Islamic clothing business

My husband and I moved from Florida in Oct. 2007 to Richardson, Texas to open an Islamic clothing store, Middle Eastern Boutique. It has been an adventure. Isn't it funny how you always have expectations about how a situation is going to be but things never turn out that way? Things usually require a lot more work than you expect but are much more rewarding too. I guess that is why most business owners quit before their business takes off. It is easy to get burned-out when you try so hard.



My husband has worked day and night to establish the store. He designed the entire layout and is structuring the marketing, stock and etc. He begins from 1 a.m. to as late as 4 a.m. each morning at the store to get things done. I am always amazed at his dedication and endurance. It doesn't matter how cold it is outside, how sick he might be or tired he gets up extra early and gets moving.

I never realized it was going to take so much work. However, our business is not just our retail store, we sell online wholesale, http://www.411hijabs.com/, and retail, http://www.middleeasternmall.com/, Islamic clothing also. Honestly the store alone would not be enough to survive right now. My husband planned to have the online business sustain us while we build up clientele in the store. He has done a great job plannig the business and keeping us afloat.

We always kept in mind 'doing things within our ways and means'. We started our business in a 1 bedroom apartment in Ft. Lauderdale. Slow growth so we can perfect each step. That way we make smaller mistakes and build on the successes. It works well. Not as much stress as making a huge loan for capital and having insane business loan payments. Anyhow we are Muslims so we try to avoid dealing with interest. It does seem loans tend to enslave people especially in the form of credit cards and other easy credit. Thank God we have no mortgage loan and car loans! One of our major goals is to eliminate our credit card debt. Just to use credit cards to buy business items and pay the balance monthly so we do not have to pay interest.