Better late than never I guess. 2018 started off rocky for me and my business. More like it hit rock bottom and I had to devise a new plan to rebuild. Which is what I have been doing the past two months- rebuilding my business plan. Rebuilding anything requires a lot of planning, but one good thing about RE-building is you can fix all the things that you didn't like the first go around.
If you have been following me for any length of time you know that I travel and sell at antique and vintage shows all over the eastern part of the US. These shows are mostly hours and hours away from home. My life was picking, cleaning, organizing, pricing, packing, traveling, unpacking, setting up, breaking down... and the cycled continued. And I did this pretty much on my own. All while running a design business, blogging for you guys, being a wife, a dog mom, a daughter, a grand daughter, a friend, and just being Kayla. And every single character in that last sentence was failing.
I would get so tickled when people would send me messages asking if I had a crew that worked for me. My mother-in-law would travel with me and help me set up, and occasionally Austin (who works a full time job as an engineer) would help me at the warehouse or use vacation days to travel with me. But all the collecting, cleaning, pricing, packing, driving, pulling the trailer, and styling was all me. A lot of times I would leave early on a Wednesday morning, get back home after midnight Sunday, unpack and repack the trailer Monday and Tuesday, to just leave out on Wednesday again during show peak season. I felt like a traveling gypsy living out of a hotel. And if you know this homebody you know I do not have a gypsy soul.
Please do not think for one minute I am saying I hate doing shows because I absolutely love them. Or do not think I will never do another one in my life. It's just the being away from home, missing my family, and missing out on important life events that had me feeling really down last year. So here is what it boiled down to. I committed to way too many shows last year and overextended myself emotionally and physically. Back to back to back shows and traveling nonstop led me down a path of depression and anxiety. But I felt too invested to step away or step back. I had a warehouse full of inventory, I had loyal shoppers who wanted me at all the shows, I had friends who put on shows who wanted me there... At the end of my 2017 show season I was in a dark place so I prayed for God to show me where he wanted to take my business.
In late December right around Christmas I learned I was losing my warehouse as the owner broke contract and sold the building out from under me. Great Christmas present right?! I was devastated. I searched and searched for a new space with no luck. Then I realized this was the answer to my prayers. God was telling me it was time to go.
So in January I sold 5,000 sq foot of inventory I have been collecting for years and I walked away. I have full trust in Gods plan for me and in that moment I felt peace for the first time in a long time.
Interior design and sharing my designs with others has always been my passion. Even when doing shows my favorite part is designing and styling the booth. People would always feel bad when they bought a big display piece in my booth- I would look at them and say don't feel bad I'm happy because I get to restyle. And by scaling back the "show side" of my business I can finally focus on designing, blogging, and sharing my passion with others.
I will still be doing some shows but instead of a full schedule I will only be doing a select few. This will allow me to pick inventory for each specific show and be able to store the inventory in my workshop I have at my house instead of having a huge warehouse. I will also be home a lot more!
I had felt this way for so long and had thought about stepping back but I felt as though it would be the end of a dream. But what I didn't realize is it is not the end of a dream but the beginning of so many other opportunities.
I just felt as though I owed everyone an explanation and wanted to let you know what you can expect from me in 2018. I didn't want people to think I had given up on a dream. I just realized I could never fully commit to any part of my business simply because I had too many parts to my business. So this year you will find me at a FEW shows, designing more, and blogging more. I have some super exciting things to share when the time comes and I hope I can offer my readers more of a reason to keep coming back and reading here on the blog. Thank you for providing an audience for me to share my passion with.
With love,
