So as the excitement builds and the key collection date looms nearer, my sleepless or at very least broken sleep nights are increasing. It has to be said that I am harbouring a huge amount of anxiety and feel an overwhelming amount of responsibility for making this new venture work. Every buying decision I have made over the last few months will be reflected in the success or failure of the boutique and I know it is also paramount for success to have the premises looking attractive and inviting, not over stated or unwelcoming which will most certainly put people off even entering, never mind buying anything.
The things I am not concerned about are few but some of the things that continually cross my mind are how much of my time and freedom that I have come to enjoy so much will be affected. I know that the success or failure very much depends on my work ethic and more importantly, to ensure that stock does not hang around too long whilst also ensuring that there is plenty of new stock available and to source new, exciting brands in order to keep the rails looking fresh and enticing to my customers. The boutique has not even opened its doors, yet the amount of work, research and commitment I have given must have had some effect on my family and friends. Am I on my phone too much? Am I neglecting my house and my hobbies? Am I eating properly, finding time to go to the gym? All of these things I hope will settle once I find my feet and of course my optimum working hours. There are going to be many hours spent in the boutique and whilst I hope to be insanely busy, I must also try and ensure that I utilise my quiet times to do my research, my buying and maximise growth of the business using social media, and of course my paperwork.
Whilst I am very close to realising my dream, my vision of what the boutique should look like has been a struggle. The premises has been occupied until very recently, and a big worry is will it be big enough? The floorspace has been filled with bakery counters and fridges and the walls are currently adorned with the most unattractive wood chip! How is our beautiful swan of a boutique going to emerge from what is currently an ugly duckling? The occupancy of the shop with its current fixtures has seriously hindered the planning process. I've always been someone that would find a centre piece, a focal point and build the story around it. My mind and ideas have gone full circle and has been conflicting from the beginning. I know what I wanted to achieve but new discoveries have thrown me off track now and again. I found a beautiful counter as a centre piece and was unable to fight the conflict that it wasn't exactly what I had in mind...it was just stunning! Another sleepless night and I woke the next morning intent on cancelling the purchase of the counter having found at 3am on eBay, the perfect jewellery display/counter adorned with the name of exactly the brand of jewellery that I planned to sell. It must be fate so I went ahead and cancelled the purchase and collected my incredibly heavy jewellery display counter. Again, I still lay awake at night with a virtual shop planning tool in my head moving around the floorspace to optimise security, maximise retail space and still leave room for everything else. I have done exactly the same purchasing a centre table and bench set to display garments on. It's now on the "may have to think again list" after another "must be fate" series of events lead me to buying some display equipment from the Karen Millen store in Meadowhall. I have also wrestled with some other what might seem like trivial decisions such as purchasing merchandising material with the boutique logo. Such a huge expense to have bespoke rope twist handle carrier bags, I have come to the decision that whilst it is important to create a good impression, this type of investment will have to wait until I have a revenue from the boutique.
I will hopefully feel far more settled once I have collected the keys, opened the door to my future and seen my 350sq feet of retail space as an empty space ready to be transformed by hard work and then filled with beautiful things!