The Beauty Bar Challenge

Can you hear my sigh of relief coming across your computer? Friday morning 10 a.m. and we were open for business!  I couldn’t believe that it was finally here, the day we have been working so hard to get to.  Not only is this day very important to Tom and I, but the health and the longevity of the business 5 - 10 years from now is equally, if not more so important.
 
It was a whirlwind of a day right from the get go. Shoppers were at the mall at 10 a.m. ready to shop and see all of the new stores at this new section of the mall.  We met many new people that were first time customers to The Beauty Bar stores, this was incredibly exciting for us. Tom and I knew that opening in a mall would introduce us to a new world of customers that we have never had before.  Some people only shop boutiques and some people only shop at the mall– now we can appease both of those kinds of shoppers.  We had a number of our vendors in the store as well to represent their brands and introduce them to all of these wonderful new customers. I was surprised by the amount of customers that were men.  We had more men shoppers on Friday than what we have on a usual day and that is great to see.  I have always wanted the stores to be welcoming to men and women.
 
Customers Are Why We Are Here
Not only did we have so many new faces walk in the door, we had many of our loyal customers come in to support our growth and be there for our big day.  You can not even imagine how much this means to us.  To see people that have been customers for 7 years come in to shop and say hello and wish us good luck and see the new space–it was absolutely wonderful!  I was honestly amazed at how many of our long time customers came out to give their well wishes on our new venture.  Some of them that couldn’t come even sent flowers!  Yes, customers sent us flowers and some dropped off bottles of champagne.  I am touched every day by people that I meet.  I am truly blessed.

 
A Long Day
Tom and I and the entire team worked an incredibly long day.  Tom was literally at the store until 2 a.m. the night before and got back to the store at 6:30 Friday morning and he powered through the entire day.  You would never know that he was going on no sleep–I don’t know how he does it.  The girls took a very quick lunch break, which didn’t last very long and they were right back at it on the sales floor.  Not a sole complained about the long day or the long hours they worked all week - they got the job done and I am very proud of all the hard work that they put into it.
 
Final Thoughts On The Day
We had a great day sales wise, we met many new people, we introduced these people to many new products and most importantly these people left our store feeling good.   Hopefully we will continue to meet many new people that will want to build long lasting relationships with us and will come to us time and time again for their skin care, make-up, and gift needs.

It is time to get back to work.  Tom and I can now put our focus back on running the business.  We have a lot of work to do but are excited for the possibilities that lie ahead of us.  Truthfully, I can’t wait to get back to work Monday morning!  Right now, we want to have a great holiday season at our stores then maybe a vacation in January, which would be wonderful!!!  I see snow and lots of skiing in my not-so-distant future!  What is next for us you ask–we have plans, but you will have to stay tuned to see what happens next.

I am sitting here at 10 p.m. with Tom and my managers of the new store.  We are trying to wrap things up here so I will have to make this short.  It has been an incredibly long day but exciting none the less.  It is absolutely amazing to see this entire center come together like it has.  One of our team members came out today to help get the store ready for the opening and said this village looks like a Disney set–so many people making everything look just right.  There were hundreds of people around today, inspectors, last minute construction crews, etc.–all making it look great for opening day.  This is quite surreal for me, the smallest kid on the block next to West Elm, BCBG, Louis Vuitton, Coach, and us, The Beauty Bar.

Well, I honestly have to go.  We have to finish up and we hope to get out of here shortly.  The guys are back completing our cabinets and the sound system specialists will be here at 7 a.m. Not much time for beauty sleep.

I’m off. I can’t wait to take the final video of tomorrow.  I didn’t take any today because I wanted all of you to see the final look of it all.  Just so you know, our posters did not get done in time, some of our products did not arrive on time, and we do not have all of the display tables that we hoped to have in place, but it will come soon and what is done is done and most importantly we will be open for business at 10 a.m.

See you tomorrow!

I just sat down for the first time all day and began my evening ritual of writing my blog by reading some of the comments that people left on the site this morning and a wave of emotion came over me.  It was such an overwhelming feeling to read such wonderful things from people that I know and love and people that I do not know–many people that know me understand that I want to create the best store that I can.  I am trying to create an environment full of great warmth. 

Tom and I are putting all of our heart and soul into this new project and we feel very strongly about what we sell, how we educate, and how we create relationships with the people that we meet every day.  I want to create an environment where people want to come back time and time again to talk, to shop, to meet and see others.  This store was created because of The Beauty Bar customers–without those customers there wouldn’t be a Beauty Bar, period.
 
Construction
Today was exhausting on so many levels.  I felt like I had to be on top of everyone all day and no, I do not mean my staff. I mean all of the people from landscape architects to contractors, to painters to well, everyone.  I had to call and find people all over the construction site today to ensure that things were moving along at a faster clip, if you know what I mean.  Things were just not getting done and to be honest it was driving me crazy!  Thankfully, we passed all of the inspections today so we were able to move furniture and fixtures in by midday or so. 

The Details
Some of the team that will be working at this location came in and began setting up what they could.  Tom spent a majority of today in a Uhaul picking up furniture and products and unloading them into the store with the help of our management team.  Every other second his phone rang off the hook with someone needing something.  Thankfully, he realized today that we didn’t receive a shipment from a brand new vendor which was a cosmetic tester unit.  Without that tester unit, we couldn’t sell the products.  Tom made some calls and found out that the company forgot to send that very important item and now had to send this massive box to us Fed Ex.  It is all of the small little details that Tom is working on and fixing because these small pieces are an incredibly important part of the big picture for the grand opening.
 
The Hydrant
By 7 p.m. tonight the office and storage rooms have yet to be completed and everyone had left for the night.  This has to be done immediately so we can move all of our office equipment out of the middle of the store to that area, asap. This should be interesting in the morning.  I am still working out “issues” with that beloved fire hydrant directly in front of the store.  You all saw this four weeks ago and I am still waiting for the lovely plants to be placed around it wonderfully tomorrow.  Although, I did hound these poor men on several occasions today to make sure that good size pots were placed with beautiful plants inside. 
 
I need some sleep–we have one more day to finish the store.  I’ll have much more from St.John’s Town Center tomorrow. Good night.

Well, if today wasn’t one of the most stressful days that I have had so far, then I do not want to see one worse. Most moments I found myself saying, “You Have Got To Be Kidding Me”–excuse the grammar.

I walked into the space around 11:30 and almost fell over. The ceiling was still not in place, the plumbing was just going in and the space was full of stuff and now lots of people milling about.
It looked like an absolute mess. Well, by 6 p.m. the last of the ceiling pieces were being put into place and the bathroom was being finished up. Work still has to be done in the back stock room and the office, where there still is no floor.

If That Wasn’t Bad Enough
Our cabinet makers came to place the point-of-sale counter and the gift-wrap counter. Tomorrow, they are to install all of our cabinets which hold all of our products. As they were finishing up today, we stopped to discuss tomorrow’s game plan–time they were arriving, etc. They informed me that the cabinets will be coming, but the shelves for those cabinets and the cabinet doors will be delivered and put into place on Friday!!! I think the look of absolute shock was evident on my face when I had to inform them that they needed to all be done by tomorrow so we could do the set up on Thursday. They, for some reason, looked as shocked as I did. Then they went on to tell me that our make-up counters (four of them) have yet to be assembled and this is at least a one day job by itself. I basically told them that everything had to be done by tomorrow evening or delivered by 9 a.m. Thursday. The guys left in a hurry knowing that they were way behind schedule and better get going on the rest of the project. I found all of this information out around 4 p.m.

We have one of our newest vendors in town and hosted a huge training tonight with all of the staff. They will be here for the remainder of the week to set up their products, train, and sell at our stores during the next few days.

It has been an absolute whirlwind of a day and I know it will get even busier between now and 10 a.m. Friday morning.

I have to run, it is late and Tom and I must go through our must be done by Wednesday list. Let’s hope tomorrow doesn’t come with as many surprises as today.

We had a really busy weekend, but also took some much needed down time which was wonderful. We had great dinners with friends and Sunday afternoon was spent with my family (who live only 10 minutes away). I had to work on air Saturday morning to do my monthly Beauty Buzz with The Beauty Bar segment on our local NBC/ABC affiliate.

This morning, I once again awoke at 3 a.m. with all of the lists in my head–this still needs to get done, don’t forget to do that, etc. Tom and I went to the site this morning to make sure everything was completed that was not done on Friday; such as flooring, painting and our ceilings. When we arrived, we found that the only thing done was the flooring–there was still no ceiling and they hadn’t painted or began work on the plumbing yet.

We were furious to say the least. We had to then get on the phone and cancel the cabinet maker from coming in today to install all of our cabinets and also reschedule our tile maker, granite counter tops, phone lines, and many others that were supposed to do work for us today. We had to re-schedule everyone for tomorrow. Basically, this all took up most of our day. Then there are these little things that we forgot to do before….like order knobs for all of the cabinets that are being installed tomorrow. Thankfully, Tom remembered this small item that is pretty important to have.

This is when the adrenaline is in overdrive. So, at this time of night we are exhausted and ready to crash and start all over again tomorrow. Unfortunately, there are some things that need to get done tonight so we will sit at home and work on them and hopefully watch the Jaguars win in the Monday night football game, which we would love to be at right now.

It’s Friday, we are one week away from our grand opening. The stress levels are at an all time high and I honestly cannot find anything else to say. I’m exhausted.

I’ll have much more over the weekend. I just need to not think about this for a few hours and watch a good movie.

Good night.

As you will be able to see from today’s video - the space isn’t even close to completion. The construction team has until Sunday night to literally transform the entire space to have it ready for us to move in. We are trying to stay in constant contact with the team that is working on it. Tom and I are constantly on site, making phone calls and sending e-mails to ensure that there will not be a delay or hiccup in any way shape or form.

Our Beauty Bar family is growing with lots of new faces that are very motivated and talented. I am excited to have a staff that wants to work hard for our customers and be able to do it in a fun and energetic environment. The team is pulling together to make sure that the transition into the new store is a smooth one and the girls are stepping up and offering their assistance above and beyond what they “have to” do.

There was a lot of little stuff that had to get done that in the grand scheme of things are very important. These little things needed phone calls and e-mails to follow up to ensure that it would all be done before next Friday.

I am on our NBC/ABC affiliate monthly hosting The Beauty Buzz with The Beauty Bar, which I will be doing this Saturday. Today I finished working on what I will be discussing and showcasing on my segment. I like having all of my information and products pulled early so I do not have to worry about it the night before. I also send out a memo to the stores to let them know what I will be talking about. We often have customers that will call the stores or come in and ask to see the products that we talked about on air that day.

The daily items on the to-do list keep getting checked off, but somehow they keep growing and growing every day.  How strange? The middle of the day I felt like I had done so much only to look at something else that reminded me not to forget to get that done today…oh well.
 
You Can’t Teach Couth
I’m not quite sure how to put into words what I really want to say today.  I honestly feel like I am just putting out fires.  I actually had one of my vendors tell me that a store similar in concept to mine went into a mall and “totally bombed”.  She then went on to say you can’t compete with the big companies and it is setting yourself up for failure.  Yes folks–this came from a company that is supposedly a partner is business which I am questioning at the moment.  Not sure if I will continue to go forward with that company after today.  Honestly, who says that? At what point in ones life are you taught to be a rude as ______ and where does that get you in life?   I am their customer!!!  As you can tell, I am beyond words.  There was no other purpose for her phone call at all.  Deep breath…
 
Change of Plans
At the site today, we found out that there were some changes made that we were not made aware of before.  No one else would know about them except for us because Tom and I were in the initial meeting about the build out.  The color of the exterior is different than what we were originally told, our entrance way is going to have to change because work should have been done before now that did not get done, and well, they are way behind.  I know, I know, you are shocked.  I look forward to going back to the site tomorrow to see what they have done since Monday.
 
I am still looking at some last minute options for display units for some of my smaller / gift items.  We will see, we will see.  Until tomorrow.

I haven’t sat down for more than a moment today. I will have more to write tomorrow because I do have a lot to write, but I went right from work tonight to meet my dear friends out for dinner at our favorite local hangout to finally catch up. I will write more tomorrow–there is so much to tell you about. Stay tuned.

“Just Breathe.” I found that I was saying this out loud to myself on more than one occasion today.  I just felt like time was running out beginning at 3 am when I woke up.  My mind was buzzing and I knew that I was going to get up today and just go!
 
My morning started off with a photo shoot with my friend and photographer, Tiger.  Thankfully, I have some incredibly artistic and talented people in my life that I can call upon to work with me on different projects.  I spent the morning with Tiger showing her products that I want to have shot and she spent the rest of her day doing what she does best–take pictures!

The Site
After that, Tom and I went to the site and we were a little surprised to put it gently.  We haven’t been to the site in 5 days and there is still an amazing amount of work that needs to be done.  We tried not to worry about the stuff that we can’t do anything about but made some phone calls to those that have the power to get the things done that need to be done.

Marble
From that point Tom and I were off to the marble design store.  Tom was in heaven and didn’t want to leave.  They have so many wonderful selections to choose from.  Thankfully, we have worked with this company before and they do quality work and quickly! We are looking to use something from their company for our counter tops.

Checking on Orders
By the end of the day I was contacting many of our vendors to ensure that our orders have been received and that they will be shipping on time to have in hand no later than next Tuesday/Wednesday.  Surprisingly enough,,,or should I say not surprisingly, some of our companies told us that they can not guarantee our orders to arrive in time next week, unless however, we were willing to pay for expedited shipping.  Ha ha. Funny, isn’t it? The reasons were because people within their own companies hadn’t filed the correct paperwork to get the orders up and going to our new location or the fact that they just hadn’t sent the orders to be processed until we asked again today.  This kind of thing happens all of the time and it is truly one of the most baffling to me.  Does this happen to other people in business?  I always wonder about that.  I will not go off on a tangent here and I can feel one coming on, so I will cut myself off now.
 
It’s almost 8 pm and Tom and I have a busy night ahead. 

Wow, today flew by!

We are only two weeks away from the doors opening and with each passing day the adrenaline is rushing more and more. Since Tom and I were away from the stores for a day and a half, we came in and spent all day in the offices. I couldn’t wait to arrive this morning and get the day started–I knew how much had to get done.

We secured a lot of last minute orders that are to arrive no later than the 25th. Many of our vendors have a two week turnaround time with ordering to actually receiving their products in hand.

Thankfully I know a wonderful photographer and she will be working with me on Monday to do some last minute ads for the year, our grand opening post cards, and some fall product shots. She has done most of our artwork/photography in the past and am glad that she is here to help us with our new needs. As with everything at this point, I needed it yesterday! She is incredibly talented and creative and will put into motion the ideas that I have in my head. Now I just have to make sure that everyone else understands our time constraints.

By the end of the day Tom and I knew that we had accomplished quite a bit, but then again realized how much more there is to do. Every minute of every day counts right now. We are at home tonight making dinner and working on our daily to-do lists for next week, ensuring that certain tasks are getting done the day that they are supposed to get done.

It is one thing to have all of the proper plans in place to have a fantastic grand opening and a totally different thing to have this plan run smoothly and successfully for years to come.

The Beauty Bar stores have always been situated in town villages.  This is something that I know how to plan for.  I study foot traffic, local neighborhoods, shopping habits, etc.  This new store, however, is going into an entirely new section of a mall and with that will be home to new stores that have never been in this market before such as Louis Vuitton, Cole Haan, West Elm, Betsey Johnson, Kate Spade and many others. So how do I know what to expect? What will an average day be like?  What will the next few months be like since it is the peak of holiday shopping?
 
As Tom and I drove back from Orlando today we worked on what if we only did this much scenarios and what if things go really well and we are to do this much. We pondered how businesses go from a few stores to 10 stores, correctly!  This will be my third store in six and a half years so I can understand slow and steady growth.  We have been lucky and blessed through the years to continue to grow in this market.  I feel very close to the people that decide to shop in my boutiques, I am also incredibly thankful for them.  I know more than anything that without each and every one of those customers, I wouldn’t be opening a third store.
 
We don’t want to order too many products for the new space and sit on inventory without selling it within a given period of time, but then we also do not want to be without stock and have a customer unable to purchase a product that they specifically came in for and we are out of it.  We need to have just enough inventory.
 
Tom and I are doing this on our own with our own money.  We do not have VC’s or a huge loan from the bank, this is all home grown money that we continue to put into our business. Their is so much uncertainty ahead of us, but then again that is what happens to every business owner before they open a new business, this feeling of uncertainty.