Sometimes change can be a scary thing, but with zero change there can be zero growth; well at least that is what I kept reminding myself as we embarked on this major {and intimidating I might add} business transition. At the end of February, we said goodbye to our little carriage house off of Dewey Ave. That was our first permeant home for the business and I loved that little carriage house dearly. Well, I still love the little carriage house dearly, but it had come time to thank the space for all it has done for my business and move forward, #MarieKondo; of course there were a lot more tears involved with the actual goodbye, but I did know that it was going to be a great first home to another small business in OKC and with that I was at peace.

       If you have been following along on social media for some time I am sure you know that we moved in to the cutest pink shipping container that ever was! It is crazy to me how my vision of my business has actually come full circle, but I guess a little back story is in order to explain what I mean, so let’s go back to the beginning...

            After several years working in the fashion industry in NYC, I caught the entrepreneurial bug. I will be brutally honest with you here, sometimes I think this “entrepreneurial bug” is a curse, but I promise if you have ever caught it, it is definitely something that cannot be ignored {trust me I tried}. Back to OKC I came, ready to dive head first in to this new entrepreneurial adventure; however, after several months of crafting the perfect business plan I failed to be realistic about the amount of money that would be required to start my own shop; let’s remember here that at this time in my life I only saw boutiques in their “traditional” setting, either inside a shopping center or strip mall, so all my financials were based on this viewpoint. So sadly, I had to put my dreams on hold while I went back to work. Serval months in to my new office job, that pesky entrepreneur bug started creeping up on me again; however, this time I decided to try a different avenue in order to suffice this condition. I went back to school in order to obtain my Master’s in Entrepreneurship. This was my perfect solution, get a paycheck, save up funds, all while satisfying the entrepreneur in me. Towards the end of my program an opportunity popped up that I just could not refuse. I had been extended an invitation to join OSU in their EESA program, Entrepreneurship and Empowerment in South Africa. I took a 6 week leave of absence from my office job and off to Cape Town I went. Now I promise I will break down all I learned from my experience in South Africa in another blog post, but in order to wrap up our back story I will just sum it up as THIS WAS THE BEST LEARNING EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE. Why? Because for the first time I saw things differently; I was able to see that there is not just one way to structure a business. These entrepreneurs were creative, resourceful, and passionate, nothing they did was “traditional”. After returning to the US I felt ridiculous for thinking that my boutique had to be like everyone else’s, so I started researching, and you know what I started researching… converting shipping containers! One of the entrepreneurs we worked with in South Africa had converted a shipping container in to a coffee shop…genius! So, it was settled, Cargo Room would be a shop inside of a shipping container. However, after much due diligence I started realizing there was a lot more to converting a shipping container than meets the eye. Not only is it extremely expensive to source and rebuild, but there would be a tremendous amount of struggle with city permitting that would have to occur. After thinking I had failed again that’s when that article fell in to my lap, people on the east/west coasts were transforming RV’s, box trucks, Uhaul trucks, and trailers in to mobile shops. Well, you know the rest of that story!

Five years later, my vision for Cargo Room has finally fully manifested itself {it was just a different route then I initially thought}. We are beyond excited about our new pink container and using this incredible opportunity to start fresh. We love sharing this space with you! 

Best Wishes-

Heather