So now what do we do?

Long before we had the keys in our hot little hands, we talked at length about what we saw in the future for this little business, for us, and what we could do to make it grow and be profitable.

In the midst of a global pandemic, is it the smartest move to open a retail brick and mortar store?...probably not. Once again we take a deep breath and repeat to ourselves our motto, "If your dreams don't scare you, they aren't big enough". So we would like to think, we were smart enough to realize that our success was also going to depend a great deal on our online presence and that it certainly had to grow from what the Toledo Lamp Company had been previously doing. Luckily for us, I can proudly say that Scott has a talent for and is a more then enthusiastic social media guru (I guess that's the PC word for techy nerd type). For several years he had created and operated a social media management firm that designed and managed websites and social media accounts for many small businesses and large non-profits. A plan was devised that in addition to being open on weekends mimicking the Farmers' Market and Libbey Glass Factory Outlet hours and during peak downtown event hours, we would feature our inventory online and offer local pickup in addition to appointment shopping in an atmosphere complying with Covid awareness guidelines.

Oh, have I mentioned despite our physical location being on a highly travelled street, within view of tens of thousands of vehicles daily, it had no exterior signage, was somewhat hidden away behind a less than inviting door on the corner of a building that despite a long and prestigious past as part of downtown Toledo's history, it also recently had fallen mostly unoccupied, and then down a very old warehouse hallway past some random piles of antiques and garage sale rejects?

Another deep breath...we had a lot of things going for us didn't we?