Joining Professional Forces - DaVintage Divas

Now what you can do is think of other creative women entrepreneurs as ‘competition’… or you can think of them as like minded spirits and join forces bringing your innovative one-of-a-kind creations and present them to the public in a joint venture.

Joining forces with a local entrepreneur is exactly what I did. In welcoming my colourful artistic friend Mary, we brought together both of our creations, gave ourselves a kitchy name and had a sale that brought in an eclectic gang of people of all demographics to view and purchase our pieces all in one place.

Our maiden voyage was our Halloween sale at the end of October. We needed a name though. We needed the public to know that Rhonda of Country Chic and Mary of Mary’s Thrifty Boutique (both home based businesses), have bonded and are having a spectacular sale. Hmmm…what could we come up with? 

Well, it didn’t take long for a mutual customer and now a close friend to both Mary and I, Terri to come up with a name. With both Mary and I being artists and also divas in our own right, Terri came up with the name DaVintage Divas…and so our partnership was born!

 We staged our pieces throughout my shop…mixed and matched…piled and stacked until the shop was filled with colourful retro, shabby chic, vintage, kitch & boho to the rafters. Mary and I utilized social media to the max and advertised wherever we could for free…we built it and they came! In droves…from all over the province…small towns and cities. Mary and I also invited five other artists to complement our pieces and we had a ball. We sold…we chatted…we networked and made new friends and business leads. The sale was a win win event! So why the heck wouldn’t we do it again? What are we nuts? 

With the holiday season quickly approaching, we found ourselves in the perfect position to host yet another event. So the DaVintage Divas were at it again…creating a festive atmosphere here in the shop to lure the ‘out of the box’ consumer into our event. Not only did we have another incredibly successful sale…we out did ourselves!! Another roaring success…and for that, we are grateful.

 We brought in two new artists Marcelo (not a diva :) but a good friend and a talented Uruguayan painter that has to be brought to the public’s attention. Not only is he a wonderful family man he’s an incredible talent. We also brought in a sweet young friend Kiah who blew us away with her window paintings. Both new friends sold pieces at the event.

 If at any time, I had thought of my artistic friends as competition, I wouldn’t have been in a collective partnership of this magnitude. I would still be just me…which in my opinion, can be a wee bit boring on my own haha. I am grateful and celebrate all of our spirits…together we are artists.

 Peace Rhonda xx

Reinventing Yourself

Well here it is, my very first blog post!

 I highly doubt I’m interesting enough to have any followers….but I’m going to write one anyway :) I want to start out by chatting about reinventing yourself.

I found myself jobless at 50 years old. Now who wants to be in that position? Not too many people I know…not too many people at any age. So I thought to my 50 year old self…what now? My journey to my lovely vintage shop here in my old farmhouse in Ontario, Canada was an interesting one….hey, maybe I’m more interesting than I thought?

Anyhoo, I had to sell my wee bungalow, due to my unemployment situation and the journey lead me to rent this old farmhouse in a rural part of my town. It took two months to paint and clean it to move in condition. It was very run down. My inspiration came when I purchased a beautiful shabby chic harvest table and four ladder back chairs, to fill up the large country kitchen. My first thought was, hey girl, you can do this! Buy an old piece of furniture and paint and distress it!! How hard can it be?

The hard part was going to be starting a business and getting the word out there that I knew what I was doing and I was good at it all the people of the world where going to rush into my lovely new store a buy it all…haha I started out applying for a program through the Ontario Government called the Self-Employment Business Program. I completed their pre-module workshops…applied for the program…dazzled them with my business concept…and wowzers! They picked me for their program.

After two long months of in class workshops…tons and tons of networking, learning and picking up pieces of furniture here and there, I had myself a business! Reinvented at 51!

 I have now been in business with my vintage home decor shop in my home for a year and a half. It’s the very very best job I’ve ever had. I don’t know how I can even classify it as a job when I’m so in love with it.

 The trick to reinventing yourself is to absolutely and undoubtedly, choose something you are passionate about. It’s in you…just think about what it is you love to do…think hey…can I make a living from this passion?

Food for thought ~ warm smile ~ Rhonda

Branding Country Chic

I’ve been really needing to brand my Country Chic shop!  To make Country Chic my very own.

I desired a caricature of me being all artsy fartsy and talented looking. A cute country but chic looking cartoon woman with paint brush in hand just doing her painting thing with a piece of vintage furniture. I love to look all smart like …while of course, being superbly attractive doing it. Vain till the end!

 I spoke with my talented illustrator friend and I told him that I have two stipulations…one…make me young looking. (Being over 50 and such and what-not and all that tomfoolery) Please make me young and super good looking. Also, the obvious, all of us women desire…make me look thin! …and pah-leese make sure my pre-movember/pre-menopause moustache is not visual to the naked eye.

 My preliminary sketch arrived today and I am beside myself excited and awestricken with his talent…he’s genius ’cause I say he is!! I just cannot wait to see the finish product and share it all with you. It is so important to brand your business. You want to be as successful as you know you can. Branding builds a strong company “essence” that inspires loyalty and trust and provides a level of familiarity and comfort to draw in potential customers. When a piece of furniture leaves my shop, it is a reflection of me…my brand. Although shabby chic furniture isn’t something new and Rachel Ashwell has branded her own shabby chic creations…but all of us are different. We all have our own twists to our businesses.

I adore, I love, I am obsessed with vintage treasures and I love how they incorporate themselves in with the shabby chic/country look. I much prefer the ‘real’ vintage to reproduction. I’ve been networking for the last year and a half since I began my business venture and networking has brought many ‘pickers’ to me. I’ve met the most incredible, eccentric, eclectic gaggle of collectors, pickers and artisans. I’ve learned to pick and barter on my own as well. I love authentic pieces…a reproduction piece has to be very well made for me to love it.

 I will keep you up-to-date with my Country Chic caricature…I hope this lil’ blurb helps any ‘would be’ entrepreneurs out there in the big giant land of small business. I know my new venture with branding will help my business ten-fold. I really believe that it will show the fun side of what Country Chic and I have to offer.

 Cheers my lovely Dears
xo Rhonda