As an entrepreneur, you will sometimes find yourself having to face fears that you didn’t even know existed, and for me, one of those was organizing my first pop-up shop. I had suddenly lost my job one Monday morning, and just as I was thinking of what to do next, a friend told me about a pop-up shop event; that was to hold that Saturday and he suggested that I participate. 

At first, I thought of turning the suggestion down and holding onto my money. I mean, I just lost my job, and I was pretty anxious about investing all of my money in a pop-up shop that I had no prior experience in and with so little time to prepare for. However, my friend encouraged me to take a chance, so I managed to shove my fears aside and started to plan for the event.

The venue was a small space in a basement beauty salon, which was to be shared by six vendors, and I worried it wouldn’t be spacious enough. But since I had decided I was going to give it a shot, I went ahead discussed it with my daughter, who is also the co-owner of “Toni Buchanan llc”.

We started by setting some goals that we would like to accomplish, which included brand awareness and customer engagement. Then we quickly drew up a budget and made a list of all that we would need for the event and immediately purchased the items that would come by mail

(before I could change my mind. Lol).

We were lucky to have had some clutch purses which were sewn the previous week, as there was not enough time to start sewing a new batch. So, all we had to do was get ready the other items we needed to set up an amazing pop-up shop and make the event a success. On the day of the event we packed our bags and headed for the venue, I was so excited about everything, I forgot all about my initial anxiety. Our small quaint space had a vibrant energy, I was quite impressed by how much the other vendors were friendly and helpful.

As I looked around the room, I was overwhelmed with joy at the laughter and smiles on everyone’s face and was proud to be a part of it. It was a great pleasure to meet all those interesting people that attended, as well as connect and sell our elegant clutch purses to new customers who were eager to give instant feedbacks on what they loved and what they would like us to do differently. My daughter and co-owner made the very first sale, while I sat in the lobby taking a break. She handled everything so perfectly that after the first sale, more sales followed, and our first customer eventually became a regular customer.

At the end of the day, the event, which was a huge success, gave me a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment that helped me to continue on the entrepreneurship path. So, far, being an entrepreneur has made me face fears I didn’t even know existed, and over the past few months, I have become a pretty strong cookie, who is now working hard to create a successful online store.