By Molly Parker
mparker@scbiznews.com
Published April 27, 2009

It’s a leap of faith to leave the safety of a job with a regular paycheck and go out into business on your own.

But that’s just what Ivie Parker and Adrian Truluck did two years ago when they started Parker-Sims Interiors, a full-service design firm located in the trendy 10 Storehouse Row building on the former Navy base.

Both women, now 27, are from the Pee Dee region and have been friends since kindergarten. Parker is a public relations specialist who had been working at Rawle

Ivie Parker (left) and Adrian Truluck opened Parker-Sims Interiors two years ago. They are both 27.

Murdy in downtown Charleston. Truluck is an interior designer with international educational experience who had also been employed downtown before going out on her own.

“I really just thought it would be the perfect partnership,” Truluck said.

The two weighed the options, talked with mentors about the process and signed up for an entrepreneurship class offered by the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce.

“It was one of those things that, if you didn’t pursue it, you would always wonder ‘What if?’ ” Parker said.

Truluck and Parker said the support they received from people in business — the majority of them female business owners — was tremendous and surprising and extremely beneficial, especially in the early days.

“In that first month, it was a big jolt as reality sunk in and I realized, ‘OK, no one is sending that paycheck,’ ” Parker said.

“We were really lucky to have a lot of people willing to reach out to us and help,” Truluck said.

Since then, the two frequently receive the kind of phone calls that signal success.

“What’s been the greatest compliment to me is having people call us who want to have coffee and pick our brains because they want to start a business of their own,” Parker said.

As female business owners, the two said they never feel any discrimination even though many of the builders and architects they work with are men. If anything, Truluck and Parker said they worried their age would be more of a
hindrance.

“I really think that was just more in our own minds,” Truluck said.

In some ways, youth has been a benefit, she said, because the two stay on the cutting edge of the latest trends and bring fresh ideas to the table.

“The female part is not an issue at all, and that’s a great thing to be able to say,” Parker said. “Sometimes it can seem intimidating going into the old boys’ network, but it’s really never been an issue.”

“People just trust you to do what’s best and what I went to school for,” Truluck said.

Truluck graduated with honors from Converse College, earning a bachelor’s degree in interior design with a minor in art history. She furthered her education at the Santa Reparata International School of Art in Florence, Italy.

Parker is a College of Charleston graduate. She has a bachelor’s degree in corporate communication and several years of sales and marketing experience with numerous local clients in addition to her time at Rawle Murdy.

“I don’t know if it would be different somewhere else, but starting a business in Charleston has been a great opportunity for us,” Parker said.

Reach Molly Parker at 843-849-3144.