It’s official: we aren’t really new anymore. I still have the same conversation every day which starts something along the lines of “I always walk by and this is the first time I’ve ever seen it open!” but that initial shiny newness has waned. We’re less busy, but more known. We’ve been here for over a year, but open barely a month. It’s an odd dichotomy.
This next week my goal is mostly outreach. Turning our new deliveries into inventory news posts, reaching out to the local apartments, hotels, and condos, things like that. I should also make a flyer for our “50 days” party that I just decided we would have, and join the local chamber of commerce.
In an effort to keep in line with the sustainable, ethical ethos the store has, I want to make sure our advertising and marketing budget is also used with conscious practices. For us, that means advertising locally first— donating/sponsoring schools, joining chambers and enrolling in memberships that put us in contact with other businesses in the community.
I have spent most of my time wrapping gifts. Not bad, just unbalanced.
That, and I should probably think of getting into the habit of reaching out to local news outlets with press releases about products we have that would make great gifts for upcoming holidays.
Pulling people in the door is always a challenge for small, new, unknown business. Anyone who has been here knows how incredibly lucky we got with the location, but it’s still up to me to drive traffic, ultimately. I was kind of able to get away with it for the first month, and maybe it will work in December, but there’s 12 months in the year and 10 years we have in the lease, so we are going to have to rely on something more than novelty and people walking by.
What’s a gift shop without a pile of gifts?
Anyway, things are starting to come together around here. It’s nice having done this all before. Christmas is an intimidating time— it’s the biggest month of the year— and the winter that follows is long and slow. Ultimately my goal this year is to learn how I can do it better next year. Mistakes are inevitable, so is biting off more than I can chew. It will all work out in the end— I’m just so excited that we actually made it in time.
