“Rivers know this: There is no hurry. We shall get there some day.”
Today is my shops business birthday. A year ago today I opened my doors of the little blue flower shop on Mill Street, Bideford.
To be honest I feel a little like Eeyore on his birthday. Little bit sad, little bit forgotten. No cake, no candles no “whoop whoop” A gift of an empty honey pot and a popped balloon would be fab but instead I’m in the shop bleach cleaning buckets. 42 of them so far. It’s a glamorous life!
Of course I would have to have been bleaching buckets even if I was open - it’s not a self punishment thing. But hopefully it would have been in-dispersed with customers and at least been in a shop full of fresh flowers and glorious plants everywhere. Because that was the vision when I opened a year ago.
“What’s wrong with knowing what you know now and not knowing what you don’t know until later?”
Oh the dreams and the plans. The Pinterest board and the books full of ideas. It was all there. But of course the world changed. It was changing as I opened. A glimmer of gloom on the horizon. I think we were all in optimistic denial. And then “BOOM” 8 days after opening we went into nation Lockdown 1.0.
“Could be worse. Not sure how, but it could be.”
Except we didn’t know it was Lockdown 1.0 - to be followed later that year with Lockdown 2.0, the sequel and then Lockdown 3.0 the dire unwanted further sequel.
So a year of having the shop has been more stop and start than the number 73 bus in central London. But those times I’ve been open have been great. I’ve loved it, you’ve loved it - the dream was real. So yes it was heartbreaking every time that got taken away from me, but I’ve tried so hard to hold on to that dream, to keep it going and to dream bigger for when we start to move forward again.
“If the string breaks, then we try another piece of string.”
I’ll concentrate on the positives - it’s so easy to be an Eeyore and be full of gloom. I already spoke in my previous blog about the thanks I have for the people who have continued to support me during the last year. Local deliveries have definitely kept me ticking over in the lockdown months.
“You can’t stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.”
But the other bonus it has given me is time. Time to stop and think and plan. To fully asses the times I was open and see what worked and what didn’t work. What sold well and what else I could sell. Moving stuff around - changing my merchandising.
“I always get to where I’m going by walking away from where I have been”
Would I have had that opportunity if I’d been trading 6 days a week, week in week out?Would I have just have been working rather than planning? Who knows. But I have enjoyed the time to plan, to dream, to dream bigger.
“When you see someone putting on his Big Boots, you can be pretty sure that an Adventure is going to happen.”
So as we hopefully enter the last few weeks of lockdown I am continuing to build on my ideas but with the added advantage of a little bit of experience. There is new stock lines ordered. Some new products and plenty more of what there was before. A little shop shuffle and a lot of cleaning!
Then a deep breath, feel brave and get those doors open again so hopefully this time next year I can be properly celebrating another business birthday.
“You’re braver than you believe, stronger than you seem and smarter than you think.”
