Small Business Shopster

I believe certain people come into our lives and we cross paths for different reasons for particular times. Small business owner, Jan Erickson, is one of those people for me. It was a brief crossing of paths, but none the less it was a moment of being inspired by a strong, caring woman whose words touched me probably more than she even realized.

That particular day I was struggling with the idea of driving one and a half hours to Colorado Springs by myself. Luckily, the scenery was incredible and blasting music distracted me from thinking about the realities of my own life. I’m about to be reluctantly vulnerable right now and this is not the way I planned on writing this story, but here it goes…

I was in Colorado a few weeks ago visiting family and friends where we used to live. Floods of memories were circling my mind as well as wondering what my future may look like. For the last couple of years, I’ve been going through a hard, emotional divorce (what divorce isn’t). It was a 20-year marriage and during those years my life revolved around my ex and my two beautiful children. We moved nine times with kids for his career and I was a stay-home mom.  I’ve been lacking motivation and a desire to re-invent myself and figure out who I am again, on my own.

I went back to school a handful of years ago and took Social Documentary classes where we traveled to Washington D.C. and Santa Fe looking for feature stories about people. That’s where my interest for hearing and writing other’s life stories and experiences all began.

So, this is me, putting myself out there telling stories of small business owners starting a business from scratch just as I’m doing now with a new life and my own freelance writing business.

Small business owners are living the American dream. Jan Erickson literally followed her dreams. In 2001, she woke up in the middle of the night from a dream about a coat, got up and sketched what she envisioned. It was a recurring dream, one that kept popping into her mind sporadically while she was running and going about her days. Jan kept pushing the idea away because she had no background in design or manufacturing. Weeks went by and she finally told her husband about this repeated dream and said she needed to do something about it.

Her friend, Jean, had been in the hospital for weeks because of a series of strokes and eventually she went to a long term care facility. She saw how her friend’s spirit declined and wanted to do something to help her mentally feel better. People seemed to treat Jean differently and didn’t seem to notice or pay much attention to her. That’s when Jan started to plant her ideas into making her friend feel fashionable and as she puts it, a sense of “personhood.” Jean lit up when someone would say how a particular color looked beautiful on her. She had a contour lap blanket made for Jean and other ideas started rolling.

Jan researches and asks physical therapists and doctors what their patient’s needs are after surgery or other hardships and what clothing is practical. Her goal is to make those garments fashionable so they can feel good about themselves through a difficult time and give that sense of “personhood” to them.

Jan’s business, Janska, launched in 2003 from a one-room office to now a warehouse of coats, rain jackets, scarves, and hats.

They started out by going to the Denver Merchandise Mart with five to six items, hoping hospital gift shops would place orders. People said they would be lucky to get one to two orders, three at the most because they didn’t know anyone and no one knew them. They got approximately 15 orders and only one was a hospital order. The original goal to market to the medical field started to take a different route or so it seemed.

Jan said, “You try something over and over again and there’s a point you just sort of surrender and let it go and say to the universe if this is supposed to happen, I’m showing up, but you need to open some doors and why do all these doors seem shut?” Other doors have opened and she continues to knock on the doors that seem to only open an inch.

She sells to specialty boutiques, stores and trade shows and has a catalog and website, but Jan still is reaching out to the medical professional world to help people like her friend Jean, who now sadly has left this earth. Jan continues to broaden that simple coat of many dreams into reality (yes, I just played on “the coat of many colors” story).

Jan was 50 years old when she had those dreams and she said it’s never too late and you’re never too old to start something. Well, Jan Erickson, you have inspired me to get my 40 something year old rear in gear and I hope to spread some kindness and live my dreams just as you are doing with the care that goes into your clothing line.

Janska is generously donating a raincoat, Tacoma, for a drawing that will take place Tuesday, June 27^th for #tuesdaytreat. The winner must be 18 years old and will be able to pick the color and size. Simply LIKE and/or COMMENT on my blog, Facebook page, and/or Instagram (@Small Business Shopster). If you SHARE this post your name will be entered TWICE.

Go to their website www.janska.com to view their items and use the coupon code Shopster to get 20% off your purchase. Thank you, Janska! Please support this small business, which is one of the many little vertebrate in the backbone of America making MADE in the USA.