A Typical Monday Morning in the Life of a Small Business Owner ☕🔑

Monday mornings don’t start with a commute for me – they start with unlocking the workshop.

Our workshop sits proudly in the garden of our Lancashire home, and opening it up each Monday feels a little like opening the doors to my own little world of vintage, creativity, and organised chaos. ✨

Opening Up the Workshop 🛠️

The first job of the day is opening up the main working area. This is very much the hands-on heart of the business and it’s where the magic begins.

Here’s how the space is laid out:

• Cleaning & renovation area – where newly sourced pieces are washed, carefully restored, upcycled, or repaired.
  This is also where we re-tin our copper pans, bringing them back to life and ready for many more years of use.
• Shelving and packing area – home to stock that’s already listed on our website, alongside scales, bubble wrap (lots of it!), and a steady supply of boxes ready for orders.
• The office – separated by a door to keep it calm, quiet, and dust-free.
• The storeroom – accessed through a separate door at the back, holding stock that’s waiting its turn to be processed.

Every area has a purpose, and every Monday reminds me just how much happens behind the scenes of a small online business.

Office First Things First 🖨️📧

I start by opening the office and printing off all the orders from the weekend – and Mondays are usually busy ones. Alongside this, I catch up on emails, answering customer questions and messages that came in over Saturday and Sunday.

And then… help arrives. 💕

Monday Is Packing Day 📦

My daughter visits on a Monday to help with packing, which is always very welcome. Between us, we can have anything from 10 to 30 parcels to prepare, wrap, label, and stack ready to go.

While she packs, I take the opportunity to catch up on the accounting from the weekend. Not the most glamorous part of running a business, but an essential one!

A Well-Earned Lunch Break 📺🥪

We always stop for lunch – and more often than not, Bargain Hunt is on in the background.

After all, we don’t just sell vintage and antiques…
👉 We genuinely love them ourselves.

Do you have a favourite antiques programme you never miss?

The Afternoon Flow 📸✨

The afternoon is a little quieter and more creative. I’ll usually:

• Process and photograph a couple of items ready for listing later in the week
• Edit images and make notes for descriptions
• Schedule social media posts to keep things ticking along online

Before I know it, it’s around 4pm and time to finish up for the day.

Wrapping Up Monday 🚗📮

The parcels are loaded into the car and dropped off at the post office, the workshop is shut up, lights off, doors locked, and everything is ready to start again on Tuesday.

Monday mornings are busy, sometimes tiring, but always satisfying. There’s something special about seeing a weekend’s worth of orders packed up and heading out to new homes.

✨ Next time…
I’ll be answering one of the questions I’m asked most often:

How did you go from being a primary school teacher to a vintage dealer?

Stay tuned – it’s a journey I love sharing.

Have a lovely weekend,
Louise
All Things French Store