Why it's been crickets over here...

Hello beautiful soul, I hope you are doing well!

I wanted to give you a quick update on Business on Purpose as you may have noticed there's been a whole lot of nothing happening over here. :)

April 3rd, 2020 was the last day we had our doors open at Chelsea's Boutique due to the COVID-19 pandemic and wanting to keep our team and clients safe. (If you're new to Business on Purpose, Chelsea's is a women's clothing boutique I started over 11 years ago. It's my first love and my baby). 

Since then, it has been me and my hubby operating the business completely online. (With the help of our social media gals, thank goodness! We couldn't have done it without them!) And I have been pouring all my time, energy and brain space into making sure the boutique not only survived through this time, but that it actually THRIVED. 

We went from having 16 employees on staff to having 2 part time gals running our social media while my husband and I creating tons of content, videos and fulfilling online orders for shipments, pickups and doorstep deliveries. 

We went from being a large operation to a couple people pulling what kind of thoughts and energy we had left daily into new ideas and ways to keep moving forward.

I'm proud of the work we did, the time we spent and new ideas and thoughts we executed. I had multiple people comment they had no idea our doors were even closed because we kept things moving and operating so smoothly. I'm honored to have a team that was so kind and caring through everything and I am forever grateful to my husband who every day helped me to continue to put one foot in front of the other, even when it was the last thing I wanted to do.

For the first few weeks, I cried daily, sometimes even hourly. The week I had to call each one of our part time employees because we could no longer keep them on payroll I woke up at 3am and I puked my guts out because I was filled with so much sadness and anxiety over it. 

Days passed that felt like years and then some days came and went faster than I could comprehend. It was a weird time, it's still a weird time, but the weirdness is feeling more "normal". We've all heard the saying, "a new normal" and I think finally, finally I'm feeling like I'm finding it. I'm getting back into a routine of working out, meditating, reading, gratitude journaling and meal prepping. I'm going to bed earlier and waking up earlier, excited for the day! 

So, over the past few weeks/months/(I swear it's felt like years!). It's been silent over here. The last thing I wanted to do was to "neglect" this business, but at the same time I also knew I had to choose. I knew that I couldn't continue to operate both simultaneously while also navigating the emotions and roller coaster ride of this pandemic.

So, I chose, and I chose the business that had the biggest economic impact currently on our community. I wanted nothing more than to call all 16 of our employees and tell them we were ready to welcome them back with open arms. I couldn't wait to be able to announce to our beautiful community of loyal women we would be opening our doors back up and welcoming them in our space again. It all drove me. But it also meant, Business on Purpose had to be put on the backburner.

If I can take just a moment, I want to tell you how incredibly proud of myself I am and the way I handled this time. In the past, I easily would have pushed myself too far, I would have tried to do both, simultaneously, while running myself into the ground and past exhaustion. But this time I knew, physically and mentally, I couldn't do it. I knew I had to choose.

It's been over 2 months since I've put out a podcast episode and I am currently working on some NEW content for that and I can't WAIT to share with you!

I am also SO excited to announce we are bringing back 4 employees next week and we will be reopening our doors May 21st. And with that extra help, that also means I get to get back into this business that I have so quickly fallen so deeply in love with. 

I want to thank you for your patience and grace during this time. I have some really exciting things I am working on behind the scenes and I can't wait until I get to share them with you all! I am also working on a blog post that will most likely come out within the next couple weeks talking about what the biggest things I learned about myself and the businesses during this uncertain time were. 

I hope you are staying safe and well!

With love and gratitude,
Chelsea

PS - Did you know during this time, I actually became a certified Reiki practitioner? Wondering what the heck Reiki and energy healing is?? Check out my latest blog post all about it here.