Amerikan Body Art Newsletter

Timing is Everything….

About a year ago, I was walking through a small indoor business emporium in our historic downtown area. There were a couple of retail shops, a bar, and a sweet shop. I was saying, “This would be a great place to set up a little henna booth. I should contact the building owners to see if they would consider setting up kiosks in the walkway.” I never did contact them or think much about it again…until two weeks ago.

My husband and I were walking around downtown and stepped into the emporium to see that there were two empty kiosks inside the building. One of them had a flyer on the door with the rental information. Now I thought to myself, “I asked for kiosks, and now there are kiosks….How can I not look into renting one when the Universe has clearly answered me?”

Getting in touch with someone in charge of the place was a real test of my tenacity. The website that was listed on the flyer was not working, and there was no phone number on the flyer. So I Googled the Railroad Emporium Business Center and came up with an old real estate listing. The people in that office gave me the contact information for Rick, who was now in charge of the building. I called the real estate office where Rick worked and they told me that I needed to contact the owner of the building, Chuck. Well, Chuck lives in Colorado and had me call his local property manager, Mike. I left a message for Mike and his wife, Laura called me back. Mike and Laura were out of town, so I’d have to talk to John, who is keeping an eye on things until they get back….Are you having any trouble keeping up with this? So, I finally talk with John, and he asks when I would like to meet to get the keys. I decided that I’d better just go right now before John leaves town and hands me off to someone else, lol.

So, I get to the Emporium and wait for John to arrive. He gets there and realizes that he doesn’t have a key to the building. Fortunately, another tenant let us in. So, John and I are talking and trying to gather as much information as we can so I can get in there and get started in time for our monthly downtown street party next Friday, when we are approached by Rick and Angela. It turns out that this is the same Rick that I was supposed to talk to in the first place. He asked if I was interested in the kiosk, and I said, “Yeah…I just handed over a $1200 deposit check and I’m ready to start moving in.” Well, then Rick says…”Wait, that kiosk may already be rented. I’m working out a deal with someone who wants to turn the entire center walkway into a gallery that will be an extension of a nightclub that they’re opening here.” I quickly explained that body art totally goes with the nightclub crowd and our business would turn their gallery walk into an interactive experience. Rick agreed that my business sounds like a perfect fit and grabbed the phone to call his business partners to get the okay.

So Rick comes back and says, “You know…we were wondering how we would manage to have an open gallery during the day and who we would hire to staff it. But if you’re going to be in here with your business, you could just take the money for any art that sells and we’ll share the commission with your business.” So…I’m getting my body art booth like I originally wanted, instead of a half-empty emporium, there’s going to be a nightclub and art gallery to draw in more business for me, and I’m going to get commissions from the sales in the art gallery. Uhhhh, yeah, I’m in! But I did have to laugh at the fact that in a space of 2 hours, I went from just picking up the keys to my body art kiosk to becoming an art gallery curator, lol. I couldn’t help thinking, “I basically just interviewed for a job while wearing flip flops, a “Mom Rocks” t-shirt, and no make-up whatsoever.” Nothing I do is normal.

When things were becoming so difficult to get started, I had to question whether or not this was a way of telling me that this wasn’t a good idea. Our downtown area can be sort of slow at times. But the rent for the kiosk isn’t so expensive that it would be a huge loss…and you just never know if something will work until you try it. So I stuck with it and the pieces all seem to be falling in the right places. Even Rick was saying he couldn’t believe how perfect the timing was as he was not even supposed to be there today, but his trip out of town had been postponed for a few hours so he just happened to be there in time to run into me. Had he left earlier or had I gotten there later, we may never have met and I may have just been told that the kiosk that I wanted was already rented. I shouldn’t be too surprised. I started this business in my garage, and look at me now. The key seems to be keeping an open mind and staying flexible enough to evolve as needed. I don’t know if this whole gallery thing will work out, but I’m just going to open my little body art kiosk and see where things go from there.

I’ll try posting some photos on my facebook as things develop so you can see how our little kiosk turns out. Life is Great!

~Erika