NATCHEZ — Starting a business is not easy.

So why make it more difficult by forcing yourself to use a model — a physical space in a shopping district — that can tax your efficiency in the critical early months?

When Heather Ladner decided seven months ago to open the boutique clothing shop she’d always dreamed of having, the storefront was a big barrier.

“I had prayed about it for a while, tried to go with something that was a wise decision, because I didn’t want something that would cause more issues because it is hard to start a business with a storefront and a lot of people go a year without seeing a profit,” she said.

Online commerce seemed the best option, but instead of going with building a website and hoping people would find it, Ladner decided to take her clothing, jewelry and home products line to social media.

She created a closed Facebook sale group and started posting wholesale clothing items size four to 24 for purchase.

“We are actually able to offer people clothing — boutique styles and brands — at a cheaper cost, because we are not having to put a storefront price in there,” she said. “That is why it has been so convenient. Because we can offer things at least $8 to $10 cheaper than they are at the store.”

Delivery of products can be done by mail, she said, or local customers can waive the delivery fee and pick up their orders at her office.

But with more than 1,700 group members later, Ladner said it’s time for her to start moving — at least a little — from digital to physical space. Now that the business is established, she’ll start doing pop-up shops around the region in June, and that overhead that she wanted to avoid in the thin-profit early months is less scary.

“We are eventually going to have to do a storefront, because the business is getting bigger than having to stay in my house,” she said. “We have people coming in all day every day to pick up, so we are having to look for something.”

The option of never having to go to a physical space if they didn’t want to was part of why Nikki Gillespie and her sister Traci Ladner — they’re related to Heather Ladner by marriage — decided to launch the Two2 Cute Boutique online. Both have young children, and in Gillespie’s case, juggling a new storefront in addition to owning Nikki’s Restaurant and co-pastoring a church with her husband seemed like a lot.

“I have a storefront as a restaurant, so I know what it takes as far as overhead, workers compensation and insurance, and it if it got really big it may be reasonable, but where we are now I just don’t see it,” she said. “For the time, it is so much easier to work from a phone, share comments and links — besides, everybody seems to buy more online.”

After a few months and nearly 3,800 followers in its Facebook group, however, Two2 Cute had to transition to a more traditional Web presence.

“It was overwhelming keeping it in a group,” Gillespie said. “ You have a lot of small talk, chit chat, and there are times people would comment on something and purchase through comments. The bigger it grew, the harder it was getting.

“We felt like we were wasting a lot of time hand-typing invoices to people, so I told Traci, ‘We have got to figure out a better, more seamless way to sell.’”

They found a company that integrated PayPal and invoice generation into the Website, and after making the switch over to the new format they stopped selling through Facebook.

The group remains online, Gillespie said, to serve as a conduit to advertise what is available on the Website.

“I was scared we were going to lose business after we switched it, because I felt like it was taking us out of that Facebook element, going 100 percent to the online store,” she said. “But I am still pushing the products through Facebook, letting people know this is what’s in stock. We still want to keep our Facebook friendship with all those customers.”

Heather Ladner said in her case, she’s also considering a professional Website in addition to opening a physical space, but the initial platform she used to launch her business will likely stay in place.

“Every time I make a post or am active on that page, it pops up on that person’s newsfeed,” she said. “It keeps it fresh on their mind.”

29:Eleven Boutique can be found at facebook.com/groups/29elevenboutique.

Two2 Cute Boutique is located online at two2cuteboutique.com.