Well, for those of you who have been keeping up on our FB Fanpage, you know the latest news already... we are starting our storefront! The last two weeks have been a whirlwind of multiple things falling into place for us. I have been calling it a "God-thing" because all hope was lost of starting this year when we found out about our retaining wall. But I think God used that event for the good. It forced me to think outside of the box on how we could get our storefront. I will just give you the overview here, so you can still get other things done today! Ha!
It basically began by me going to visit a shop in town to see if I could rent some rooms for selling books. I met a super nice lady & she gave me an offer & price to do it. But I just didn't feel that was the right thing to do. So the next day Mike & I drove around Zimmerman & copied down all the phone numbers for the vacant spaces that we wouldn't mind having. Keep in mind that our first choice has always been next to Dunn Bros, but we just couldn't afford it. And we couldn't afford the start-up cost. It is very expensive for a bookstore - all the inventory, shelving, etc.
On Saturday, we made a call to see a place right on Hwy 169. It was very nice & the owner was willing to work with us to get the price affordable. I loved it & we could make it work. Well, Mike said that we needed to talk to the owner of Dunn Bros (who also owns the whole building) & see if he could come down in price at all. That was our first choice & an awesome location - the best in town! All of a sudden our dream was coming true! Me, the cautious one, was well, cautious! I was driving Mike crazy! : )
So on Monday night, Mike met with Matt, the owner. That night Matt came down in price enough so we could afford it! Mike had his little spread sheet & popped in all the numbers & it was working!!! Could this really be happening??? We really could do this! So all of a sudden, I started to think outside of the box again (look out when that happens).
How could we make the startup cost work??? Used bookstore fixtures that were really nice, start our inventory with half gently-used books & half new books & product, & perhaps do without an inventory system right away. Could this be falling into place? This was starting to work. In the mean time, Mike was busy bidding on bookcases & stuff in the auction. We had to figure out how high we would go, cuz there was some joker (I mean "person") bidding too & the price was going up. Again, Miss Cautious, was well, cautious! Could it be? In the meantime, Mike got a line of credit from our bank. Amazing!!!!!!! Now you can imagine why were weren't sleeping at night! This WAS falling into place.
Thursday night came & Mike was home to do the bidding at the close of the auction. We were able to get everything we needed & also some other display fixtures & stuff too! YEA!!! I had told Mike that I wanted to see the space one more time before I said yes. So we arranged it with Matt. There were no negatives, but I just needed to be sure...one more time. I would make the the decision Friday - one way or the other.
Friday morning I woke up. God & I had a little conversation. This was the time. All the obstacles were taken out of place. All my questions were answered. We could afford to do this. Now was the time. God was bringing all the pieces together. I got out of bed & went downstairs & told Mike - YES!!!!!! I felt like crying & throwing up all at the same time. How exciting was this!!! My dream was unfolding before my eyes.
It was the birth of a bookstore!
"Never interrupt someone doing what you said couldn't be done" - Amelia Earhart
Look at all the things that came together from so very many different places. How absolutely awesome!
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