- Picture of the Shop from the doorway
Alrighty then, I was being interviewed by the author Marilyn Sweet who wrote the book “Profitable 5K Business” on her internet radio show. Marilyn asked me how I started in the Costume Shop business…well I didn’t actually know I was going in the Costume Shop business, it just evolved…like my life. (and this question made me realize it)
Now anyone who owns a small business knows that what we first thought our business was going to do and be is not precisely what it turned out like. Actually, that is a lot like us…the way our life starting out, our hopes and dreams and direction may not have evolved exactly how we thought. I opened my little Shoppe to be a dancewear store…as a dance teacher for 22 years, it was a natural evolution from wearing dancewear all day and night to selling it, since I knew a lot about it. Several times a year, my students and I would do shows and utilize costumes but I did not give them much thought. However, much to my surprise, when I opened my little Shoppe, folks were more interested in the few costumes I carried than the leotards, tights, skirts and shoes. That business was being focused inside the new dance schools themselves as they internalized the dancewear business and did sales right inside the studio. I did not know a lot about costumes outside the dance performance arena but I soon did some research and learned what my customers wanted and where I could get it…but there were some expensive mistakes along the way since this was not initially my area of expertise.
When I was a little girl I knew I wanted to be a dance teacher…as a young woman I wanted to be a college professor of the dance. But as a child of the 50′s I wanted the wife mother to be in the equasion too. Whew, boy was I wanting it all. I married a stranger, divorced with a young child, worked 4 jobs, went to college 3-7 hours a semester and finally graduated 10 years later….hmmm, not what I envisioned in the beginning…and I was no closer to that college job as I was still working on the degree to get me there…then I remarried, opened a studio, had another baby and tried to make it all work. This was not my original plan but as anyone would, I went with it.
In business, my first little shop just about broke even in 3 years…but something came up…a career in acting. Since I was still performing a little in the dance arena, I stumbled on an opportunity to impersonate Marilyn Monroe and it bloomed into a better business than the Shop…so I closed the shop and went on tour for a year or so. (what happened to selling dancewear?) But the glamour of being Ms. Monroe soon waned and I settle back in Texas looking for another opportunity while temping in an office. It was handed to me in the form of teaching/training folks in the Web computer arena in a specialize medical field. (not the professor job but maybe I was getting closer?) The corporate environment was hard on this artistic spirit so I looked into an opportunity to have a small sideline business in the costume dancewear business I still was intrigued with so I took some of my corporate earnings and sublet part of a storefront and paid someone else to run it…renting and selling costumes all year…and after a year, I was pushed to make a decision due to my fathers waning health and a layoff by the corporation…they wanted to keep me full time and I was only working part time…so I went full speed ahead and worked in my little store and tried to build up the business.
In business, we have to make policies…about the employees, the customers, the hours, the marketing etc….and when we open our small business we have a vision but we need to be able to yield to what life brings and our customers needs. One of the wisest tidbits I gleaned from another business person was in the Book “Pour your heart into it” by Howard Schultz and that is “never say never.” Policies need to yield, we need to yield and bend and weave through life…just call me Gumby!
…there is so much more to write but my Shop calls me…
Happy Make Believe,
Nacheska
