hhYou know, if we do say so ourselves. Sometimes it's hard to believe how quickly this venture of ours has taken off. We had a very detailed plan with firm goals and, you know what? We DID it.

When we went to our first meeting with the Northeast Indiana Innovation Center (NIIC) we brought in a business plan that let our soon to be mentors know we meant business. For reals. Our LLC was formed in October of 2015 and we told everyone that we would have a store front by Spring of 2016. We received many skeptical looks and plenty of obstacles, (mingled with the sincere encouragement of those who love and know us best, of course), but that didn't stop us. If anything, it made us work even harder. And, here we are, settled in for our fourth full month at the City Exchange.

That on its own is pretty darn exciting. I can't tell you how often people are surprised and impressed when they find out that our sweet little shop is the result of two women working their butts off to create product, recipes for products and customer service. We are fortunate to have two employees who offer invaluable assistance to us and we fully expect them to take on large roles as the business grows. Four women in Fort Wayne. Not a bad start.

And we have done so much since we opened! We were one of two feature businesses at the NIIC's annual fancy luncheon. 

Megan Elizabeth was our amazing spokesperson for WFFT-TV's Locally Made Monday. She did a great job discussing what we do and our mission to be a responsible and luxurious bath, body, and skin care retailer.  http://www.fortwaynehomepage.net/news/local-news/locally-made-monday-the-narwhal-and-the-manatee

Not long after that, we had our first super official photo shoot for Fort Wayne Living. We were part of a shopping feature they were doing on the City Exchange. It was a giggly good time had by me and Megan Elizabeth. Neither of us are all that crazy about being in front of a camera, but that seems to be part of the job now. http://www.businesspeople.com/Post/2306/getting-to-know-the-city-exchange

Our most recent public appearance was on television! Always daunting but exciting. Thankfully, I have my brilliant business partner who always knows just what to say. We were asked to add our support to Indiana's Beyond Coal movement. We believe in clean energy and the changes that need to be made so that can happen.   It was thrilling to be asked to be a voice for this movement.  http://cdn.field59.com/WISE/1470175988-e20c7bf2b63fea353f95c7f3c4ffc4b6c0e68515_fl9.mp4

The highlight so far has to be the day the mayor came to visit. We had a chance to have our picture taken with him and were pleasantly surprised when we showed up as one of his tweets. Can't complain about that kind of exposure.

As you can see, we are busy. Busy creating and promoting. Busy building relationships. Busy being awesome. Mostly busy being busy. And this is just the beginning. Oh, the plans we have! We run our business like its a big business so we are ready when it is the big business we dream of. The world around us, our family and friends keep encouraging us to take that next step, to dream even BIGGER. We can and we will.

Cheers.
​Traci