All About Lemon

Only seems right to have the first blog post be all about Lemon. Lemon is my gift shop in California. Really Lemon is my third business. My first business was a jewelry line, second business was baby and kids clothing line and then one day I went "I need a business that I will not get bored with and I can quit my corporate job." I also wanted a job where I could be home more for my kids. And boom there was the idea for Lemon. The ultimate gift shop with items for the home, baby, women's, kids, guys, organic spa items and seasonal must have's. I can tell you no one thought it was a good idea but good thing I am a risk taker and went for it.

I launched Lemon as a pop up shop in 2017 and with in months the demand was so high I jumped right in and went for it. Left corporate America after 10 year to open my first store. I also launched Lemon with truly a fraction of what you 'should' have to start a brick and mortar, so lesson be always run your own numbers and follow your own path. If it was up to the experts I would not have opened my store.

By 2018 we had a full ecommerce site and were shipping all over the world and by 2019 we had opened our second store. Sadly in 2020 with covid shut downs in CA we did close one store but that was truly for my own sanity. Multiple stores is a lot of work and with my kids home it was too much. Once we went back to one store and kept the online going I could grow the business in a different way.

In 2020 we also moved from the Bay Area to Nashville and I had to learn to manage Lemon from a across the country which makes me laugh. When I started Lemon I was going to work it all myself with no employees. Store was open Tuesday - Saturday 10-3pm. At 3pm I would close up and go be mom. Someone said to me the goal in owning a business is so it works for you not you work for it which is true but at the time I was just happy to be my own boss and not have long days at work. Plus I love Lemon and still to this day work feels like fun.

But quickly the 3pm close and only open 5 days a week was a no go as people wanted the store open more. I added one employee to help. Well long story short we now have 7 employees, including Courtney our amazing store manager, Joslyn our head of operation and the rest of the amazing Lemon team. With our team running to store day to day I could move to Nashville and still have my store there in the Bay Area.

Throughout the years that I have owned Lemon time and time again women have asked me for business advice and quickly it turned into me coaching them. I would like to write a business/self help book to really lay out all the things they don't tell you about owning and running a business. It is kind of like when you have your first baby and go wait why didn't anyone tell me about this or that but for business and life.

Let me be an example. YOU can do it all. This is why I love helping others. Helping you be the best you, reach all your goals and live your best life. Because you only live once. Make it count.