What I learned While Opening Our New Storefront

Things I learned while converting our workshop into a store front. This is not really a do’s and don’ts of steps to follow when trying to open a brick and mortar location. By all means this is a brand new thing to us and some of the paint hasn’t even dried on our walls yet… but I did learn a few things along the way that I thought I would share that worked for me.

First, believe it or not, it was fun. No, the heavy lifting and long nights are not what I’m talking about. But the experience of it all is. The ability to be creative again in a different way. Usually my creativity pours out onto the easel. This time I was able to channel that creativity into how I wanted my business to look. We all know the saying, “First impressions are everything”. Being a marine life artist I knew I wanted to go with nautical as the theme. The moment you step into our store you are immediately greeted with rustic, coastal hues and imagery (And maybe a little reggae music from time to time).

Second, I got rid of clutter. In order to properly imagine this space I had to get rid of the “junk”. Our reimagined space was pretty much a storage facility for things we did not need. One of the things you learn early when opening a production type business is storage doesn’t make money… In fact, it costs you money. I managed to clear out the entire space I needed for the store front. Everything was moved out of view so I could get a clear picture of how to set things up. So I learned that in order to get it just right sometimes you have to start from scratch or remove the things in your life that are “unnecessary storage”.

Third, The little details matter. When we stepped back from our final touches of paint, sweeping and placing artwork on the walls it was still missing something. It took a little while but we realized that four freshly painted walls and a bare floor weren’t all that welcoming.