Eden let her gaze roam the storage room that was much more spacious than she first thought. Yet baskets, bins and boxes filled almost every square foot. Some of it was clearly old marketing and promotional stuff, some holiday decorations, along with excess inventory, and some were just plain junk.
A mountain of cardboard boxes of all shapes and sizes filled one corner. Extra furniture filled another. And a ladder and tool shelf filled a third.
"I used to have a space back here where I kept my kiddos when they were little." Hattie motioned to the corner that held an assortment of furniture. "Then several of my grandkids came here in the afternoons until Naomi finished cutting hair for the day."
"Naomi is your daughter?"
"Yes, and Susie is my granddaughter. They're the reason I kept this shop open and hung onto this monstrosity of a building this long. I wanted to make sure they had a place to run their business." Hattie's face fell as she looked around. "When I stopped having little ones coming here, I let the clutter take over."
"You own the entire building? As in all the shops?"
There was only one other shop—a photo studio—besides the salon since the space next door was currently vacant.
"Yes, and the apartments above them. Although one is empty right now, because it needs repairs I can't afford to make. My late husband was a businessman and real estate developer. This is the only investment he hung onto because I had my store here. Thank goodness, because I'm not near the businesswoman he was."
"I've heard you've kept this place open for over thirty years. That takes some business smarts."
"I've only been able to keep it open because of all the crafty women in this town. If it wasn't for them..." She let her words die off as she shook her head and looked around again. "It's not flourishing like it once did, back in the day."
Eden wrapped her arm around Hattie. "Well, we're going to change that. It's time to take this business into the twenty-first century."
* * *
Eden heaveda sigh as she dropped onto the loveseat in the family room.
What a week!
She didn't think she'd ever worked so hard. Or felt so accomplished, even though she still had a ton of work to do.
Alice walked into the room. "How did your morning go?"
"It was quite productive." Eden brushed her hair back. "I've made substantial progress at Hattie's, both out front and in the back." Thank goodness Hattie agreed to let her throw some things away. "And more than half the artisans have signed their contracts already."
"That's great!"
They chatted a little longer about how excited the artisans were to sell their stuff online. Word had spread, and people were reaching out to Eden now, letting her know they wanted to be included. She'd started making a list of people to follow up with once she had everything in place.
She was a little concerned that some of the interested parties wouldn't make the cut with their simple little crafts. But she had a plan, and it included going through Miss Hattie's—well-kept but hand-written (of course, because nothing can ever be easy)—books to find the bestselling crafts and vendors. Those would be the first products available on the website. In the meantime, she'd do her best to fill orders from her Instagram posts as quickly as possible.
"Are you sure you don't want to take a break from all of this and go shopping in Pasco with me?"
Alice had a list a mile long of things she planned to shop for, including fabric, more canning supplies, and groceries. She'd be gone all afternoon, and Eden had things to do. So many ideas buzzed around in her head. She needed to get them out so she could make sense of them and organize them into a productive plan.
"I'd better stay home. I have a lot I need to do."
If Eden went shopping, she'd be tempted to spend money, and she couldn't afford to do that. Especially since she'd made it a point yesterday after helping Alice make more jam to go to the bank and withdraw the money to pay Rudy back.
She decided to just pay for the domain herself for now. If this venture was as successful as she hoped, then she'd discuss the expense with Hattie. Judging by how slow the store was the few days when she'd been there, the older woman didn't have a lot of extra money.
Eden considered it an investment. One she hoped would pay off. Even if this venture was successful, it would be a long time before she earned back the money she'd put into it already. That was one thing she needed to brainstorm this afternoon; how to advertise and market on a tight budget to ensure success.
"Okay, I'll see you in a few hours then," Alice said before walking out.
Eden curled her legs under her and pulled her computer onto her lap. Before bringing it to life, she tore open the bag of chocolate-covered cinnamon bears she'd splurged on. They were her weakness, but she felt less guilty if she thought of them as brain food.
She'd taken more photos over the last few days as she reorganized, and now, she needed to get them added to the website in a visually appealing way. As she worked, she couldn't help thinking about the time she'd spent working with Rudy. The man was as smart as a whip. Not only did he have the know-how to build the website, but he also had great ideas.
When he started manipulating the html code in the website's template to make it do what he wanted it to, she asked how he knew all this stuff. He shrugged and said he enjoyed learning and reading. Eden had a feeling he was being modest and that he knew even more than he let on about computers, websites, search engine optimization, and coding.
