Sometimes growth feels like a big hug.
This year was a year of refinement. The kind of building systems that creates security. The kind of strategic planning and team cross-training that feels like a group hug. At least to a small business owner like me.
On the outside, this year may have seemed like business as usual – another year of fun content, all the secondhand finds, new artisans, and amazing community events.
But this year, we dug deep internally, to find new ways as a business to grow – the maturity kind of growth. And I’m so proud of myself and my team for doing the work this year.
To not make this business bigger exactly, but stronger.
I still have dreams and goals to grow in external ways – more locations, in more cities, a bigger reach for this brand. And I still believe, in time, those long-held dreams will come true. Maybe not in the ways I envisioned them, but in ways that will be so perfectly aligned with my business, with myself, with the team.
This year, I celebrated 10 years of owning this business. A huge personal milestone.
And in those 10 years, especially the last few years, I’ve gained this confidence as a business owner, as a boss, as the CFSO (Chief of Figuring Shit Out)… a confidence in knowing that failure isn’t the absence of fulfilling some lofty goal or vision. Failure is in ignoring the little victories, or the kinks that need straightening, or the rest that needs taking, along the way to that big lofty goal.
It really is the journey, not the destination.
Standing in the moment of a big milestone is wonderful. But for me, success is more about remembering all the little steps and hurdles and trips and leaps and twirls and stubbed toes that brought you to this moment.
I may not have grown the business in the ways I thought I would by now, but I am so damn proud of the ways I've grown as a business owner and as a boss. I'm so damn proud of the team that's grown alongside me this year, in the culture we've created as a team. I'm so damn proud of the community we've created in our shop, with our neighbors, with Charlottesville and beyond. I'm proud of our fundraisers and our events and the way we run this business knowing exactly who we are and not apologizing for it.
This year, I'm just really damn proud. Because while it may not be the biggest benchmark year in terms of meeting those big lofty goals, it's been the year that's felt like a group hug. And that is the biggest success I could ever ask for.
The pride I feel most is knowing that we're not done yet. We're still growing, still evolving, still becoming. And I honestly can't wait to see where this journey takes me and takes this business next.
Together, we keep growing. Together, we keep going, darling. ✨