Lessons learnt from having a 'Pop Up' store

{Images by Cath Connell from Leaf. Paper for Life}

If you are a regular to The Haby Goddess blog & Facebook page you will be well aware that last week  Kate from Hug Me Harry and myself rented a vacant shop in Emerald, Victoria and transformed it into a pop up store.

Now that my office/warehouse is almost back to normal with stock nicely put back into their place, I want to share with you some of the lessons learnt over the past week.  What worked, what didn't and some words of advice. 

Pick your partner wisely.

And I did! Kate and I worked beautifully together and I couldn't of asked for a more hands on partner that gave me the support and inspiration I needed to get through the week. You will be spending a lot of time together so you need to get along, be on the same page in terms of direction, have the same outcome goals and be able to share the heavy workload.

Time frame

Pop up shops are not something you can plan too far in advance.  Landlords are not going to commit to one weeks rent 6-8 weeks in advance in case they secure a permanent tenant.  You will generally have only a two week lead in time before opening.  So once you commit you need to get your skates on!

Setting a budget

There are no guarantees for anything in business.  While Kate & I had wonderful success this time round, who knows what the outcome might be next time. So many factors come into play. How much can you afford to lose financially if you don't make any sales? What is your financial goal? How many sales do you need to achieve this? Is that realistic?

A sense of Community

We went into this adventure thinking we would draw mainly from our collective online presence, subscribers, readers & customers with a Melbourne base.  While there were visits from our customer base (and this was most definitely a highlight), 95% of the traffic and customers were local to the store.  Keep this in mind for advertising etc.  

Use other local businesses.  I was surprised at how excited and willing to be involved they were.

{Image by Cath Connell Leaf. Paper for Life}

Things don't always work out as planned

Ok, time to swallow some pride here. 
I planned a crafting workshop to be held on one of the mornings.  It was to get my Haby Goddess customer base involved along with other crafty locals.  But it just didn't happen - no-one came!  I was a little bit devastated. I'm The Haby Goddess, this is my thing, this was something I had really wanted to work but it didn't.  After discussing it with Kate I know why it didn't turn out as planned and I was able to accept this.  Don't let these set backs ruin your week or lessen your mojo.  Suck it up and MOVE ON quickly.

Something has to give

If you look back over this blog, you will see that it's been a little while between posts, my weekly newsletter didn't go out and posts on Facebook were scarce.  I'm a one person show and already struggle to fit everything into my day.  Just because I decide that I'm going to have a pop up store doesn't mean that another 6 hours a day are going to miraculously appear. 

You either need to be super organised (I wasn't) or something has to give - and that's OK, it's worth it.
It didn't end at 5pm when the store door closed.  I still had to come home, tend to my online business that I had been away from, be part of my family & finalise the day at the store.

Now the dust has settled

WOW! We did it.  It was the most awesome few weeks and wouldn't take it back for anything.  There are so many people that helped us along the way - so a big thank you hug & kiss to all of you.

Will we do it again?
You will just have to wait and see xx