*EDIT On November 30th, I announced via Instagram that my new Somerville store will NOT be called Dear Miss Dolly, but will carry the name Calliope, and be consistent with my current branding. The short version is basically I felt the name change to Dear Miss Dolly was the wrong decision. I thought I would be comfortable renaming even a concept store that would be nothing like the Natick location, but I wasn’t. I have worked very hard to make Calliope Paperie a name, MY name, and it is because of that hard work I was found and pursued by Bow Market. Even though the developers didn’t want even a HINT of a chain at their new marketplace, they were...
Sunday is my last outdoor market selling cards. Ever. I am committed. 2 people are coming during breakdown to take my display pieces. Some time next week, someone else will be by to take my tent and weights. I. AM. DONE. By the way, anyone who read the title and thought I was going all Walt Whitman, can exit through the side door now. Thanks. Calliope kind of began in the primordial soup of the Boston outdoor market scene. I started doing the South End Open Market in 2008 with (wait for it) fill-in party invitations. I had 3 or 4 designs that were all made from just paper. No illustration or lettering. Just patterned scrapbook paper, ribbons, and open...
I wasn’t going to do a 9-month. I checked in with you guys at 3, and again at 6; just after the holidays. I thought a 9 was excessive and pointless. I was just gonna wait until my one year anniversary and do a year in review and basically “sign off” as far as updates go. One year is a big deal. After that, I’m just a shop that’s been open a while. Not new anymore, just “open,” until maybe the 5-year mark. That downhill coast into what I thought would be the last big bump before I settled into a nice rhythm was interrupted by a car crashing through my front window only 10 months and 1 week into...
I’m still here! It’s been a crazy 6 months; 3 since we talked last. But I’m still here. I had days when I wasn’t so sure, but I was told by many merchants that I just had to make it through the summer. Summer is tough, people are on vacation, September will be better. Well, I made it to September. And then someone else told me September is worse than the summer. They turned out to be right. Crap. But I am still here. After a brutal summer, and tumultuous fall, I found out election years are tough on retail, and this year was bound to be the toughest of all time. Fuck. Ok then…we’ll make it to November! But...
Ok let’s just get right into it. I was trying to think of some poetic way to start this post, some nice little lead-in. I once read that you should always sandwich bad news with 2 pieces of good news, which always makes me think of Oreos and then I’m like “Ohhh Oreos…” but I never have any Oreos and there’s no good news to come before and after the bad news that you have no Oreos and the whole thing starts all over again. Damn. In his book “Growing a Business” (out of print) Paul Hawken says starting a business is rarely the end of the story. It’s the beginning. He specifically says a grand opening of something like...
