07/09/2026
✨PART 2✨
Heres the emotional, vulnerable, and honestly the most important thing I want you to take away from what I’m saying today. It’s no secret the last few years have been disappointing for small business owners. Each year we think the tide is turning, just to find out it’s sucking us further back. There’s so much to learn to try to stay relevant in consumers lives. But there’s so many roadblocks and frustrating issues we face that we ultimately have no control over. We stay in it because we LOVE it. Because we can’t imagine doing something else in this life…but just how long can you barely keep your head above the water? Over the winter, I was approached with the potential opportunity. Obviously I was very interested but there was still a lot of kinks and decisions to work through. The main one being a lease in our current location thru summer of ‘27. I prayed over the conversation with my current landlords who have been great through the process and prayed the right person would come along to take over our space. These things don’t happen overnight and the process of it all takes time. It took a few months to find the right person, but that detail has been worked out and so we could move forward with our next steps. Over the last few months I’ve truly given my all to my FAITH. I’m stronger than I’ve ever been in my journey with Jesus. I’m proud, I’m committed, and I’m invested in living for him and trying to live out his plan for my life. So while making some of these decisions, I’ve been quiet in the waiting. I’ve trusted in the waiting. And as hard as it is, I have been STILL in the waiting. So to be completely honest it became a decision of do we take this chance and move or do we close this business?! As wonderful as it has been it has also struggled…specifically in this year of 2026. I know that I’m not alone in this as I see lots of other business owners going to social media to share their feelings and their thoughts and their own struggles. I’ve seen businesses make the decision to close their doors and I’ve seen businesses worried that that may be the decision that they have to make next. In my thinking process, I started asking “is this God‘s way of telling me that I’m done with this chapter and that there’s something next that will suit my life better”? I go to church every Sunday to hear the word and to hear what he is telling me to do. One of the lessons in mid April was about trusting during times of failure. In that sermon, I heard my pastor telling me that I could fail forward. I know closing my business would not be “failing”, but it would be taking this next step to show me what is next for me in life and using what I’ve learned to progress myself forward. But in the same sermon, he used the lesson that the inventor of the Dyson vacuum did it wrong 537 times and on the 538th time he created the Dyson. He literally said in that sermon “don’t give up, don’t give up, don’t give up”. I found myself conflicted once again by always hearing a reason to do it one way, but also a reason to do it another way. You can ask my family, I’ve struggled deeply with this decision. I’m not ready to give up on my dream in my store, but I don’t enjoy the struggle that it is some days to just be able to pay the bills that are owed. I truly want to do exactly what the Lord has planned for me. I also know that I’d always wonder “what if” if I didn’t take this opportunity. This girl doesn’t want any regrets. I want to know I gave it 110%. If my best isn’t enough, that’s ok. But I’m not leaving anything out on the table!! The next lesson at church was called “prayer shift” and not only mentioned the power of prayer and to just keep asking for what you’re praying for but if you’re not getting an answer from a specific prayer to maybe change your prayer. It also said to be prepared to accept for your prayers to be answered. If you pray for it, then you have to give it a chance and you have to be ready to accept it when the prayer is answered. And in that moment, I felt like my decision was made. I’m praying for a prosperous business. A business that makes peoples lives better and touches lives. Not only retail therapy and gift buying but somewhere you can come when you just want to feel good about yourself and talk to somebody that cares about what you have to say. And if I close my doors now, I’m not giving that prayer a chance to happen or to be answered. I tell you all of this because I don’t want to sugarcoat anything. I want you to know some of the struggles that I have dealt with lately while trying to stay super positive and super faithful.
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If anything, I’m just asking that you pray for the small business owners hearts. All of my fellow small business owners all over this country. Pray for the decisions that they have to make and the joys and the sorrows that go into those decisions. I’ve had complete strangers pray over me for many reasons over the last few years and that hasn’t gone unnoticed. I’m so thankful that God has made his presence known in my life and in my business through family, friends, customers, and my church family.
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If you’ve read all of what I’ve written tonight, thank you. Sharing my heart with you is one of my favorite things about this page. I’ve always been grateful to have the support of this community and being able to be transparent with you is a gift to me. I hope to see you all at least one more time on Broad Street and I can’t wait to have you along for the next piece of this story.
