they are extremely selective about the current styles and brands they sell by consignment or resale. Think Lowcountry brands like Serena & Lily without the price tag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe question I get asked the most when people walk in the door is, \u2018Wait, so is this new or is it consignment?\u2019 And that’s my goal: I want them not to be able to tell,\u201d she says. \u201c\u2026 I think people associate consignment with thrift, and that is not what we do. What we try to do is cater to people who know good brand names and want them, but just don\u2019t want to spend that retail price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not only is Lucas grateful for the entrepreneurial genes that have been passed down through generations to her, but also for Nicole teaching her independence as a female business owner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was really important to her for me to buy the business without borrowing money from my dad or my husband, so I did it all on my own,\u201d she says. \u201cI learned I\u2019ll forever be grateful to her for that. She taught me, and I liked the independence and being able to show my teenage daughter, Addie, who has grown up in the shop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I first started working for Nicole, she said I was a whole lot of girl,\u201d she continues with a laugh. \u201cI didn\u2019t know how to move anything, and I didn\u2019t know anything about tools. \u2026 Today I like to refurnish furniture; it\u2019s like therapy, buying an old piece from an auction, stripping it, and refinishing it with new hardware or something.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the near future of Nicole\u2019s, expect a revamped website, Nicolesresale.com, complete with a DocuSign feature for potential sellers. Lucas says the shop also offers a delivery service and a wish list you can sign, and her team will hunt down what you\u2019re looking for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in the process of revamping before the summer, and we have some big things in the works, so stay tuned,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On June 21, Nicole\u2019s Resale and Design, located at 5218 Highway 17 Bypass South in Murrells Inlet, will be hosting a five-year anniversary celebration, with refreshments, food trucks, drawings for gift certificates and gift baskets, and a raffle to win one hour of free in-home design.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Ashley Daniels Brooke Lucas, owner of Nicole\u2019s Resale and Design, was born to be a business owner. Her grandfather once ran a Magnavox store, and her father, Bebe Finklea, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":22681,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_tec_requires_first_save":true,"_gspb_post_css":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","footnotes":""},"essay_type":[46,76],"essay-category":[101,100],"class_list":["post-22679","essay","type-essay","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","essay_type-features","essay_type-sasee-gets-personal","essay-category-businesses","essay-category-local"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/essay\/22679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/essay"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/essay"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/essay\/22679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"essay_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/essay_type?post=22679"},{"taxonomy":"essay-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/essay-category?post=22679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}