Closing Shop: A Girl's Next Best Friend

Career Change: After much self-reflection and debate, I have decided to close my handbag store. If you saw my new year's eve post, you might have noticed that 2012 brought with it a new corporate event planning position. While this new role has been exciting, engaging and rewarding, it has also been extremely busy, and relatively time consuming. In addition to this new role, I have also been working with private business clients to plan/consult on corporate events, which has placed an even greater demand on my time. 

The Reality: Trying to balance my role as a corporate event planner, my private clients, as well as the store, has undoubtedly been a challenge this past year. Getting home on a week night before 7 pm became a luxury, and weekends were being spent responding to emails, packing orders, sourcing supplies, and trying to catch up on updating the store's website. I finally had to face the reality that I am limited in how many tasks I can effectively juggle within a 24 hour day. 

I have thoroughly enjoyed the process of sourcing new and vintage purses, interacting with customers, packaging orders for shipping and the entire experience of running a business. Running the store was a fun and exciting experience, that allowed me to develop skills and expertise in entrepreneurship, marketing, social media, and I absolutely loved it! Unfortunately, it became increasingly difficult to manage without sacrificing valuable time with family & friends (hello again date nights & home cooked meals!). With this in mind, I have decided to close the store, and focus on my corporate event planning career, and expanding my private consulting client base. 

What's Next: I will be closing the store's website after January 22nd and the Etsy shop after January 31st. However, I will continue to operate the blog, because I truly enjoy writing about handbags and everything in between. The Facebook, Twitter, and other social media outlets associated with the store will also be closed at the end of January. 

To clear inventory I will be having a sale on all products in store. Discounts of 50%-75% will be applied to all items with the coupon code SALE. All vintage items on Etsy will also be on sale for $15 or less. 

Going Forward: I would like to express my utmost thanks and gratitude to everyone who supported A Girl's Next Best Friend. I encourage you to follow the blog to be updated on all  handbag news, sales, event planning tips, giveaways, recipes, and our new developments in 2013. 

Jody-Ann,
The Purse Girl

Related articles

• Corporate Event Planning