Helpful Collective provides an accessible location for small local businesses.

For many business owners who were starting, The pandemic offered an opportunity to pursue something they’ve always thought about doing or even turning their hobby into a full-time business.

However, for Lindsey Drahos, the pandemic inspired her to help small retailers face difficulties.

Drahos opened Hosful Collective on Parsons Avenue in Olde Towne East in August 2020, just as other businesses closed. It was a tense time, but it turned into an ideal opportunity for Drahos to offer a convenient avenue for small businesses to transform it into a retail storefront.

“We created a space to give other entrepreneurs a chance to have a brick and mortar and a storefront, without the overhead of a storefront,” Drahos said. Drahos. “So that when all these stores may have been closing, they were able to take their brand and put it into a space without having to pay the full rent.”

Most of the vendors on Hosful Collective are Black-owned, minority-owned, and women-owned. They offer clothing and jewelry makers, brands, artists, and innovative vendors.

“The whole idea was to basically come together and give other people the opportunity to be entrepreneurs,” Drahos added, adding that Hosful will always welcome new vendors.

Drahos has always had a passion for fashion. She’s worked in fashion retail and high-end clothing in Saks Fifth Avenue, working for the company in stylish design and personal purchases. She’s currently an appointment-based style consultant at the firm.

The motive behind stocking small-scale businesses in her boutique is partly based on her belief that there needs to be a compromise between the production process and being stocked by luxury retailers.

The shop is home to weekly Wind Down Wednesday. In February, the shop joined forces with the director of the lifestyle and art, Bobby Couch, to feature local Black companies and artists such as The brands By the People, Love Savage, and The Short North vintage clothing store Tact Luxe.

In March 2013, the shop held something similar to Women’s History Month, featuring women-owned companies and women contributing to the community.

Alongside the weekly gathering that allows sellers and designers to meet customers, The boutique’s business model also allows vendors within the store to operate inside the store to connect with customers.

One of the sellers includes Intaglio Home, owned by Leyla Inceoglu. Inceoglu, who relocated from Manhattan to Columbus to escape Manhattan in the last three years, offers antique, world-traveling pieces at the Intaglio Home boutique.

Inceoglu is a retailer herself and is a part-time employee helping run Hosful’s retail store. What enticed her to sell her products in Hosful was the sense of community in the store.

“My stuff is very global, collected from around the world, and very unique and different,” she declared. “I’m just happy that it’s in a shop that people are loving it and appreciating it and supporting it.”

Drahos stated that it’s not an easy task to start a business.

However, the shop has been fortunate to receive much help from the creative community in the area that she claims it has “become a family.”

“Without the people that are there on a day-to-day basis, without the vendors and the talent that’s in the community, there wouldn’t be a Hosful,” she declared.