Indulgent Designs

A very long time ago Shannon and I spent a bunch of time dreaming about  our own business. We had a name, a concept and really, really great marketing plan in mind. We planned and planned but never took it anywhere. I think we both knew that we didn't want to be in Edmonton, and, if we opened a store here we would both be stuck. She is moving to Kamloops in a few weeks to start up a different company (which is going to be amazing) and I am off to Victoria, hubby in tow, to start doing interior design work.
 I brought Jon  to the Alberta Gift Show yesterday. It is a trade show that allows manufacturers to showcase their new products. Jon will eventually do some work as a sales rep for his Dad's company, so we were both thinking that he could be a rep for awhile. He loves to travel, is great at sales and would work his butt off for the companies that he works for. What I forgot is that the gift show was also the original birthplace of Indulgent Designs and it is what started all of the planning and dreaming. One of the sales reps that I knew planted the idea in our head to start up a store and we spent the day re-visiting the original concept. I don't know why I never really explained the idea to him, but as I got started he started adding to the vision and we decided that we are going to do it!
So, now the flurry of business planning commences. Thanks to the University required business course I have some experience writing up business plans, which will help us to get funding. The sales rep that we were chatting with applied for government grants when he was getting his company going, and is helping us navigate the grant process. I am friends on Twitter with a real estate agent in Victoria who will be able to show us some places when we visit in March. My last 3 jobs introduced me to wonderful suppliers, freight companies and products that I will integrate into one solid product base. I have started to send messages to Victoria based Etsy stores wondering if they would consider placing some product into my store. I will be able to do design work through the store and will have a huge variety of products that I can offer to my clients. I am getting great responses all around.
I am pumped! Jon is pumped! We finally have a solid answer for the people who keep asking us what we are going to do with our lives and how we will support ourselves. So here is our plan: