Opportunity in Hiding

I said I was an inconsistent blogger and, if you are a follower, you know that is true. Being in the retail business in the middle of a recession/depression has been interesting and challenging and.... surprisingly, FUN!  No, we have not turned the corner to profitable, but we have not gone broke yet either so, life is good.

Last June we had decided to close.  After spending lots of energy telling potential patrons how to find us, "look under the staircase at the lumberyard, the long white stone building past the park on Old Kyle Rd, off the square", we finally realized we were not going to get enough traffic to stay in business. :)

But just when we were about to throw in the towel, we were approached by the owner of the stained glass store, a fixture for 32 years in Wimberley, about taking over her space.  At that meeting, my visionary husband enquired about the stained glass business but the owner just wanted to close it.  Well, we did not think we could take on the "much" higher rent so late in our struggle to make our Whimsy work so we decided to turn her down.  But before we could do this, she came back to us and made an offer to let us continue the stained glass business and combine it with our Whimsy.  We agreed and moved in last August. Our new store

The building had become pretty run down, three inches of dust covered everything,  piles of years old stuff was stacked everywhere and raccoons had been nesting in the attic for awhile, so the aroma was pretty awful.  But, with the help of friends, we scoured the building and evicted the varmints and moved in.  I painted the outside yellow and the posts turquoise to ensure no one would miss us!

This year has been a roller coaster of learning a new trade, figuring out how to keep people from passing us by (Oh, that's just stained glass), and figuring out what our customers want to buy.  We are still working on the last part but each month things are looking up.  I still desperately need to work on our website, advertising, stained glass standard projects, processes, etc., etc, etc. Yet, we have met some extraordinary people and have learned so much.  As we approach one year in our new location and two years in business, we are hopeful.  What a difference a year makes.