Businesswoman Wins Competition For Free Rent At Midtown Shop

The Good Egg Group held a competition for one locally owned business to open a shop on Hudson Avenue in Midtown. One lucky entrepreneur got the phone call of a lifetime.

"They called me back pretty quickly after, and I was driving to market in Dallas, and I was like 'Are you serious, are you sure?'" said Sally January, owner of the clothing company Siempre Viva.

January, a former Spanish professor at the University of Oklahoma, now has free rent for her shop on Hudson Street to display and sell collaborative pieces from artisans in Mexico.

January spent many of her teen years in Mexico soaking up the culture. She uses her love for fashion, travel, and culture to help give back to a place that she says gave so much to her.

"By improving my artisans’ lives, it has improved my life more than they will ever know. I've worked with families that have no running water. To a year later, having running water, kids with shoes on. Just a drastic change in lifestyle for them and for me," said January.

Siempre Viva can be directly translated into the phrase "Always Alive". January said the phrase is a good representation of her business, as well as a reminder to always live in the moment.

She is using these next few months to help build clientele, in hopes that she will be able to continue into a full lease once the free rent time is up.

"I feel like when I was a professor I always was just convincing the students that they could spend time abroad, which was really what I wanted to be doing. So now, I get to live my dream. It's so fun. I can't believe it's real. Sometimes like I need to pinch myself,” she said.