Jurisdiction Boutique: A true story of passion 👩‍⚖️

Every new Pedal Retailer comes into the First Location Program in a different place – some have a crystal clear vision of their business in the space we’ll secure together, and for others, it’s hazy. For most people, the vision is partly hazy with some very clear spots.


When Pedal Retailer Jessica started FLP to find a brick-and-mortar home for Jurisdiction, her online women’s clothing boutique, she was on the clearer side of the spectrum.

She knew her target market and customer intimately – she was her own target customer, and the pain of trying to shop in her hometown of Potomac, MD was a constant frustration for her and her friends. Jessica grew up in Potomac, so she was not only familiar with every space in every shopping center, she had decades of experience with them, from riding on the back of mom’s shopping cart as a kid to carting her own family around today. Jessica knew her market as well as any Pedal Retailer possibly can.

She even had a space in mind – it was uncomplicated and affordable, but buried in an interior mall portion of a busy shopping center.

Even with this clear vision of her space, Jessica needed a Powerhouse Business Plan. After all, that’s what brought her to our First Location Program in the first place – despite a strong track record as a successful businesswoman (Jessica’s first passion is her law career, and she’s launched one of the most prominent family law firms in the region), commercial landlords weren’t taking her retail venture seriously.

And so, she trusted the process… even when it led her somewhere unexpected.

We considered the space she had in mind, but in our initial space survey, we also found a higher profile option – a corner space in a much busier shopping center with better co-tenancy. We looked at both options, and compared them to Jessica’s BLTS (budget, location, timeline and space criteria) and realized that either option could work.

The original option presented a less splashy, quieter operation with lower risk and lower reward. The new space afforded the opportunity for success on a much larger scale… and Jessica has never been one to play small.

Fast forward to today - Jessica is open in one of the most prominent spaces in one of the strongest shopping centers in the region, and it never would have been possible had she not trusted the process.

Here’s why: it’s super common for retailers to have preconceptions about their ideal space or deal, but many of those impressions are formed before they actually have all the context. The thought of loosening your grip on your initial ideas is terrifying – it can feel like losing control of the entire process. But as our clients so often learn, when you trust that you're in good hands and you give yourself permission to dive deeper and figure out what really matters to you, you may end up somewhere entirely different – and so much better than you ever imagined.