Opening a pop up shop in St Ives was probably the bravest move yet…….but without a doubt one of the best!
Remember in my previous blog I talked about how scared I was about opening a ‘Pop up’ shop? What was I scared about?!!! Absolutely nothing is the answer to that. The response has been amazing and I cannot thank you enough for all the support and encouragement.
Ed worked hard to move my work benches from the storage unit and turn them into make shift shelving and storage, putting some new tops on them so we could arrange and display our lovely products. We utilised some pallets and made a great centre display for the middle of the shop. This is my favourite part because its at perfect eye level from the road and great for arranging colours and collections, not to mention its a cheap way of making something look good.
After working hard to get the shop looking more ‘shop’ like and Covid safe, we were ready. When do we open the doors? Will people like it? questions I asked myself over and over again!
Sunday 11th October we opened our doors for the first time and haven’t looked back since. What an absolutely amazing response. We opened at Midday, it was Sunday so we weren’t expecting much. How wrong we were, it was great and everyone who passed the window stopped and looked, everyone commented on how lovely the shop looked and what gorgeous products we have.
We were buzzing and couldn’t of been happier with our decision. We opened throughout the week, some days were 10-2pm, some where longer. Remember I still have my own day job, 2 girls, 2 school runs and just ‘normal’ life to juggle…. whatever ‘normal’ life is these days. Next up was half term and what a week that was. We were so busy everyday that it almost felt surreal. Never did we ever expect things to go in the direction they have in such a short space of time. We had deliveries arriving daily to top up stock and we soon found out what people liked the most. If we had to pick a best seller, it would be our Mojave collection, everybody LOVES it and I must say its fast become my favourite too. Available in 5 colours and 3 choices – Mini planters, vases & hanging planters. https://newlynmaids.co.uk/?s=mojave
It was pretty tough juggling the girls and my day job during half term but with the help of my Sister & my Mum & Ed, we got there and I cant thank them enough for their help. It was really lovely to see all the support from local people as well as the tourists. Of course its all new and people want to know what your doing and what you sell. Opening the shop has also given our website the boost we wanted too, orders started to trickle thru and alongside the shop, things are good and people are getting to know who we are and what we do.
And then came #LOCKDOWN2! So on Wednesday 4th November with a heavy heart we closed the doors on our little ‘Pop up’ shop. We were gutted, we’d just got started and had the best 2 and half weeks ever……. and then boom! But in all honesty its nothing we hadn’t expected and mentally we had prepared that at some point it would happen.
So……. our main focus now was to boost our website as much as possible. We didn’t expect miracles, we knew we were far to new on the online market to be able to get enough orders to make up for the closure of the shop, but we didn’t give up hope, we set to work. Social media is the biggest pathway to our website, so that’s where the hard work goes in. We joined a couple of virtual Christmas market pages, put all our effort into our own social media platforms and that’s where the magic happened. The support for local businesses is more important now than ever and the support we’ve had has been for nominal. From the evening our doors closed the website picked up straight away, by the following week we were seeing orders in excess of 20 a day……. all of a sudden we had gone from a daily trickle to a full blown production line.
#Lockdown2 has seen our business grow and grow and we can’t thank everyone enough for their continued support. We are incredibly grateful for every order, however big or small. We are now posting 5 days a week and running a click and collect service too. For many local businesses the news of another lockdown has been devastating and left a lot of people fighting for survival. If we could give you any advice at all it would be the follwing…… Don’t give up, Believe in yourself and if you have a dream, follow it! Life’s to short to have regrets!
