Porcupine woman opens boutique in Rapid City
Ribbon cutting ceremony to take place on Thursday, May 10By Richie Richards
Native Sun News Today Correspondent
nativesunnews.today RAPID CITY – Following strong sales online and in her store a woman is moving her boutique from Porcupine to Rapid City in hopes of building on her success on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Misty Mousseaux-Begay, 38, is having the grand opening of the MM Posse Boutique on Thursday, May 10, 2018, at the store located on E. Hwy 44, Suite B in Rapid City. Mousseaux-Begay is a teacher who chose to make the career change after 14 years as an educator. She appreciates of having ownership of her time and creativity. She enjoys being her own boss. “I was an educator, I taught adjunct math at Oglala Lakota College," Mousseaux-Begay said. "I taught for about 14 years between Oglala Lakota College and National American University,” she said. She and her husband Aaron have been raising their children with the values of hard work. They have been foster parents for a number of years, even building a five bedroom home in Rapid City for their family and foster children. “Aaron, my husband, comes from a large family. I come from all sisters. Family is very important to us. It was a huge barrier between his work in construction and mine in education. One of us had to take the hit and stay home. It wasn’t working to constantly be at our daughter’s activities. Opportunities are better for her here in the city, versus on the reservation. Her competitive dancing was really taking off,” said Mousseaux-Begay. Following a personal health battle, the couple had lost the ability to have children a few years back. “That just changed everything," Mousseaux-Begay said. "All of a sudden getting sick, it changed our lives.” Through her career as an educator, Mousseaux-Begay always had a side business or money making project. She relied on these direct sales businesses to supplement the family’s income. She learned business from her parents, who owned a video store in Porcupine. Part of the goal of starting her business ventures was never to take loans. She felt the business would not belong to her; so her and her husband made huge sacrifices to commit to their business goals. “I decided I didn’t want to work anymore. In January 2017, I quit my job. Before that I started selling skin care and lipstick. It was going really good. What can I do to build on this? It’s really taking off. One of the things I wanted to do was do a coffee shop in Porcupine,” she said of her ideas of a business on the reservation. “We were going to downsize. We wanted to build a house down there.” After selling their home in Rapid City, the family moved back to Porcupine. “All through the while, I was continuing to sell cosmetics. We would travel to events, tradeshows, rodeos,” she said. “What went really good with beauty and skin care was fashion. I can craft like no other. In May, 2017, I expanded into other things. I did online sales on a VIP Facebook page. I learned marketing and wholesaling,” she said of the various business groups she found on social media.
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