March has become one of my favorite months of the year. The days start growing longer again, the sun is shining a little brighter and more often and everyone starts to sneak out of their winter slumber. I don't know about you, but I feel like we go into hibernation during the winter, We did have a lot of travel the past month both personally and professionally which may have contributed to extra hibernation when we were at home. I generally feel happier when it starts warming up. Anyone in my life will tell you that I despise being cold, that I always have a big blanket or sweater to stay warm. I'm 100% a warm weather girl at heart and seem to come alive at the signs of spring. Any excuse to open my sunroof and windows for a fresh and sunny breeze. Very soon will my glass of red wine in the evenings turn into my signature tequila Paloma. Do you change your cocktail of choice by season? Recently, Patrick and I dined at a local Italian restaurant and enjoyed this Rosso so it's my current wine crush. Since we are working on building a wine menu for the new store opening in June, I'm starting to take serious notes on which wines we love! I've been thinking recently that I would love to focus on carrying a lot of woman-owned vineyards. I would love to know if you have a favorite! Working on this new project is definitely once I'm excited about.
Speaking of new projects, let's talk about our new headquarters. This journey started in November of 2022. Our search for a new location was prompted by many contributing factors. We outgrew our space a couple of years ago once the clothing line really took off. Our precious retail store has been our home for 8 years and I'm definitely a little bittersweet moving. But with growth comes new opportunities and relocating to a facility that better suits our needs as a business and to provide better efficiency for our team. I remember calling my realtor about 4 years ago with a vision that we thought might be impossible to find in Savannah - especially in town convenient for our customers. My desire was to somehow combine an expanded retail store, creative and sales offices, warehouse and fulfillment center all in one. It took a couple of years but Katie rose to the challenge. What landed in my inbox one morning with 'this just hit the market' as the title ended up becoming our forever home. Thankfully, I could easily envision the diamond in the rough of an old car dealership. What began as a bright red and yellow eye sore, would become a pristine white, gold and black grown up version of our shoppe. I quickly hopped in the car to drive by the space and started to imagine the possibilities before even walking in the door. By the time I made an offer, I had the entire space designed in my head. My hopes and dreams for our new location were finally coming to fruition. Anticipation, excitement, nervousness, apprehension and second thoughts filled my head as I signed away on the dotted line. Right when we thought everything was finalized, the rug was pulled out from under us. We would learn that the realtor on the other end had been entertaining another offer without disclosing and abruptly accepted their offer. My dreams were shattered as I knew in my gut this was our building.
Katie called me that evening and she told me to hold tight. To wait it out because she had a GUT feeling the other deal would fall though and wasn't even sure why. That it was something she felt and she just knew without a shadow of a doubt that this was supposed to be our new home. She told me she had one of our Joy Cards hanging on her vanity. She shared that it was the quote from my grandmother, "What's for you, won't pass you by.". It was exactly what I needed to hear - Nana always said this to me when things weren't going my way or if I was in turmoil about a decision. It's like my Nana peeked out from heaven and spoke right to me.
Exactly two months later, my phone rang and it was Katie. "I told you!" she said. The other offer had fallen through and our time was now. It was all for reasons I might not ever understand but she was right. After a few months of negotiations, meetings with contractors and banks, I finally closed on 2238 East Victory Drive in May. I had the keys to the future of our business.
Let's just say I've learned a lot since that closing date. Decisions regarding construction, design, materials, colors, finishes, etc have filled my days alongside running the growing business at hand. I feel so fortunate to have such a great team on the business side, construction and my family. I most certainly could not do it without each and every one of them.
As a business owner, decisions fill our days constantly. I was just speaking on a podcast this week for She Said | She Said and we talked about decision making. In the early days of my business, I can recall what felt like the hardest decision I would ever make...hiring my first employee. Since that moment, the amount of decisions every day have significantly increased in both severity and variety. Who knew that life would fast forward to a day where decision making involved a building purchase, the color of a zipper and approving a pitch from my team all in a normal work day. I will honestly say that I'm a different person now than was then. Being a business owner has been the most fulfilling work I've done in my career. I've been able to grow my freedom as a creative, gain confidence as a boss and designed an intentional life of balance between work and play. I encourage you to take that leap of faith if you're on the fence and there are some great tips on the podcast from this week!
As we work towards our grand opening in the new location, I welcome you to follow along via social. I've been sharing some of the design and construction process behind the scenes. Our new home will be full of color, inspiration and a new place for community - both for our team and local Savannah. My favorite new addition will be The Joy Club - our in-shoppe wine bar and event space where we will welcome our community of customers for pop-ups, wine tastings, classes and family events. Bringing our favorite people together to 'invite joy'.
We hope you will join us.
Until next month,
Emily
Emily