What began as a part-time hobby with a friend in 2008, changed dramatically in May of 2016. Up until that time my friend/business partner and I were operating and maintaining our booth at Chesterdales Home and Garden, a vendor mall in Naples Florida. While we enjoyed the hunting, gathering and displaying, it was always money in and money out, with no real growth or direction.
Then in the summer of 2016 the game changed – 1. I was fired from my job, 2. my business partner moved away from the area, and 3. The owner of the vendor mall I was in passed away unexpectedly.
I was at a crossroads, because there were so many changes coming at me and the booth was not generating any profit. But what I did know is that I loved my booth and the creative environment it provided for me and I absolutely did not want to work 9 to 5 in a job I did not like. I wanted the challenge of growing Pink Moon Market into a full time business and doing it my way. I also knew that I had to give this opportunity my best shot. I longed to combine the knowledge from my wholesale trade years with my love of junking, vintage and coastal design and grow a lucrative business that I was passionate about.
So, to begin that journey, these were my 3 keys that began the process of growing my part time hobby into the business it is today.
Clarity
I knew that I had to get crystal clear about what I wanted for my life and from this business, and WHY I wanted it. I wrote down every single detail of how I wanted the business to look and to feel. What did I want my image to look like, how did I want to be as a business owner, what did I want to focus on, what did I want to sell, who was my ideal customer, what details were important to me, how much did I want to make and most importantly, how did I want to feel when my dreams of this business were realized?
This was not an overnight process, and being a creative it was constantly changing. I wasn’t trying to fit the answers into a mold. I just let my list flow, and then would go back and add and delete each day. What I found is that after about 2 weeks of soul searching and poring over years of notes, the same desires and values kept appearing, and I was able to clearly write down how I wanted my business to look and feel. Once I was clear I went to step 2.
Commit
The second part of my process was committing to my dream and really meaning it. I was committed to making this business work and cutting off all other possibilities. This is easier when you get to the heart of WHY you are pursuing your dream. My big why was freedom – daily freedom and financial freedom and my other why was happiness. I knew that I wanted to love my daily life and not just my weekends or my free time. I wanted what I was passionate about to provide me an abundant life and to provide joy.
Believe
Finally, I knew I had to believe. I had to believe not only in my dream, but also to believe that I deserved to have what I set my heart upon. Belief was the glue that cemented it all together for me. Belief was earned with every step along the way- when I would take the little steps and see the momentum building, when people came into my life that had faith in me, and when I began to feel a rock solid knowing that I was moving in the right direction.
My dream didn’t happen overnight, but little by little the pieces fell into place. Being fired was a gift because it forced me to make decisions, which led to the Clarity of what I wanted. During the process I worked a part time job so that I could roll all of the profits from my sales back into more product for my booth. I put all of my extra time into creating displays for my booth and keeping it fresh, and my sales kept increasing. Then the cherry on top – Chesterdales Home and Garden was purchased by new owners, who were as passionate about this business as I was. As I lived my truth, and kept my faith, synchronicities were everywhere and the dream I had in 2016 came into fruition.
