My first "official" customer

Thanks to the encouragement of friends telling me this is "my thing".....I am officially going to make helping people feel great in their clothes a business. I ordered business cards this week - that was a big commitment. It took me hours to figure out exactly how it should look, and I have a feeling once they arrive, I will want to change them again.

I had my first paying customer. She was recommended by a friend (Q) and she's seen me every Thursday night for over a year now - hopefully I am some sort of attraction and she asked me if I could help her find some fun clothes for her. So like a big girl, I wrote up a proposal and sent it to her. She agreed to the terms (Imagine that) and off we were! 

I met her at her house for our first meeting which included evaluating her current clothing to 3 groups: What we can work with, get tailored, and give away. I loved doing this. I loved being invited to her private space, the fact that she opened up herself and her closets to me was a treat. As we laughed at some items, like a shamata dress she's kept since she was pregnant years ago, then ah ha'd at why she kept items that had sentimental value to her, we went through everything. Even her little daughter helped. I organized her closets and was done in one hour, and planned for two. I forgot that a big part of this job is organization and I'm a VIRGO - organized to the T! I wanted to go back and organize some more, I know it sounds weird, but it's true.

Our 2nd meeting was at Nordstrom Rack. Our goal was to purchase a lot of clothes within her budget. Now you have to know, going to the Rack is a lot of work. It's like looking for a diamond in a hay stack. You know it's there, but you have to search, search hard and then search again. It's not like a department store where everything is neatly laid out. I arrived 30 minutes before her to do some pre-shopping. Once she got there we went straight to the dressing room. Again, not like my Nordstroms where I can put everything in your nice dressing room and come to check on you. Here, it's 10 items max. We had a lot to try on, so I was going back and forth while she patiently waited for me to bring her more clothes. The first trip was not very successful. So back out on the floor we went, again looking for the diamond. The 2nd trip was much better, we found tops, dresses, pants, wraps and fun sweaters. Items which brought out the best in her figure.  It was a lot of work for her trying on all those things, I know she was pooped. I did receive a text from her the following day letting me know how happy she was with what she bought.

I truly enjoyed these two meetings. Both were on my day off, but it didn't feel like I was working. It felt more like I was helping, and when I help someone, I feel great about myself. So maybe that's the secret to doing what you love?

So who's next?