_edited.jpg)
Well, fast forward a year and a half and I'm busy writing my second blog post. It's January, and as expected, its a slow time of year - but one that's perfect for reorganizing, catching up, and working on all the things that are impossible to find time to do during the 'rest' of the year.
After I hired 2 employees in mid-May of 2017, I had expected that there would be more time (see previous post)....HA! Well, my business really took off and the list of expectations grew to include payroll, schedules, operations manual, lists of things-to-do while I'm away, and other evils such as worker's compensation insurance (yuck!). Needless to say, my excitement waned and I wasn't jumping at the chance to write a blog post for a while. I found the process to be clumsy and very time consuming to get the font and photos just right. Luckily, Wix has greatly improved the process and this blog post is going down fast! So I guess my timing couldn't be better for getting the ball rolling again!
Hiring people to help you on a weekly basis does afford you some great perks, like opinions. Yes, opinions! I love to receive input and get a different perspective on things around the shop. Sometimes I agree, and sometimes I don't. Never-the-less, its a part of letting go of things which is something I was hoping to do. My shop is now merchandised with the help of employees and it looks fantastic like 99.99% of the time which is something that I'm very proud of. Our customers love the organized and restrained approach to selling what could very easily become a mashup of dusty antiques and tchotchkes.
The whole point of offering items for sale is so that they can imagine each item in their own home or in the hands of a loved one who is the happy recipient of a gift. It's our #1 responsibility to creatively display each and every morsel of merchandise, don't you think?
With the store looking sharp and no room for new projects, I took another look at the blogging responsibility that I had tasked myself with so long ago. Cold winter days offer hours of uninterrupted time to re-imagine not only the blog, but the entire website for Flourish Market. I love a good refresh! In this new year of 2019, I will be dedicating Wednesdays to the website and to blogging. I promise to keep it simple from this point forward so that I don't get bogged down in my blogging! Stay tuned!