It’s been one year…

Happy birthday to us (3 months late)!  What an amazing, crazy, wonderful year it’s been!  We’ve learned a lot, and we definitely still have quite a bit to learn.  Here’s a glimpse at our first year…

We signed a lease.

We got business cards.

We got possession.

We designed our space.

We got to work…

…and more work…

…and more work. / Along came an awning…

  

And window decals… things were starting to feel *real*!

…and we painted, and met neighbors.

We moved in our checkout counter and filled the window with balloons.

We ordered bags, and filled the window with more balloons!!

Then we decorated, and created our front window display.

And then we opened!  It was official!

Time to celebrate our dream coming true!

Isn’t it fun to look back on a year of your life and reflect and think about the future??

We often hear customers say how fun it must be to own a shoppe.  It is, but if we are being really honest, it is a lot of work too.  Like, a lot.   Sometimes we get so bogged down with administrative stuff that we forget why we did this in the first place. Finding the balance is hard, but you always have to love what you do.  We love our little shoppe, we love our customers and the people we get to meet.  Things we wish we would have known going into this:

1.  There is way more paperwork than we could ever have imagined.  For realz.
2. Stay on top of accounting… have you ever tried to recreate an entire year of finances in the span of just a few months?  We have.  It was hard.  Many tears were shed.  We drank copious amounts of white claw and wine. Once again, it was hard.  We don’t recommend it.
3. Keep track of “things.”  I wish I could give you a better definition of “things,” but it stands for every. thing.  Anything from paint colors used on walls, to what you paid for certain items, to receipts, to names of neighbors and key people in your neighborhood, etc. Just keep track of it. Have a notebook and store it all in there, because trust me; just as fast as a creative idea pops into your brain, it can evaporate.  And it hurts to sit there and try to search your brain just to get it back.  Trust me.
4. Family and friends are your biggest cheerleaders.  We’ve planned events, published them on FB and then anxiously bit our nails wondering if anyone would show up.  Guess who always will?  Your family and closest friends.  Whether it’s a mother-in-law who always brings out of town relatives to visit and shop; a husband who uses a plug sponsorship for his own business to promote yours instead; a bestie cousin who works full time, but insists on spending her day off hanging with you at the shop or even covering for you at times- even though there are a million things she should be doing with her day off!  …It could be your bestie Aunt who not only provides daycare for your daughter, but also covers the shoppe so you can go on a family vacation to DisneyWorld; a good friend who will show up at 9:00 at night to blow up balloons and help you decorate your front window or build you a balloon tower in 2 minutes flat; another friend who agrees to watch the shoppe when you have a spur of the moment idea or family situation that calls for both of us to be gone (and brings her cute shoppe dog with to entertain customers).  Sometimes support comes from your childhood bestie and her mom who shop all the time, send you flowers and fruit bouquets (when she knows you’re watching your waist) to encourage you and also show up for every single event, no matter what.  …It could be former co-workers who pop in to say hi and look for a gift and ask how you are and leave you nostalgic for the friendships and conversations you used to have on a daily basis. Basically, what I am trying to say is family and friends are your constant and they are important to lifting you up and helping you be successful.  What would we do without them?!?
5. You won’t always make the right choices and that’s ok.  Whether it was the accidental purchase of ugly starfish measuring cups (we didn’t know it came like that), or the pink dress debacle (hey, it looked good on the model), just move on and cut your loss.  Laugh about it.  Remember to have fun.  When those days creep in and you forget your “why”, do something that reminds you of how you felt in the beginning.  For us it’s something like a junking trip, a buying trip or painting a piece of furniture… sometimes it’s just getting lost down the vortex of Pinterest for a few minutes to rejuvenate our creativity.

Being a shoppe owner is fun!  We *GET* to do this and we are still learning and that’s ok!  We are lucky.  But from the bottom of our hearts, thank you to everyone who has supported us this first year and a half, here’s to many more and all the adventures ahead.