October 4, 2019
I pulled into the parking lot and remember thinking to myself, “What did I get myself into?” Amy, my best friend (pictured left in the photo), had offered to travel and help me with this new venture I plunged into head first. When I parked my suburban next to travel trailers PULLING trailers I panicked. All I had was an SUV loaded to the top with odds and ends from my home so I could assemble a makeshift temporary showroom at Dallas Market (gulp). I was there to launch a product my aunt and I came up with. Many all nighters and a few tears along the way went into the crafting, marketing, and launch of this little product.
The building was big. Walking in, the smell along with the cold air circulating from oversized revolving doors only made my body tense up more. I was excited but so very frightened. We were rookies on steroids. As we walked down the entryway and landed in the hub of the building, our heads slowly raised as we looked up to the 12th floor, where we needed to be and set up. Now what? The building was an ongoing wrapping of stores and displays; I had no idea what we needed to do. After a lot of roaming around aimlessly, dancing in elevators, joy riding on dollies, we finally landed in our empty, 100 square foot spot. When the show opened and people began to flood in left and right I immediately went into panic mode, sweaty armpits and all. I still remember Amy telling me, “As long as the WHIMZIES aren’t sweating, we are good.” I went home after that show with a handful of wholesale orders that stretched the lovely map of USA. It was an amazing (and exhausting) experience.
So here I am today, flashing forward from that 7 hour trip to Dallas. Honestly speaking? I have been trying to write this blog post for the last several days, intending to kick off October 1st with this lovely accomplishment. I have started this blog post over too many times to count and sit in my bed here at midnight still racking my brain. Ten years ago I started a little sidekick of a business. I have managed to build my product lineup into a multitude of items designed and handmade by yours truly. I was given a gift. A God-given talent that was given to generations before me and taught to me by my mother. Designing and sewing is part of my history, my passion, dream, and now, my full-time job.
So here’s to this month when my little dream turns 10 years old. A small product, The Whimzie, turned into a full time business. I have had a lot of “no’s” in the last decade; it hasn’t always been good. So many things I aspired for my business but God chose a different route. Whether it was the approval of a patent, the closing of my permanent showroom in Dallas, a brick and mortar, or landing myself a big wholesale account, He opted another direction for me. I fight hard, because all of you entrepreneurs out there know the battle is tough. And while it doesn’t make a million, it’s worth million to me.
xoxo
Kimberly