c o m m e r c i a l
My husband did a commercial for the store for me! Isn't that sweet! He is such a pro.
I wanted to link it to the blog for you!
I know my last post was about really what is the Modern Cottage Company.
Since I was going to post the commercial, I figured I would go a little more into detail about the store and how I got here.
I should first of say I never intended to have a store. I was a blogger and painter. People started to notice my work and I started to get custom requests. This really grew my business. I had cash from custom jobs that I put right into merchandise for my flea market type shows and I sold right out of my home studio. I would sell at the shows and buy even more merchandise to sell at home. Three years later it is pretty much still how I operate. I have very little debt in my business. In fact, the banker that is working with me on a new point of sale system for the store, was shocked when I told him how little debt I have in it. I make money I plug it right back into the store. And sometimes take some home. After all I work 60 hours a week I should get a little something.
I am a bit of a firecracker. I work really hard and almost every day of the week. And I have done so for four years. I don't remember a week in the last four years that I haven't painted something or ten things. But I love it.
I was offered a storefront several years ago for six months from a program SpaceWorks Tacoma. I had applied over a year before that and I had forgotten about it. I was so surprised and I said YES! And then I spent two months finding and painting for this little storefront. I decided to call my first store The Modern Cottage Vintage Market and I had at least six others with me. After the six months were up, I was digging the retail thing and a few of us decided to open a cooperative store called Poppy and Company. Poppy for the happy colors of our furnishings and Company because it was a store with more than one business or brand running it. I always felt Poppy was the house that MCC lived in. After all, Poppy was a shell that the cooperative owners had their businesses. We kept our brands and finances each totally separate under this house. I kept building my business over the years. MCC was always mine.
That being said, I didn't really entertain the idea of owning a store called the Modern Cottage Company again. Until this particular storefront became available. And I just knew it was right for my family. Saint and my kids were the number one reason I decided to take the new store and run it all by myself. It was also the right time I think for me. I had a few years under my belt, a really great group of consigners that were with MCC at Poppy. I was still growing. It was time for me to do it on my own. I didn't realize it until I had my own store that it was a bit of a relief to concentrate totally on MCC instead of constantly promoting both Poppy and MCC at the same time. But if we are really looking at it in terms of a job- Poppy was a cooperative, a name on a storefront. No one actually owned it. MCC was me. I named it, no one gave it to me, I built it, I didn't buy, I grew it, I didn't inherit it. And if I am being totally honest, I am really proud of myself and MCC. Anyway, I get the question a lot of what MCC is and what Poppy is so I figured I would answer it here!
This new store was a delightful surprise built on 4 years of hard work. An even bigger surprise is how much I am enjoying this phase. As a merchandiser, designer and painter to have total control of a space is just a dream. And the team with me here feels a bit serendipitous as well. It's a happy crew in a happy store. I literally feel like I won the lottery. Even with an enormous amount of responsibility and pressure that I have with this store, it doesn't feel like work.
So I am hoping this happy phase stays around for a while, I am really enjoying it.
