Navigating a brand new business in a pandemic

How an event organizer took time in the pandemic to re-focus on her dream of a community store-front and inspire others around her

By Heather Fegan

Cathy Akinkunmi always wanted her own community store. While COVID has wreaked havoc on her wedding and event decorating business, Beautiful Celebrations, with events continuously needing to be postponed or cancelled, it’s allowed her the time and space to focus on another dream—opening Eunoia Lifestyle Shop. And while COVID is still preventing her shop from fully becoming the community space she dreams of, she has her sights set on joyful times to come.

Eunoia Lifestyle Shop is a business that celebrates community and the people in it, with a focus on creating joy and beautiful moments.

It’s the desire to be a role model—Akinkunmi says she didn’t have someone who looks like her who owns a storefront like the one she’s opened—and wanting to amplify makers in the BIPOC community, sharing and encouraging smaller brands that are new to the market —that inspire’s Akinkunmi most.

Being a successful small business entrepreneur is no small feat. She’s wearing all the hats: shop owner, event decorator, wife, mother, friend, role model, and community champion. Plus the whirlwind of navigating lock-down measures while keeping the shop’s lights on.

INSPIRE ME Magazine caught up with Akinkunmi to talk about the struggles, challenges, balance, perseverance, and joy it takes to own and operate a small business.

Cathy Akinkunmi took time in the pandemic to re-focus on her dream of a community store-front to inspire others around her. Photo: yumi.m.photography

An interview with the owner of Halifax’s Eunoia Lifestyle Shop, Cathy Akinkunmi

M: How did you get here to owning and operating your own small business?

C: I’m a wedding decorator and I’ve been doing that for almost 10 years this July. Beautiful Celebrations is a showroom I had on Agricola Street in Halifax until November last year. This is something I’ve always wanted to do, but just didn’t have the time or the means to do it. It didn’t align because I was just going, going, going.

But with COVID in the mix, I’ve been able to sit down and plan. And of course, the wedding and event industry, we pretty much couldn’t do anything, right? All our events were rescheduled, about 40 events and weddings. We did a few backyard weddings but really nothing much. So we really didn’t have a wedding season, and this year isn’t looking good either. So from the end of last March/April, I had all that time to start thinking about it. I started with decor because that’s really what I do for decorating, so home decor and then I was able to just diversify as I was thinking of what I want to offer as other items to kind of make a full, rounded shopping experience, if you will.

IM: Did you ever have any intention of having a lifestyle general store before COVID?

C: Before COVID I always wanted to have a community store. I didn’t want to be in a mall, I just wanted to be in a small community. I’ve always loved when I go out and see a bakery, or a sweet store or an ice-cream shop in a community. I didn’t know what I would offer but I just knew I always wanted that type of small store. But I wouldn’t have done it without COVID slowing me down.

Cathy Akinkunmi always dreamed of having her own storefront in the community. She opened Eunoia Lifestyle shop In halifax’s north end. Photo: yumi.m.photography

IM: Will you still keep your foot in the door with wedding and event planning?

C: Yes. I have my Beautiful Celebrations things in storage because I have a lot of inventory. Then I have an office space setup in Eunoia where I do consultations. This Saturday I was supposed to have two events that were just cancelled. I had five events in May, that were booked in April, small events including a baby shower and one small wedding. People thought it was going to be ok.

I used to do balloons for Beautiful Celebrations, which I’ve brought to Eunoia. My balloons are biodegradable so people do like that. I did some balloon work through the North End Business Association (NEBA) where I was installing them in the front-end of businesses when we came out of the previous lockdown. So people got to know me a little bit. So I just incorporated that into Eunoia. So I do now offer walk-in balloon orders. We’ve been doing balloon delivery or pickup.

And then with Beautiful Celebrations if you had something you wanted us to set up. If it’s something more detailed, more event-style then I’ll do that through Beautiful Celebrations. Everything’s just started so I am just working things out. But I think I know what Eunoia will do and what Beautiful Celebrations will do. But yes I do still have 40 weddings to do, unless they get cancelled. I may do less, I may pick and choose, but I’ll still do that.

IM: How do you balance entrepreneurship in your life with two businesses?

C: Work life balance is always the mirage, the optical illusion. I’m not quite sure I would have been able to do it, to be honest, if my kids were really young. I had Beautiful Celebrations at a time when my kids were really small. I wanted to provide myself with flexibility, if they were sick and I had to not be in. It was all consultation, so I had to meet with clients. But this is a store-front. That means you’re there or your business staff is there, if you have staff.

Work life balance is always the mirage, the optical illusion.

I have three kids that are pretty much self-sufficient. I have one in university and I have one going to university this year, and one that is in Junior High. And then I have a seven-year-old, my little boy. He tries to be mature and self-sufficient. So I am able to balance but even though your kids are grown, they still need you. In fact, I have one going to college in the States, who just got a scholarship. But that took a long time, figuring out what she would need, having to fill out the applications and everything. So yeah, kids still need you no what stage they’re at. My university girl comes home and she still needs me. I have my husband, and we have our whole house to take care of. So I try to schedule things or delegate as many things as I can. I am lucky to have a staff member that does help with a lot of work in the shop, with anything I give my instruction to do. I’m there myself too. I’m blowing up balloons, packing orders, talking to clients, doing the back-end. I’m there full cycle too, but I am able to also delegate stuff to her.

The thing is, since when I started this, nobody has really been able to do anything, right? So there’s been no parties, no music class to drop your child to, no basketball to go to. I might be living in a bubble right now. Reality might hit when I need to run a kid to basketball practice, and then to a game. It might be different.

Akinkunmi says One thing she’s learned as a busy entrepreneur is to seek as much support as possible. Photo: yumi.m.photography

IM: Can you talk about some of the struggles you’ve come across?

C: The thing about being a small business entrepreneur is you wear all the hats. Maybe you can subcontract a few things, maybe the book-keeping or your website. But for the most part you do everything. Even your website, you still go and do the daily things. Unless you’re a big company, you’re daily updating your inventory or pricing. So you’re wearing all the hats. Which is the biggest challenge of entrepreneurship that I find because you don’t have a dedicated department doing this, or another department doing that. You do everything yourself. It can be lonely, so you do struggle. You don’t go to an office space with ten other people. So you try to figure it out. You’re learning and learning, then you do it wrong you. You have to learn quickly, then you don’t do it again that way. It’s trial and error.

One thing I’ve learned is to seek as much support as possible. Being in the North End has been a blessing for me. I have some women I call Boss Ladies, so when this all happened with COVID, everything I was dealing with, there was rent to pay last minute, payroll to make, there was almost two weeks of slow sales when the case numbers were going up and people weren’t coming in. But we were calling each other and talking to each other and texting and on Instagram together. I really try to align myself to people that share the same struggles that I share. Women, small business, store front. I have quite a handful of those and I’ve seen more of those since I opened Eunoia because when I had my boutique days it was more of a niche. If I talked to other people about the wedding industry, they didn’t understand because we were more of a niche. So we just bubbled with the wedding industry people. But now it’s like the whole landscape has opened for me. Instagram has been really helpful. I am able to reach a lot of people, people just message you about loving the stuff, so you start a lot of conversations that way. We do a lot of giveaways together.

IM: It goes back to that whole idea of being in the community. You’re not in a mall. You’re right in the community. What inspired you down this road?

C: For the store, I wanted a role model. Being in the industry I didn’t have someone who looks like me who owns a storefront. Everybody owns an Afro-centric or ethnic restaurant or an ethinc clothing store. Something very niche to ethnicity or culture. I didn’t really have something where anybody could just shop there and I always wondered ‘how come we don’t have anything like that here?’

I am a mentor with YMCA so it’s along the lines that I want to inspire. They asked me to come and give a talk. I didn’t think about it like that, but when they asked me to share my story and the next thing I was on a panel to choose three of the entrepreneurs they would give a grant to, and I just felt that desire to do more, to really inspire. That was one of the things that really energized me.

As well, my product line that I carry. I wanted to be able to amplify the BIPOC community. When someone’s product is new, it's not known on the market. Most of us don’t want to take a chance on a soap-maker that doesn’t have a name that everybody remembers. So I wanted to work with them. They were still working on their branding, working on a lot of stuff, they have 200 followers on Instagram. They’re new. So I wanted to encourage them, help them. I might carry bigger brands but I still want those smaller brands that I love to share and encourage.

I do have some fair trade things that come from women in Africa, like my baskets, African Black Soap comes from Ghana, I have beads and jewelry that comes from Kenya, some from Uganda, all fair-trade women. That’s the social consciousness and one of the values that I try to keep when I curate.

Plus we also offer workshops. I’ve done balloon workshops, and we just got cancelled because of COVID but I was supposed to have a Wreath Workshop through Barefoot Blooms, she is a former florist. I’ve known her for years through the wedding industry. She was supposed to give a Mummy and Me wreath class. We will do it another time but we are supposed to do the first Wednesday of every month, 6-8pm, on either a seasonal wreath or a garland. She is a former florist, so she is very very knowledgeable with that. We had good bookings for that.

So that’s the idea behind how I want to offer a pop-up shop. I have another lady with a book she published through Amazon. She has this book she published during COVID. So when everything is fine I want her to come to the store and do a book launch and a book signing. For her to say “Oh I did launch my book” and we’ll do some publicity around it. She can see people in front and put a poster out, sign some books, and talk about what inspired her to write the book.

So that’s everything that I’ve wanted. You know, COVID has prevented some of it for the time but this will pass and we’ll get back to the way we used to live.

Akinkumni amplifies makers in the BIPOC community, sharing and encouraging smaller brands that are new to the market, along with the bigger brands on her shelves. Photo: yumi.m.photography

IM: For your personally, what are some of the things that make you feel refreshed?

C: I carry some bubble baths, like Cosmic, that I use for self-care. Not as much as I’d like to, but I try to do self-care because it calms me down. I like binge-watching stuff with my kids, family time, especially on weekends. On Sundays I’ll enjoy just one day I don’t have to do anything because it’s all about the family, the kids. It gives me a chance to just recharge before the next week. I’m also off on Mondays too.. So Sundays are the re-charge, with family. But Mondays, everybody is gone. Normally Monday is my day to just be myself.

I love travelling though we can't travel anymore, we always travel every year to the Dominican, we have a time share there. I have a few girls groups where we go to movies together, we can’t do a lot of that anymore. We have our Whatsapp group, we have a lot in common so that really helps me to have girlfriends.

IM: Is there anything else you want to share that’s going on in the shop?

C: I set up a balloon bar but I don't know when we are going to be comfortable doing that. People can come in and I have instructions on a tv screen and they can do an organic garland themselves, just like you see at the Clay Cafe, everybody likes to do a DIY. I give you everything you need to do a four-foot garland and you look at the screen and you follow the instructions.It’s just satisfying to be able to do something like that. So I have the set-up, we just haven’t been able to do it in COVID. That’s another thing that will get people in.

Another thing I want to do, I have a lot of faux greenery, so I’ve done this for a few people, they’ll buy the greenery and say, can you do an arrangement for us? So being in the wedding industry, I do this for brides. I do their garland. I have a lot of vases from being in the wedding industry, so will pop it in a vase and do an arrangement and people love it. I’ve done garland for people to put on their mantle. So I do love that.

With COVID, it’s just trying to see what we can and can't do. COVID does not make anything normal. You have to priorizative what you are going to focus on to keep the store going. I know when everything gets back to pre-covid times, a lot more stuff will be able to be done.

You never realize how many things being together we do that we take for granted, how much living normally is just being able to be together. COVID makes everything so gloomy. You want to do more, you want to be excited, now we have this cloak of… you’re just hoping we get over it so we can be focused on what we’re really meant to be—joyful.