It's our 50th day party next week!
Looking back, it's been a dense time. I've been in the shop 6 days a week since Sept 26 when we opened. Furniture has moved and things have been rearranged as I shuffle old items and new into their temporary places. People have come in, and they've even come back! We've had busy days, and we've had slow days. And, I've bought a lot of inventory.
Some of the new products coming in soon! From a tea library to a crossbody bag made with vegan apple leather
There's still a long way to go, and I wish I could tell how much or if any progress is being made. For as much as I've done, there's more that I haven't. The blanket racks aren't up still. Most of my e-mails go unanswered. The back of the shop is still in disarray. I should be reaching out to the local community more. I want to do an annual "Beans & Blankets" donation collection. The website looks nice, but is never as up-to-date and cohesive as I want.
Perhaps the worst offense is that sometimes my inventory is not correct. Between the move from Annapolis to my house, then my house to Bethesda, and then the long duration between moving in and opening, inventory was a mess. Sometimes the problem was not knowing where an item was, not knowing if it was even around at all, maybe it expired since the last time I looked at it, and maybe it became damaged in the moves. It's 85-95% fixed, but man that 5% seems to be exactly what sells.
It's important to me to be a dependable resource, and I can see where I am not. I try to keep all the plates spinning, but a lot of them end up chipping. A lot of this stems from being new, being a bit out of practice. I'm grateful for the general patience people seem to have for me, but my aim is to get better.
We're less than 50 days into a 3,650 day lease...
Yes, Green & Bean has been around since late 2022, but having a physical shop with a real lease and having to build it up from scratch ~ this is all new to me. I studied journalism (hence the blog, the inventory news, the brand profiles, etc), not business, not retail, not economics. That being said, buying, packing wrapping, shipping, talking to customers, planning and hosting events ~ it's a lot, but by no means impossible. Fundamentally, my weaknesses are time management and not knowing what I don't know.
The party is this Saturday, and my goal this week is to get the place spick and span, ready for early gifting! I do hope people show up or it's going to be just me and a couple dozen vegan donuts.
