My Weekly Schedule as a Business Owner
Our business has been up and running in some capacity since 2020. We started an antique booth, then added fairs and shows, and had added a brick and mortar shop.
Recently, if you’ve been reading, you’ll know that I have quit my job to work full-time as an employee of our business.
As I start this endeavor I have tried to be really intentional about balancing work and home life, especially because most of my work will be done at home. I don’t want work to take over my whole life, but I also don’t want to get really lazy and not doing anything for work.
To quell these possibilities from happening (I’m sure that sometimes they will happen, who are we kidding!), I have decided to make myself a schedule. In my weird neurotic way I have actually constructed a 7 day schedule with every day planned out in half-hour increments.
While I will not bore you with that business, I did think it might be helpful to explain how I intend to split up my week and a little about what I plan to do each day to ensure that everything will get done, there’s time to get everything done, and I am not forgetting anything.
Here is how I am planning to spend my week:
Mondays:
I’ll start with Mondays because I am a “the week starts with Monday” kind of girl. Do you consider Mondays or Sundays the start of the week? Anyway, Mondays are going to basically be my Saturday. My day off from the business, this will be a day for cleaning, errands, and grocery shopping. I am hoping to have times on Mondays to garden, bake, and really live my best homesteading, Laura Ingalls life.
Tuesdays:
Tuesdays the shop is not open but this will for sure be a business day. This day will be when we do most of our thrift shopping and sourcing. I am planning to spend an hour at our second location, a spot at a local antique mall, resetting and adding inventory. From there I will move to some different areas to source through the afternoon. Some days I will skip the resetting and leave early for a big town to do some sourcing. Tuesday nights I am planning to wash all of the clothes I have sourced, take photos, and get everything packed in the truck to take the the shop the next day.
Wednesdays:
This is the first day of the week that the shop is open for the week. This day will include bringing the new inventory to the shop where I will get it listed online and then tag it before putting it on the shop floor to be sold.
Thursdays:
Thursdays are a shop day. Lots of tagging inventory, searching for inventory in online auctions. Thursdays will also be when I host classes. I would love to start hosting watercolor classes, preschool crafts, and other events through the day. In the evenings each week will be when we have our What Not sales.
Fridays:
Fridays the shop is open. Fridays are a good time to take inventory and work on new orders of merchandise in between ringing up customers.
Saturdays:
This is the last day the shop is open each week. It is always busy and so much fun to see everyone who comes in. It’s when we do things like a deep clean for the upcoming week, take out the trash, and get inventory ready for our next What Not sale. Most Saturdays Nick and I work together but sometimes just I’ll work or just Nick will work in order to do other activities like picking up inventory from an auction, moving furniture, etc.
Sundays:
This is our sabbath and a complete day of rest. We have nothing planned except a nap in the afternoon and a big family meal. I am really looking forward to having a day to tinker in the garden barefoot and putter around the house. Having a day to recharge makes working really hard all week feel really worth it.
This is how I plan to structure each day . Each day also has times built in. Every evening I will be making dinner at 5:30 and we will eat at 6 to get back to a schedule that is routine and planned. I have a half hour each night before bed to take a bubble bath and read. I have my schedule planned to be in bed by 10.
Every morning I plan to wake up at 6 followed by times for coffee, watching tv, and then laundry, devotions, and working out. I have time set aside for breakfast and walking the dog. A regular routine with time to get everything done.
Scheduled meals, bible time, exercise, chores, work. These are all items that I have worked to structure into each day to make up a full week. I have divided up time for things like writing articles, online postings, shipping items, filming you tube content, and other business tasks during shop hours and around our home life.
Making a structured schedule helps me to ensure that there is enough time each week to get everything done. It also gives me the freedom to not have to drop everything and fix every issue that arises. If a customer writes me wanting to ask something about an ebay item, I can get to it during the appropriate “Ebay” time. And while it is great to have a rhythm to the day, I also have the ability to have a fluidity built into the day. If something takes longer than anticipated I can move things around in the schedule. I can tweak and rework the schedule to work for our needs as they arise. I can give myself time and grace to get into a good flow.
While I just quit my job I am really looking forward to getting into this new schedule and routine. I want to have a definite structure to my day even though I now get to be my own boss and build our business and my days as I want to do.
If you have any tips or pointers for me as I create a schedule and walk out this new routine, I would love to know!
Starting a New Adventure
As I write this I cannot believe that this is true…
I am quitting my job.
Not The Hoosier Vintage. My other job.
Let me explain.
We started our business in 2020 in the midst of covid. It started as simply having an antique booth and then grew to include a website, an online reselling business, a YouTube channel, and a brick and mortar store. All of that we have been doing on the side as a hustle.
Until now.
Nick has encouraged me for the last few months to consider quitting my job and jump head first into the business. The last few months have brought total exhaustion from my job, with some major health issues and a need to make some major changes (per my doctor and therapist).
And so I am finally doing it. I am quitting my finance job! I am terrified and anxious about the future brings but also super excited and hopeful!
As I jump into this I am putting together a plan for how our business (and life!) will run moving forward. I want to be very intentional about creating a good work/life balance and having a distiction between the two even though I will mostly be working from home.
I am also putting together multiple income streams to ensure that we are financially where we need to be.
All of this is very fluid and will need to change and evolve as we go along. I am excited to bring you all along through the journey and share how we are structuring our schedule and our business as we move along.
Stick around for the fun!
Welcome to the Shop!
The Hoosier Vintage shop is officially open! Wow, typing that even seems surreal.
Our shop is located in Mentone, Indiana. We are about an hour from South Bend and Fort Wayne. We are in a Gilmore Girls style town with a local cafe where every one goes to catch up, a this and that store with fun goods, and a sweet bookshop where you can walk out with the perfect next book.
We are having a blast! Each day that I wake up and get to go to the shop I am so excited and feel like a kid on Christmas morning! What a blessing and a treasure to be able to do something that I love and enjoy doing.
When we set out to create a space, it was one that I truly wanted to feel cozy.
We’re Opening a Shop!
We are so excited to announce that we are opening a real-live, Brick and Mortar store in September, 2024!
Our store will be in Mentone, Indiana, hometown to our lake house and just a hop, skip and jump from where we live.
We are so excited for the opportunity to share our hearts and ideas within a community that has been so open and kind to us as we pave the way for the new shop.
The Hoosier Vintage shop is slated to open in September. While the idea of the the store is still being ironed out, I’d love to share with you here what our dream for the store is…and then we can see what exactly takes fruition:
We want to create a place that is inviting and comforting: a home away from home. Think iced tea waiting for you, a puzzle in the works for you to peck at, friends to visit with in big comfy chairs by the fireplace. We plan on offering antiques as well as home decor and gift items that are from around Indiana to highlight and support all of the incredible talent around our area. We’d like to offer booth space for antique vendors, areas for local artisans to offer their work, as well as classes and events to be offered.
While we open this part of our store, we are planning on still having a booth at the amazing Dutch Lady Antiques, and be frequent visitors to all of the markets we love to be a part of around the Michiana area. Our hope is that nothing will be taken away, just more will be added and expanded. With having a store, we’re also opening our minds to lots of new ideas…collabs, youtube, online live sales, etc, etc. Basically getting the behind the scenes of a store out of our home and having room to breathe is the goal with the hope that with that can come lots of creative growth and opportunity.
We haven’t gotten into the painting and ripping and forming stage, we’re still in the dreaming and planning, and thinking stage, but we’re making progress slowly but surely. So stick around, friends! We’re so excited to have you along on this journey with us.
Historic Hilton Milwaukee City Center Hotel
For our anniversary Nick and I decided it would be fun to visit a “new to us” city and explore. We chose Milwaukee because it was within driving distance and it had a historic hotel we were wanting to see… The Hilton Milwaukee City Center Hotel.
Photo of the Original Schroeder Hotel, courtesy of Historic Hotels
Constructed during the Roaring Twenties this Hilton stands as a model of Art Deco elegance. Known originally as the Schroeder Hotel, this hotel opened in 1928, boasting of it’s expansive architecture, grand furnishings, and impressive art deco interior.
We arrived and were promptly greeted by Millie and Sadie, the residents pups. These doodles were so precious and we had almost as much fun giving belly rubs as they had receiving them.
After checking in to our room we were whisked upstairs in this elevator that still exudes so much character and charm from years ago. I love when industrial things are embellished and fancy, I think it is so fun!
For our anniversary the hotel surprised us with an upgrade to the Royal Suite which was so sweet of them! It was definitely a room with a view as we could see all of Milwaukee from our room. While we enjoyed the living room and dining room, my favorite thing was the bathtub! It was so nice to soak in after sleeping in on Saturday.
You can see how the hotel accommodations have become quite a bit fancier and more expansive than when the hotel first opened:
Original hotel accommodations, photo courtesy of historic hotels
After an amazing breakfast and a long soak in the tub we were ready to do some hotel exploring. Which usually feels like hotel snooping as we are always just trying doors to see what is unlocked, but that’s the fun of exploring old hotels.
The ballrooms were magnificent. Each one held it’s own sense of elegance and style, varying gently or greatly from the one before. The history that these rooms must have seen is so wonderful to think of. And the details of all of the rooms were gorgeous.
The salon of the hotel, the entrance, was magnificent and breathtaking. With a lower entrance to the grand foyer, it definitely created a moment when you entered the quiet din of the grand room after taking in all of the noise and din from the world outside. The details are breathtaking. The front desk was a timepiece left from another time, with the bank style bars and all of the small details left from a world where the world took it’s time and things were done in a proper, certain way. Those are the details I cherish. Well, those and fancy doorknobs.
All of the small details. I can romance anything, I know, but the time taken to create all of the finial work, the mouldings, the hardware for the hotel, it is romantic and ethereal to look at. It is all a symphony of details that come together to form a masterpiece that has truly stood the test of time, coming out timeless, classy, and undeniably elegant.
Lest I mention my one true love, the lighting. Y’all know I love a good hotel light and this place did not dissapoint. The enormous chandeliers all in a row in the entrance? The wooden art deco circle lights? The stately french chandeliers in the salon? I am not sure which is my favorite but I know I loved them all.
We loved our stay at the Hilton Milwaukee City Center and highly recommend you visit. You will love how many details remain from the Art Deco movement, the peacefulness you’ll feel when sitting in the lobby, and all of the plush accommodations in the well appointed rooms. And make sure to say hello to the puppies for us when you visit!
For some fun historic hotel kitsch at home, shop our fun swizzle stick collections. These are so fun to keep on your home bar!
Girls Just Want to Have Fun
These past few months of moving, putting our house up for sale, and getting settled have often times seemed never ending.
We decided the first of the year was a good time to get our business off the back burner and spend time doing what I love.
Our lives have gotten busy. Mainly Nick’s business of consulting has taken off and while we appreciate how many companies he is helping, it is exceedingly difficult to run an antiques business with the man…
Enter Emma.
Our sweet daughter is a teenager in high school who is hip with the social media, a wonderful photographer, and loves to help stage and arrange inventory. Her stepping in to help was a seamless decision.
She will be helping me (Lindsay) with the marketing, planning, and arranging of a new idea we have. The hopes of this will help me to hopefully be able to spend more time on things that don’t take me forever and a day (unlike social media posts that do take me forever). The other benefit of her helping is that it has really freed me up artistically when it comes to the aesthetic of our office and what I want around me.
I’ve always been a “decorate with what brings you joy” kind of person but when I was sharing an office with Nick I noticed that I was decidedly more tactful with my decorating.
It’s just crazy enough to work.
The Manor’s Moved
The Hoosier Vintage family has moved! Come on in, let us show you our favorite parts of our new home.
Well things have been busy here these last few month. Over the summer we decided to buy a house that quite literally was nothing short of a miracle! It was pretty incredible how it all happened. And while our previous home my sweet cousin nicknamed “The Manor” hasn’t moved, we’ve decided to carry the name with us wherever we go!
We moved from our large Queen Anne home to an even bigger Victorian in Nick’s home town.
The very best part? It’s right next door to his sweet parents!
Nick remembers being babysat in the home. He remembers throwing marbles down the laundry chute and playing in the toy room up on the third floor. Our son’s bedroom has the window Nick shot out with a bb gun when he was young. These sweet memories make me smile so big.
I’d love to show you around. Want to come see?
Here, let me show you around! Here are some of my favorite parts of the house:
Here are some of our project areas coming up soon:
As you can see there’s a bit to do. Wood panelling is ganging up on us. The geese are ganging up on us. We have a stonehenge of boxes in our formal living room. There are lots of projects but we love every little bit of it. We’re currently taking our time to live in the home and figure out how to best make the house our own, and what is our first priority.
Every morning I wake up, throw off the covers, put my robe on, and walk down the stairs, feeling like royalty. And kind of silly because I still can’t remember how many steps each flight has. But I’ll get it!
We’ve been in our new home 2 months and it still feels so special and amazing!
So I hope this explains where we’ve been and what we’ve been up to! The Hoosier Vintage has also given us quite a run for our money. I may one day show you our new inventory system and storage room but suffice it to say, moving makes you have to overhaul and re-do everything. We are slowly but surely getting our ducks in row and making sure we are fully ready before we re-open our shop.
Hope this finds you well, sweet friends!