PERSONAL

I started this blog because I wanted people to know about the personal part of running a business. The good, the bad and the ugly of it all from an owner’s perspective. Now, I find that I hold back what I want to say because I don’t want it to come across as too personal. What if someone doesn’t like what I say? What if they don’t like what I am doing with BVTC? How will it affect my business? But how can it not be personal when it has taken blood, sweat, and lots of tears to get this store going?!? For us, BVTC’s uniqueness is because we have made it a more comfortable and personal experience for people. Personal is a core tenet of BVTC.

Unless you are a business owner, most people have no idea how hard it is to open and run a small business. Especially in the retail environment we are currently in. Customers do not realize that while the costs are going up in their households, they are also going up for businesses. I am constantly on the search for new, unique products/vendors. It has become increasingly difficult because they either want you to spend a fortune to carry a few of their items, or they are flat out charging retail for their products and calling it wholesale. The frustration is real for both customers and us business owners. Lately, there has been announcements of local businesses closing their doors. Panic starts to creep into my head a bit. Thoughts of “what happened?”, “did something go wrong or were they just ready to be done?” bounce around in my head. It is the nature of retail, established businesses close and new ones open. However, the recent ones are more prominent in our community. That hits a little harder for a newbie business like us. If they didn’t make it, can we? What does it take to make it in this retail environment now days?

All I can say is that we will continue to be as authentic to ourselves as possible with this little store we created. If there is some retail formula to all this…I am not sure it is working for people anymore. Perhaps there is something to being more personal? Repeatedly, we are told how warm and inviting the store environment is. Comfortable, homey, and unlike other stores are words we hear often. When you walk into BVTC, it IS personal to us. A dream gets to be realized. The connections we get to make with customers who are finding us for the first time are quite frankly awe-inspiring. As a business owner, I feel honored and humbled every single time someone steps in the door. For me, personal means connection. I think we need more of it these days. So, to wrap it up, we will keep making our business personal. To us, that connection is vital.