Being in Business

I decided to restart the blog as a documentation of me starting up my physical store.  Well, almost a year later, and this is the second post I've written.  C'est le vie?

In hindsight, it probably would have been great to have that documentation, and it would have been pretty hilarious, too.  If anyone is familiar with renovating a building built in the late 1800s, you'd feel my pain and know my frustration.

So here I am, a 4-month business owner.  It's been pretty interesting, to say the least.  Very stressful, as well.  Anyone who gives up their day job to become completely self-supporting knows how much of a risk it is.  I kept putting off putting my leave in until finally, my boss, a very good friend of mine who helped so much with getting the shop together, just told me he was going to stop scheduling me.  Which was the push I needed.

August 14th, 2012, was the day Ollie Otson officially opened.  I was incredibly nervous, but excited, and many of my friends came, visited, and shopped.  As the days went on, more people, people I didn't know, started trickling, through, and I realized how self-fulfilling this was going to be.

It's one thing to sell a dress on Etsy to a person and mail it out, but it's a completely different situation when you're there to see them pick it out, try it on, and get incredibly excited over it.  I've had people come in to buy items for dates, for birthday presents, and just to feel better about themselves, and the experience becomes so much more personal.  When you buy the garment, clean it, steam it, tag it, hang it, then sell it, and are there to see the whole process and the happiness of the customer, it makes you happy.  It's a certain high that's hard to explain.

I've decided to keep myself more dedicated to this blog writing.  I want to, if anything, document the journey for myself and, hopefully, inspire those who'd like to take those steps into opening a shop of their own.