Opening a retail store in November may be a rookie mistake but we dove right into the deep end. I like to keep quotes pinned to my computer and I kept in mind “It’s okay to be scared, being scared means you are about to do something really brave”. There was no time to think about what we were doing the holiday season was going strong and we were just keeping our heads up. We closed the store the week between Christmas and New Year and like the proverbial Deer in the Headlights, we didn’t know what had just happened. Now that we had a moment to breathe, we could make a plan for what we wanted the first full year in business to look like. We added up what we would need to make to break even and I tacked on a little extra for good measure. I wanted to pick a goal that seemed like, “If everything goes right, this could happen” but enough to make my stomach flip and that little voice to say, in a snarky voice, ‘Really?”As a friend of mine calls it a Big Hairy Goal (BHG) My husband, ever the realist, reminded me that most retail businesses take 2 to 3 years to turn a profit. We had a lot of remodeling costs and inventory costs to recoup. But I’ve always been one to set my sights high so I held firm to my number and plowed forward, trying not to think about that number looming large. January, as expected, is slow. February, also expected to be slow, brings in my first true design client from the store. A woman and her friend stroll through the doors, oohing and ahhing, something that still gives me a thrill. She tells me that she lives in a three-year-old home that she wants to make, “dark, moody, and glamourous.” Not my typical look but I love a challenge! We schedule an appointment to see her home and I walk into a nearly all-white home, this is going to be fun. Over the following year we would transform her home and other clients would follow. Some walk-ins from the store, others through referrals and past real estate clients. Enough to manage, without being overwhelming, and to keep me from freaking out too much about what I had done. Not to say that there were not sleepless nights, there have been plenty of those throughout the year. Periodically I would check the year-to-date numbers to see how we were coming along, come June, halfway through the year and we were nowhere near halfway to our goal. I tried to bolster my confidence that it only takes one big client to turn things around and keep in mind that many retailers operate in the red until December. I had faith that everything that had happened to me led to this journey and I just had to keep my head down and keep moving forward. And that is just what I did. September brought in a couple of referrals from friends, a past client and before I knew it, there were just 2 weeks left before yearend. I couldn’t look, “how close are we?” I asked. 5% to go was the reply. UGHHHHH, so close…would we make it? daily I looked at the numbers, the gap slowly closing, me driving everyone crazy. Finally, with just 3 days to go, we made it to our BHG!

Now it’s year 2 and the whole thing starts all over…

I sit here on the last day of 2023, reflecting back on a super scary time of my business life without a single regret. Here is a little back story; Opening my own interior design shop has been in the back of my mind for years. I would dream about it but then question, do I want to be tied to a brick and mortar, requiring me to have a very structured schedule, something I have not had to do for 15+ years, since launching into real estate. In the winter of 2022, the last retail lot came available in Prospect, I got to dreaming, a work/live unit, studio on the ground floor, and two living units above. With aging relatives, it would give them an option to still live on their own but close enough to help when needed. I went to my design software and came up with a 1300-square-foot plan, with excitement I took it to my builder and was stunned into silence when he gave me an approximate cost to build such a structure. My husband had just taken an early retirement and there was no way a bank was going to approve a loan. I asked anyway and got the answer I had expected. In my gut I felt I had put my dream out to the universe, God, destiny, whatever you believe, and had gotten the answer, a shop is not in your future. That’s good to know, I was not 100% sure that was right for me in the first place but now I know and I could accept and move past it. When an opportunity to go to High Point, NC for the furniture market came up, I thought, this would be great for my design business, and off I went. I was in heaven! An entire town of furniture shop after furniture shop, I felt a little twinge of disappointment that the shop would not be in my future, but a firm believer in following the path that is laid out before you, I put that aside and focused on how fortunate I was that this was still a small part of my business. Fast Forward…July of 2022, walking down the street I overheard someone reading a sign out loud to their companion. “Sublease, available for 9 months with the option to extend beyond.” I pulled my husband to a bench to sit while we waited for them to finish up so I could see the details. The details looked very doable, the rent was reasonable, and the option to slip our toe in with only a 9-month commitment was very intriguing. I called the number on the sign and left a message and off to lunch we went. But, I could not get it out of my mind. After lunch, I just had to go back and look again. This time, someone was inside. We knocked on the door and he invited us in. As I walked in, the hairs on my neck stood up, This is EXACTLY what I had planned on my software…brick wall to the right, stairs to the left with an enclosed space beneath, a small room for storage and a powder room to the back. “What is the square footage” I asked, “1299” came the answer. OMG!!! This IS meant to be. The universe did not say No, it was telling me, Not Yet.

This was terrifying, my husband was retired, interior design was my side job, I have a teenager at home, many legitimate reasons this would not work. On top of all of that, I’ve worked in retail, but for huge nationwide retailers, I knew nothing about owning a store. But I am a firm believer that when you see things opening up so clearly, it is your responsibility to take the risk. Once the details were worked out we dove right in, a contractor fell into our laps, demo began and so did the hiccups. Many times I’ve questioned whether I read the signs correctly or my desire making me see signs that were not really happening. The building costs were mounting, the contractor was falling behind and getting sick, opening day was not going to happen and my nerves were thin. When God knocked on our door, in the form of Bill the Builder! This man was straight from heaven. He literally knocked on our door, he had just moved here and was looking for work, he said he had worked construction in Michigan and could do anything. Already two weeks behind schedule we were wary but desperate and hired him. Hardworking and very knowledgeable, he was a gift from heaven. With an opening day in sight, we started sending out invitations for our private Grand Opening Party. We wanted to celebrate with our amazing friends, who were incredibly supportive! Mostly. One thing about following your dreams and taking risks, there are some people who just don’t want to see you succeed. Tuning them out is hard. They are giving voice to those scary thoughts in your head. “Why would you open a store like this in the middle of a recession.” “Who do you think is going to shop in a store like this”, and “This is awfully expensive for Longmont”. I had to push all of that aside and try to trust that I was doing the right thing and remember not to let small minds convince me that my dreams were too big. Focusing on the positives, invites went out and the RSVPs were coming in. Friends and family flew in to support us and while the butterflies were wreaking havoc on my stomach, we were full steam ahead. Oops, those aren’t butterflies, we all got the flu and our party. UGH, maybe THAT’s the sign from the universe? It’s too late now. We postponed the opening date a second time, now it would be mid-November before the doors would open….

So we are coming up on nearly a year since I blogged about having the tile floors in my office painted. I was so pleased with the results but nervous about how they would hold up over time. Well, I had nothing to worry about the only sign of wear is a few dust bunnies, other than those, they look just as good as the day the painters left. I used Benjamin Moores, Advance paint in Black Jack, then sealed it with 2 coats of Old Masters, water-based Masters Armor. They are a little slick so I’ve used plenty of area rugs and have not had any problems myself. Originally, I was going to have matching hallway and office rugs from Pottery Barn, but I liked the way the black set off the white rug that I went with a black rug from Sisal Rugs Direct. After seeing how well the floors were doing I decided to add some paint to my office bath. The counter and shower walls had been done in an equally ugly tile so I painted those in Simply White and the maple cabinet in high gloss Chrome Green, both by Benjamin Moore. Some new hardware, light, fixture,s and area rug, now I have a whole new look for under $200.