Thea - #01

I first arrived at the shop yesterday and I've been working on it since to get it ready for today. Upstairs was almost sorted anyway, I just added some personal touches like my gramophone. It'll be nice for the kids to have some place to go when I'm working and they're not at school. It has an opening corridor, small bathroom and a kitchen/living area; it also gives me access to the balcony which will be lovely in the summer. I was going to add a bed for if I stay overnight but I think I'll just sleep on the sofa; can't be too uncomfortable.

Of course the main thing I focused on yesterday was the shop itself. When I got there it just had a couple of bookcases and mirrors. I liked the feature wall already behind the till so I didn't change it like I was planning on but the rest of the shop did have to be decorated and stocked. Therefore, most of my day yesterday consisted of building 'flat-packs', organizing displays and hanging up pictures.

At the moment our stock is antiques and other collectibles but this will probably change at some point in the future. We have 2 tables of stock, a wall of pictures and illustrations and the bookcases. I also added a sofa just to make the place more sociable. I am really happy with how it turned out.

I took one last walk around the shop to check everything was okay and ready before calling in my first member of staff, Emilee Fink.

Half-an-hour later she walked through the door smiling and in the staff uniform that I mailed to her yesterday. She looked around the shop as I walked over to talk to her.

T : Hi! Are you Emilee?

E : Yes I am. You must be the famous Thea?

I laughed. I liked Emilee already.

T : Yes. That is I.

E : The shop looks lovely.

T : Thank you. Today will probably be a long day, it being opening day...

E : No problem.

She breathed out heavily and scanned the stock.

E : Thank you for hiring me.

I smiled and told her that her job for this morning was to answer customer's questions which she didn't seem to mind. Then I officially opened 'Thea' for the first time. It wasn't long before customers were coming in. Both me and Emilee were doing sales as nothing needed restocking or cleaning yet.

I decided to go and talk to a woman, I think she said her name was Nancy, and persuade her to buy. As this was my first attempt, I kept it simple asking if there was anything in particular she was looking for, what her price range was etc.

T : Need any help there?

N : Just browsing at the moment.

I tried to push her further towards a a sale but she was unimpressed.

Nevertheless, Emilee must have salvaged my failure and persuaded Nancy to buy.

Later on, whilst I was restocking, I saw Emilee chatting to and ringing up person after person. I made a mental note to praise her for this later on.

The rest of the day went fairly calmly and I fortunately did get some time to chat to Emilee.

T : You're doing really well.

E : Thanks Thea. It's really busy isn't it.

T : Yeah I know, it's great. I'm so glad people are coming, I was going to do a marketing campaigning but I don't think we need it.

E : Sorry Thea, I need to go and ring that person up.

T : Off you go then...

At 5 o'clock though it was time to close. Emilee and I watched as the people flooded the street from the shop and I thanked her for today.

I couldn't be happier with how the day had gone, the customers were happy, the stock was sold, my one member of staff was happy and I had met so many new people. I stayed in the shop long after Emilee left just walking around looking at everything. I can't quite believe it's mine. Owning a shop shop was one of my childhood dreams and now it's a reality. I don't know whether, as time goes by, I'll take on a more managerial role or whether I'll stick to being on the floor and talking to people. I love doing both but I can imagine being on the floor will be hard when I've got kids at the shop. I guess I'll wait and see.

3 hours after the shop closed, I finally head home and think about how lucky I am...