A year in my shoes.


Happy 2023, 

For us 2022 was a year of adapting and reaching for new goals. 

Which meant the shop had to do without me for a while. 

The one thing i've learnt from owning and running my own business is that no matter how hard you try people will never fully understand unless they've owned a one.

No one will ever work for your small business the way you do.

Taking time away often means loosing income, loosing the shops voice, direction..  and even standards.

I really thought with good staff and a system in place that perhaps the store would be just fine. However after a year of working away, what i came back to was a store on the brink of closure and me left with very little motivation to turn it around. 

After 5 months of paying staff wages out of personal savings, Lost inventory, a flooded stock room, no systems in place and a huge drop in online following meant basically starting completely over. 

Over the next few weeks the store will get a small revamp.

Most of the furnishings will have been removed and sold. 

Online inventory completely removed - over 700 listings, which may seem a really bad idea.... to start over but with no one maintaining inventory while i've been away and the flood taking out the stock room i simply cannot find anything. 

It's been a real test of my character even covid wasn't this bad BUT i will not be beaten. 

I've taken a step back to again perspective and reflect on how i need to attack this next stage and it became very clear. 

" Confidence and conviction" these two things go a long way and i feel over the years i've started to dilute my vision for the store, comparing to other people and wanting to succeed the way they have but, the road to success isn't the same for everyone. 

Self doubt is a silent serial killer of creative minds and i would say working alone for all these years is harder than you think. I don't need validation. I just need to focus and reset. 

Im stripping back and selling off things that no longer serve me. 

Quality not quantity. 

Find it here over the next few weeks. 

 

 


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