If you do not want to read negative, this is not the post for you. There are no unicorns in my world today. I cannot see any rainbows. To no surprise to anyone, closing a shop is much more painful than opening a shop.
Making the decision to close was inevitable. I knew it was coming. I was having a hard time pulling the trigger. It was the Dr. Seuss birthday party that did me in. There were only three children in attendance that were not related to me. Of those three children, only one of the parents purchased anything. The other two came for the stories and coloring. I spent quite a bit of time getting ready for the party. Finding just the right coloring pictures, word games, mazes. Printing them off. Getting books to read. I hired help for the day. I thought I would be busy with the kids and someone would need to ring up purchases. It was not necessary. I lost money on the deal. I immediately knew it was over for me. I had already tried many marketing approaches. The fried cinnamon on Saturday. That was not about selling sweet rolls. It was about getting people into my shop to become regulars. For the most part, the people who came in for rolls did not even look around at what my adorable shop had to offer. Same with the cake pops.
I have been letting my inventory go down. I knew I would need to close before summer. Things were getting slim in the shop. That does not mean I do not have stuff to sell. I do. I do not want to have a huge clearance sale. Whatever does not sell, I will attempt to sell at the Springfest or Farmer's Market. I will give candy away before I will give clearance prices.
My sweet shop will only be open four more days. I will spend the next month getting rid of all the big items. I have been able to sell a few things already. All the cute pieces of furniture I was so excited to find and buy for the shop. I had it set up almost exactly how I wanted it. It is very important to sell the big items so they do not end up stored in my house!!!! We already have enough in the house.
The hardest part is the kids. My regulars. As soon as they see me they ask me WHY, WHY! I come to your shop. I buy stuff. Ouch!! Huge Ouch!! Some of these kids I did not know before I opened Coco's. Now they run into my shop, tell me what is new in their life. What they are celebrating. What they want to get. Where they are going. My regulars get hugs. When I volunteer at the school the kids see me walking down the hall and say, look it is the candy lady. It is very close to being a super hero.
Last week I was able to hold onto positive thoughts. The most important thing I know is that God has a plan. He had a plan when I opened, he has another for me now. Whatever I needed to do is done. I hope my next path is as much fun as this one. This week it is much harder to sit in my shop and know it is over. People saying they are sorry. Asking me what I will do next. Many, many people have told me I gave it my all. I did everything possible to make it a success. It is not just the failure of my shop. I hope that my shop would be a success and other people would follow my lead and open more retail stores in our town. By closing, it sends the opposite signal. Stores cannot make it in our town. People say, our town is too little. It is the recession. I disagree with both of those statements. Our town has more people than when I grew up here. Our entire downtown was filled with retail shops. People spent their money in town. They did not leave to do all their shopping. My Dad owned a business so we were not allowed to shop out of town. Business owners knew they had to set a good example. More people work outside of town. It is easier to stop and pick things up before they get on the road. More people leave town on the week-ends to find fun things to do. People do not make an effort to come downtown and support the businesses.
Today I spent two hours volunteering in the kindergarten classroom. One of my happy places. I came back to open the shop and was hit by a bad case of the blahs. Decided I would get my thoughts out and get on with my work.
I am happy I went after my dream. I do not have to spend the rest of my life wondering if I could open a business. It is a victory that I was brave enough to go after my dream. These 21 months have been amazing. I feel like I have gotten to know myself better. I am better at enjoying life. I have met so many interesting people. I learned to be more accepting. I learned to let God judge. My life is fuller. My heart is fuller. Whatever I do next, I will take a better me into the job. My only regret is that I lost money. Now I have to make more. I still have time to do it.
If you have been on this journey with me, I thank you. We had a good time didn't we?
