If you look up “nervouscited” in the dictionary it’s just this photo
Every year for about 4 years now I’ve planned to write some blog posts looking back at each year of business. And every year for 4 years, I haven’t done it. As a chronic procrastinator it always gets pushed off and then “oops” anniversary is here and it’s too late. This year I am finally sitting down and writing about each year. It’s been a bit more emotional than I thought it would be to look back at things. There were some really hard times getting this thing off the ground. It’s been really fun too, I forgot how much support I had from my family and friends in those early days.
It’s truly remarkable to see how far the shop has come. It went from just me to now having a staff of 11. We make a lot happen in this small space and I’m so damn proud of it. I’m also reminded of how hard it was to get here. Most of the photos I have show the smiles, the shop, the fabric. I didn’t really take any on the nights I would hyperventilate and cry because I didn’t know how to keep things going. Or on the days when no one came in and I wondered if I actually had any idea what I was doing.
Day after day, little by little, we grew. We became stable and I stopped having my monthly breakdown. 7 years feels like a pretty big milestone. I’m excited to share with you the journey to get here.
Year 0
For me Wyldwood truly started on September 15th 2018. That was the last day at the job I quit to open the business. I had been working 50+ hour weeks, rarely taking time off, missing big life events and overall was just in a state of perpetually feeling like all I did was work. While I was making plenty of money, I was miserable. I knew it was time for a change and I finally felt ready to take the leap.
While I was working on opening the business I worked part time with my Husband at the Stonehouse restaurant in Redmond. We met working in a restaurant together so it was really fun to work together again. We were fortunate to work with some pretty incredible people who are like family to us now.
During the day I would work on the business. I took my little surface laptop and visited almost every coffee shop and library within a 10 mile radius of Renton. I started everything with one big spreadsheet. I wrote down every task I could think of and gave it a category and rough deadline and I just started going. I think it had 275 things on it.
I went to visit my friend Annie in Texas that fall. It was on this trip that I came up with the name for Wyldwood! I had been brainstorming names, I knew I wanted something PNW feeling and I didn’t want to narrow it to just fabric. (My initial plan was to focus on classes, workshops, private parties, lessons, etc. I wasn’t planning to do that much retail. Lol.) I had come up with the name “Wildwood Creative” but when I checked, the domain and usernames were already taken by another business. During my visit we were looking for nearby places to get coffee and I noticed Wyldwood, Texas on the map. This felt like a great solution to my problem and I went for it! Looking back, I do sort of wish I had put “fabric” in the business name, and that I didn’t go with a weird spelling that makes SEO a challenge. But I also can’t imagine our name being anything else.
My sister in law lived with us for a short time that fall/winter after finishing nursing school. We would spend our days together, me working on the business and her studying for the NCLEX test. We were both little balls of stress and had a great time keeping each other from completely falling apart. It was nice to have someone to body double with as I tackled my to-do list.
I still had to make money, so in addition to my part time serving job, I made an attempt at a little handmade side hustle. It was called “Love, T Handmade Goods” . I made pillows, bags, and wall hangings from upcycled materials. I participated in a few markets, mostly as a way to tell people I was opening a business. I never really sold much at them, but I did make some great connections with people and made a lot of fun stuff that mostly just my friends and family bought. It definitely didn’t make me much money but I love the things I made and the people I met.
In early 2019 I started hosting “classes” at my home. I wanted to get more practice with teaching and leading a workshop. My friends were my best supporters and I had a lot of fun forcing craft time on them. I also hosted a bullet journaling workshop at a co working place in Seattle. I was very into bullet journaling at the time and was a bit of an evangelist about it. I no longer bujo but I support those who do!
In March I filed for a business license and made it official! Both legally and on IG. Things were starting to get serious.
After getting a license, I started looking for a location. I was telling everyone I planned to be open by the end of summer. (ha!) I knew I wanted to be in downtown Renton so I just went down there and started asking around. Someone told me the comic book shop was closing and that I should go talk to him. I remember walking into the store and seeing the duct tape carpet, pegboard walls, and general livedin-ness and still thinking “yep, this could work.” The owner was incredibly kind and helpful. He gave me his landlord's number and told me about the space. He said I was welcome to come in any time to take measurements and scope out the space.
Sometime in April or May I got in contact with the landlord. He let me know that the current tenant would be out at the end of May and then he would spend a couple months remodeling the space. The Comic Hut had been there for 25 years so the space was in desperate need of refresh. I submitted my business plan and letter of intent to him and started making moves on a physical location.
While I patiently waited to work out the lease and for all the work to be done, I started hitting the thrift stores and fb marketplace. I picked up tables, chairs, marble island tops, and 9ft ikea counters all in my little subaru impreza. I was determined to outfit the space for as cheaply as possible. I got so much for free or very cheap and it saved us $1,000s.
In September I got the Keys! It was time to get serious. My step dad came up to visit and in three days we knocked out all the fabric shelves and the giant pegboard of my pinterest dreams. The whole time he did not understand what we were building but he trusted the process and made it happen. I still remember fighting for my life while holding up one of those boards while he screwed it in.
I started moving in and planning out the space. I was also spending all of the money I had received from my business loan. I was meeting with vendors and making a class schedule. It was finally happening! Things were getting very real and I was starting to plan an opening date.
I opened the doors on October 26th as a sort of soft launch. The shop was basically empty but I still proudly invited everyone in and assured them more was on the way! To be honest I don’t remember a lot from those first couple of weeks. It’s all kind of a blur now, but I remember feeling so excited to go open the shop every morning, and how nice it was to feel excited to go work instead of having an instant feeling of dread the moment my alarm went off. That alone was worth all the hard work.
