Over two decades in the game as an expert in vintage has led BC Modern’s Eric Lewis to realize he created a unique blueprint for businesses. Now he’s writing a book about it in a vintage, serialized style.
BC Modern, 3116 S. Chase Ave., in the Bay View area of Milwaukee, is a vintage store specializing in mid-century modern furniture. Lewis creates urgency with the business in how it operates. The shop is only open the last weekend of every month, so if you don’t go, you miss out on what’s available to buy or may never see any item again if you’re window shopping.
Lewis has been in the vintage game for over two decades. He initially got his start with a quick flip on a mid-century modern chair he purchased for $250 and sold for $5,500 days later.
Lewis pressed on to chase that rush. He later opened a pawn shop, worked in auctioneering, estate sales and eBay consignment services, and, eventually, BC Modern. The shop initially started as a normal retail operation, but he wanted to find a way to have more control of life and passion for a more specialized approach: a month-long curation with two days of selling.
But things have changed for him. Lewis realized that he was building something special. He’s not pressed for the high from the initial chair flip. Instead, he’s taking time to look back on what he’s accomplished.
“I’ve had it in my hair for a while. I mean, it’s got so many experiences,” Lewis said. “I’ve moved a lot less from this hustle mentality to understanding the strategies I’ve been living by, but didn’t put them into writing.”
Lewis is writing the guidebook on his unique approach to how he’s managed to be a dominant force in the vintage world. Much like his affinity for all things vintage, he’s taking an old-school approach through serialized chapter releases — the same method many “Sherlock Holmes” stories were published.
Chapters are released via his Patreon. He’s writing at least one chapter a week and is unsure of when he will fully finish up or how long the book will be. At the time of speaking with Lewis about his book, he had written eight chapters.
“You get behind-the-scenes stuff of what it is that I do and how I built the company,” Lewis said. “Right now, I’m just telling the story, more of like the strategy behind how I got here, the decision-making to get here. Different things that if someone who was a small business owner or a vintage shop owner, it would probably help them along the journey.
The book is titled “Creative CEO Built Different.” The first chapter gives background on Lewis’s life story and his drive to hustle. It embodies lessons from his father to “hustle like you’re broke” and build the mentality to stay humble and analyze where you’re at.
Lewis notably tracks absolutely everything in the store — which is how he centers the second chapter on building to last. He knows when he’s busiest, what season has the most foot traffic, his key demographic, trends and where people spend the most time in the store.
“I’m not competing against vintage shops. I’m competing against anything you can do on a Saturday, understanding we only get three months of good weather,” he said. “I’m trying to be like an event that you’re contemplating. I’m trying to compete against Summerfest.”
The third chapter, “Real work happens off the camera,” expands on chapter two. In understanding how people work, Lewis also needs to work towards meeting their needs. When you enter BC Modern, you see pristine or near-vintage items. What you don’t see is the month of curation and restoration.
Much of the month leading up to its two days of sales is spent at estate sales around the Midwest. He digs through estates, haggles for rare pieces, restores items and figures out how to pair it in the store.
“Nobody sees all that,” Lewis said. “People don’t see the real work that happens. My wife, the week before we open, she’s here cleaning. Nobody sees all of what makes it special. That’s what happens behind it, off the camera, so that you can come in and be like, ‘Oh, I love this shop. It must be nice to work two days a month.”
The rest of the chapters follow a similar theme of building up to operate as best as possible. Each chapter pushes the concept from the previous one of how to hone your craft through the unrealized work.
Lewis is eyeballing a possible physical release of the book after feedback from his VIP members. He’s aiming for the end of this year, near Christmas, but is unsure of how many chapters the book will have.
