A shop, or a place to breathe easy?

I asked a wise person to have a look at my website pre going live. She asked me to consider whether the prime purpose for the shop was spiritual awareness, or to sell things. She said that it currently looked as though it was the former and suggested that, if I actually wanted to make any money, I might want to redress the balance.

This was indeed a good question, and I have spent a couple of days thinking about it. Do I want the shop to make money? Yes, for sure. It would be pretty silly not to, as it won’t be here very long if it doesn’t. Is it, however, my main objective? I have prevaricated between thinking that surely it must be, as what is a shop if not somewhere to sell things? …and that, though I want to sell things and make money doing so, my main objective is to have created a space to give people access to things that can help them along the path to greater wisdom, awareness, and spiritual health.

Having sat with the question for a while, I find myself aligning most strongly with the desire to have created a means to help people along the path of mindful wellness and spiritual growth. Alongside that, I hold the belief that if I have got it right, people will buy things and the shop will make money. Holding this belief won’t stop me from promoting things, nor (probably) stop me worrying during the times when sales are low. Neither will it stop me from the immense excitement I feel when I open a delivery parcel and thinking about how many people will love what I’m unwrapping and putting into stock. Thinking about this excellent question, for which I am very grateful, has helped me become clearer on what I want this shop to be, and how I want to position myself in relation to it. I do not, for instance, want to find myself second guessing what people will want to buy in order to ‘chase the money’, I feel in my bones that it just won’t work. Will I make mistakes? No doubt. The question is whether I will learn from them, and let them guide me into having a space that people like to be in, stocking things that really will help people along their paths in the way that I believe they will, and, of course, that people will want to buy them.