By Sue DiFranco
Copyright © 2001 Sue DiFranco/Fun Facts Publishing  

Recently we shared with you an email we had received from a retail scrapbook store owner. She said that although she loves her job and looks forward to going to work every day, there were several things that a potential LSS owner needs to consider. To read that article, please click here. 

Shortly after the issue came out, the subject of opening a retail scrapbook store came up on an industry message board. Many people weighed in with the "realities of retail" - what every person needs to think over very carefully before taking the plunge. One person, when responding to the question, "Can anyone say anything positive about owning a scrapbook store?", had a different spin on the topic, and I'd like to share it with you. (I apologize that I do not know who actually wrote the message; I would give credit otherwise.)

"I really do have something positive to say about my store! Since opening this store, I can spring out of bed in the morning, often before the alarm goes off! I don't have to play corporate politics ever again! I don't have to sit there and act like what my male boss is telling me is the most enlightening thing I have ever heard and that he is the first business genius the world has ever known! I don't have to take verbal abuse from the president of the company because I AM the president! I meet wonderful women, children (and even a few men) every day I am open! I listen to compliments every day paid on my selection of papers, the hominess of my store, and the lightness and brightness of it! At least one new customer a day tells me how glad they are that they found me! When I work twelve hour days I am working them for me and not hundreds of stockholders I will never meet, or an owner who doesn't appreciate my long hours and hard work and the care I give his business! And the best part is I do this all without a salary so far, and I wouldn't trade it for any other job because I love what I am doing better than anything I have ever done for a paycheck!

"It's too easy to let ourselves get bogged down in the backorders, wrong orders, sleazy salesmen, long hours, no pay, etc. And I don't believe for one moment that the negativity does not come through to the customer. Every one of us chose to open a retail store for a reason. Maybe we just need to remind ourselves from time-to-time what those reasons were."

After reading that message, we should all take a moment to reflect on how truly lucky we are, no matter what area of the scrapbook industry we are in. Thinking of the positive, especially when the negative is there in your face, taunting you, is tough - but it's also imperative for success and ultimately, peace of mind.

Wishing you all the best of success - however you define it!