Business Update June - August: A Summer of Growth (and Succulents!) for Body&Soul

By the end of the summer we'd racked up more markets and events than ever. For September we had 16 market days scheduled though 3 were cancelled due to weather concerns. August (and even September so far) have had some record-breaking sales days. I've also realized just how routine everything's getting. Early this year I was staying in the store until 3AM trying to play catch-up. I often couldn't sleep before new markets because of the anxiety. Now I leave right when store hours end, we're far more caught-up on things, and I'm sleeping like normal again! Of course there's still problems and stressors like all start-up shops and businesses face, but still, the growth is promising.

I'll just share some bullet-points here:

- We recently had a product and a blurb about our shop featured on our local news. Seen here

- I hosted my first Succulent planting class as part of a collaboration with a local succulent grower. I learned some pointers on not killing the precious succulent babies I think I'll have to share on the blog. It's given me big-time inspiration with filling any vessel I can with loads of the beautiful desert plants.

- Damn you Florida weather, we had lots of outdoor events cancelled due to the rain all summer long with the max amount being three this week. It's great our sales were still better than ever despite this.

Our finished pots

- We now have an ad in our local Natural Awakenings magazine and host a couple of monthly open houses and tea tastings. I made some new tea blends too which is always exciting.

- Behind-the-scenes I've been writing and plotting. I'm sleeping normally I'm waking up early and having lots of tarot-studying, journaling, self-improvement journaling time and even some meditation time at night, which is nice. It doesn't make all the stress and problems go away of course but still, so much better than it was earlier this year.

The past few months have just been a lot of making stuff, packing it up for markets, taking it to markets, selling it, packing it down, rinse, repeat, save for our short eclipse reprieve. It's been so busy time's flown since May and my last business update, yet we've grown so much in terms of getting experienced that June feels like ages ago.

Another note on summer, it's been raining nearly every day here. As I type this it's raining hard outside my store's door. It's been a relaxing season to work, though. The view of the rain and wind from my store window makes the interior cozy. I put a short video above. One of these days I want to just set up a tripod and record the beautiful Florida rain. (Although there's already a very nice one here.)

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I update frequently on my Body&Soul and sometimes (haha) on my personal Instagram. Our online shop of natural goodies is here.

If you're in the path of Hurricane Irma (currently heading our way where I'm located in Florida, USA) I hope you stay safe!

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