Opening a Business Requires a Bevy of Hard Work, Faith

The last I left you, was not yet open and now it is so which means volumes could have been written about the intense experiences of actually physically opening the store but I’ll have to summarize.

I wanted to write about how the week before physically opening a business, one should count on a chunk of money for last minute expenses that you could not foresee.

For my little store, I had budgeted $500 as my past experiences had taught me that would be about right.

From simple things like a curtain rod or nuts and bolts to major things like hiring extra help so you’ll finish things or paying for the glass door to allow the passage of the 35.5-inch display units through the 36-inch door frame.

One can only plan for so much. By the time we were opening the doors, I had incurred $700 in unplanned expenses mostly from having to purchase more inventory to fill up the rest of the store.

I also wanted to share with you the complete high of opening days. I was running on pure adrenalin and you couldn’t have knocked me down if you were a big rig. This is not standing at the front door, munching a Girl Scout cookie and welcoming visitors, although that would have been nice and I did do a tiny bit of that.

Nope. I was hanging children’s clothing, or in the case of well-meaning help — "re-hanging on the right-size hangers" —tubs of infant and children’s clothing; sizing them, tagging them, pricing them, and getting them out on the sales racks.

During my husband’s military tech school in Wichita, Texas, I worked for JC Penney’s doing this so know that in big stores, there is a whole department working in the back that does these things.

Then, there was complete crunch time forcing myself to learn the cash register and debit card machine. By the way, all those new gray hairs you see on my head is not from having an adolescent—they are from trying desperately to grasp the problem between the connectivity of my processing equipment and that little grey phone cord that connects to the world.

The adolescent and the husband were actually the ones that picked me up off the floor twice after I had been reduced to puddles of tears over that one!

Meanwhile—and because I’m sensitive to overstressing those two special people, I gave them full permission to take care of themselves that week as far as dinner went.

I had warned them I would be spending 24/7 at the new shop and they’d have to fend for themselves. They ate soup, tacos, pizza, Chinese food, and lots of hamburgers from Shaw’s diner next door so at least I didn’t have a lot of dishes or home messes to clean up. I lost five whole pounds. That also, helped keep me sane and upbeat.

You know in dog training books they say the best time to train dogs is when they are hungry and I can tell you it really worked for me, too. I kept a lot of fresh fruit and bottled water and green tea going steady and felt really alert. I even turned down a couple Starbucks run because I didn’t want to diminish the freight train of energy by possibly "over caffeinating" which might result in giving the opposite effect of energy. I was sleeping, finally, like a brick each night.

It truly warms my heart when so many folks came by to see the store the first week. It reminded me of having a baby complete with flowers and balloons. This is the kind of friendship and support that will have to sustain me when it rains and I have one sale for the day and I get discouraged.

That actually was what happened about day number five which was a Saturday. After a busy week and my expectations of a busier Saturday, there was almost no one. It took me three days to stop whining and thinking I had made a terrible mistake in planting the business downtown. It was my faith that stood me back up on Tuesday morning to start week two.

Some people will say coincidence about some of these things but I know better. I was having great anxiety with the long bout of rain when I took a moment to pray. The next customer was a $50 sale.

In Dixon, this is fabulous. Dixon business owners work so very hard to get people to shop local, which is why I want to point out this last thing.

For some reason, when you open a business, everyone thinks you have money. I was glad to see the guy who came in and asked if I was hiring and commended him for being out looking for work although I’m not hiring.

There were at least three people soliciting various things from jewelry to new soap.

Then there was a deaf mute with a laminated page about a sports team in Texas. Merchants downtown must appear a row of opportunity for many. I can see where it would be easier to send money out than bring any in.

I used this as a reminder that I needed to work even harder to attract customers.

That is why on Monday, I had 200 half-page flyers printed at the Printing Shop and personally distributed them to preschools in the morning. It was exhilarating to see all the children.

“There they are,” I thought to myself. There are actually lots and lots of little ones in Dixon! I think I'm going to do just fine.