Whatever happened to JUJU Season?

From the moment I started fashion school, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I wanted to create (I learned this term years later) a vertically integrated clothing boutique. The idea was to have a clothing store where every garment is designed, created, retailed and made in the Bahamas. After graduating, I had no idea how to accomplish this goal so I decided to go back to school. I studied fashion marketing and merchandising in Canada (this is where I learned the fancy term that I mentioned earlier). I learned about so many different aspects of the fashion industry and that my dream was already a reality and something that I could actually accomplish!

After I returned to The Bahamas, I floated around, working for several designers to get reacquainted with design and clothing production before I hosted my first pop up shop. Although it was very stressful because I did all the work alone, it was also very rewarding. After having a conversation with one of my sisters, we decided to go into business together. That is when JUJU Season began to take shape.

Between that initial conversation and the opening of our brick and mortar store; so many things happened! We gained a partner, we lost that partner but then we gained another; we created our business plan, hosted our first pop-up shop and hired a few part-time employees. But in the end JUJU Season was here and it was the beginning of something that would be here for a long time to come…. Or so we thought.

“When you fail to plan, you plan to fail” - Benjamin Franklin

Remember earlier I had mentioned that so many things happened in between the first conversation and the store opening? Well some of those things included not listening to our intuition, cutting costs in things like marketing and not having a sufficient cushion to lean on. Before reaching our one year mark, we were faced with several situations and we knew that we were unable to remain at our current location any longer.

No one goes into business thinking that they will fail. Knowing that we would not see a profit in the first few years, we intended to stay at that location for a while. Now, less than a year later; we had to make a decision, relocate or go out of business. Although, realistically speaking, there were other choices, these seemed to be our only options at the time. We went with the easiest route and closed down our store.

Knowing what I know today, would I still have done the same thing? I can easily say no, but truthfully, I really don’t know. But I don’t look at my experience as a failure; more like a lesson learnt. I have a dream, and I still believe that there is a place for it. Will JUJU Season ever come back? Only time will tell.