Sweating the details….

I am an apocalypse mom. When the boys and I leave the house, we are prepared for anything. If Declan decides to shoot poo all they way up and into his hair, we have wipes, diaps and new clothes x3 usually! Many times Ollie decides that he is finally hungry as soon as we pull out of the driveway, so an on-the-go meal always travels with us.  Ethan often mocks me because the word “proactive” comes out of my mouth multiple times a day. But I mean, lets be real, with kids you can never be too prepared! I just like to call it, sweating the details.

When Ethan and I first started Rustic Corner, our focus was to fill the store. Find pieces, fix them if necessary, paint and out on the floor they go. It got to the point where we didn’t care about the quality or fine details but more about the quantity that we were pushing out. We soon realized the downfall in that logic. Furniture began to make its home at Rustic. We would sit on a piece for months until finally we knew we needed a new strategy. On every single one of our pieces, we gave it a 360 degree look. Finding a flaw in every one, we set about to fix them. Soon we couldn’t keep furniture on the floor.

Now as we work on pieces, we sweat the details. Before a piece hits the floor, it has gone

through about 3 to 4 inspections to find flaws. Because lets be real, when you shop, do you really look for everything that is right on a piece, or do you search for the imperfection? As shoppers we want to know that a piece is worth every bit of money we are spending on it. So vendors, with that in mind, think about spending an extra 5 minutes to do an inspection on your pieces. I can guarantee you will see an increase in furniture sales because shoppers will realize that items are quality and worth the investment.

Ethan just recently found these night stands that are made from an old desk. With doing the proper prep work (filling holes, sanding, painting, aging and waxing), they turned out to be beautiful!

So it never hurts to be proactive. When you sweat the details and work hard in the beginning, you’re eliminating a lot of stress in the long run, you reap rewards in a more timely fashion, and you enjoy life just a little bit more. Anticipate what might turn a customer away from your piece and fix it before the sale is lost. Remember what happened the last time you left the house without the diaper bag and said oh it will be fine……..

Be proactive and sweat the details, it might stink in the beginning but it pays off in the end!