In so many towns across Canada you will find iconic retailers,
a retailer that has been serving the community for several years, sometimes decades.
Wall Street is one such retailer.
Founded by Janine Wall, Wall Street has been a fixture in Duncan BC's picturesque downtown for the past 35 years!
I first met Janine when I started my business. From Victoria on the southern tip of Vancouver Island I would jump in my car loaded with sunglass samples and fueled by coffee & optimism i would travel up and down the Island stopping into every shop, boutique and store that I thought would sell sunglasses to ask if they might want to sell MY sunglasses?
Without a scheduled meeting, no sales training and hardly any past experience in sales, I'd walk into these store's with just my sunglasses samples and a smile saying that I have a sunglass brand I think your customers would love and asking if the manager or owner was in.
In those early days of cold calling on stores I think I learnt more about business than any college business degree could have ever taught me.
One of those business lessons was something I discussed with Janine on this recent visit to Wall Street, the lesson that many times your idea does not have to be perfect, but to just START.
We had both seen people who wanted to start a business but hesitated because of all the "what if's" or because a small detail wasn't just perfect and in the end never started the business they had been dreaming of.
Over the course of Wall Street's 35 years in business there were times filled with "what if's" and not perfect situations. From small things to navigating through a global pandemic or tariffs, to years ago taking a chance on doing business with a guy who had a sunglasses brand and a folded up piece of paper for an order pad!
But thankfully for the community of Duncan (and Kuma) for the past 35 years Janine has made the choice in a world of what if's and things not always being perfect to just START.
So if you have something you have been wanting to build and are waiting for everything to be perfect, maybe it's time to just START.
Who knows, maybe 35 years from now that thing you started will be called iconic too!
