My journey to becoming an entrepreneur was a response to feeling my wings were being clipped. I come from a line of entrepreneurs. I wanted to be a writer, but I didn’t believe in myself. I wrote a lot about nature and found my way to a part-time job in a flower shop and then to a second part-time job on a flower farm.
Laying the Foundation
I didn’t have the funds for a brick and mortar storefront, so when I decided to open a floral event business I had to do it from my small apartment. In order to pay rent, I worked overnight shifts as a waitress and morning shifts at an architectural firm. I served a lot of coffee and sent a lot of faxes on a couple hours of sleep but I was living a creative life.
From Single Life to Married with Kids
I met my husband on the flower farm. He’s a financial guy from South Africa and somehow found his way to Jeffersonton, Va. where he found me. We fell in love and settled near the farm.
My parents moved to the town too and as I raised my family my mom kept encouraging me to write. She would cuddle up with my kids in her reading chair and tell them, your mother could have written this. She was the only person I showed my writing too and when she died I knew what I had to do.
The Open Book
The bookshop is the collected dreams of my eclectic life. It is a place where people can come and search for what they want to be, where they can learn more about the things they love, where they can go places they can’t go in real life, and where they can find things for people in need of inspiration. In the center of our kids area is my mother’s reading chair.
All the things I feared evaporated when we opened the store. I found two partners when I didn’t think I could manage motherhood and running a new business.
I find time to write every morning after I drop the kids off at school
and before the shop opens. I finally have an in-person critique group that I put together through the store. It is hard work – but it’s invigorating.
Inspiring the Next Generation My kids have friends up and down Main Street. We share rides and watch out for each other. The kids call each other “Small Business Buddies.”
They dream about working in the shops when they grow older, but mostly they see that it is possible to live life on your own terms if you’re willing to work really hard and trust the journey.
Books That Inspire
Literary works that inspired me are:
- Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
- Daring Greatly by Brene Brown
- The poetry of Mary Oliver
