Taking the plunge

May 16, 2021

Written by Katherine Thomas

You would think that the scary part would have been quitting my full time job, but no. Or when my card declined for a $2 cookie from McAlisters, again no. The scary part for me was signing a 3 year lease on a space that was 8x the size of the old one. At that point, it felt real. And with so many ups and downs, trials and errors, and just general uncertainty- it felt like I was signing a birth certificate for my new child. There was so going back. I was committed to giving this at least 3 years of my life, whether it sinks or floats.

 

There were so many variables. Was it possible to fill the space? Is it bad business to change locations 4 months into business? Could the business afford higher rent along with the utilities and payroll? There were so many doubts. But the thought of being able to expand- not having to bring racks outside, having an actual parking lot, having the space to expand the curvy selection.... all of that just sounded too good to pass up.

 

There were carpets. There were pink walls. There was not enough inventory, and there weren’t racks to even put anything on. And remember, I’m trying to stay out of debt, so very little budget. Thank God for family and friends. And Pinterest for cheap display hacks! 🤪

 

I joked about this feeling like signing a birth certificate, but in all honesty- Treasure Tree does feel like my child. There are rewarding moments, moments that I have been scared out of my mind, and moments where I feel like this is the most demanding child of them all. It has not been what I expected at all. It has been a lot harder than I ever thought it would be, but it has also fulfilled my life in ways that I never dreamed of.

 

Funny story-

(Just remember- I have been learning along the way....and sometimes I don’t make the best decisions, which means I have to learn the hard way.)

 At some point, someone wanted to exchange something but wanted to wait for new arrivals to come in. So, using what I had in front of me, I wrote her store credit down on a piece of notebook paper and assured her I would keep up with it. Well, as this became a regular occurrence, I decided to just keep adding store credits to this piece of torn out notebook paper. I eventually put it in a sleeve protector, because that’s classy, right?

 But anyway- we had finished moving the last of the items out of the teeny tiny store, and had the car loaded down. So much so, that there were fixtures hanging out of the car windows. I had set the store credit paper aside and said “I need to be sure and keep this separated because it’s important.” On the way out the door I decided to just keep it in my hands so I didn’t forget to put it somewhere important in the new store. And then here we are: driving down the road on a beautiful day, breeze blowing in our hair, me thinking about how all my dreams are coming true.... and SWOOP! The store credit paper goes flying out of the window!!! So here I am running down the road after this piece of notebook paper that had a list of 50 peoples “money” on it. 🤦🏻‍♀️ What in the world. Thank goodness it was recovered and that I did not have to explain to 50 people how my only record of their credit was a piece of notebook paper in a very classy page protector. 🤭

 

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