The Car That Crashed Into My Shop

In August 2022 I opened up a shop to retail prints & stationery I'd designed and offer Design services.

I was open for 11 months, about to celebrate my 1 year anniversary, when on the 29th of July 2023, 3 girls (in possession of laughing gas), drove through the front of the shop.

The story that unfolds after this is exactly what you can probably imagine.

Stress, anxiety, but resilience none the less.

First of all, let me start by telling you, there are no words to describe how it feels going to your shop 11pm on a Saturday night and seeing a car parked inside it. Everything you'd spent time, money and energy setting up, putting your heart into, smashed to pieces.

Everyone coming over asking "What are you going to do?" "Have you called your insurance yet?"

And probably the worst question …

"Are you okay?"

I had no idea what would happen now, or what I was supposed to do, I was in shock, and definitely not okay.

So, I decided to be sensible and spend the next day pretending it hadn’t happened.

The Monday after, I went into the estate agents.

(Warning; this is also the story of the most unempathetic man I have ever met in my life)

I went into their office, sat down and the first thing he asked “does your insurance cover you for sheet glass?”
Me: ”Erm I don’t know, I can put my broker on the phone if you want?"
Him: “Oh, you’ve got one of those have you?”

Wow.

Anyway, they wanted me to pay for the window as the landlord’s insurance did not cover this. The argument, rightly so - "there is no shop front, even if Naomi were to pay for a window, where would she put it?”

𝗧𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗸 𝗳*@𝗸 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗘𝗺𝗶𝗹𝘆.

The week after, insurance came to look at the accident and discuss next steps. I'd been advised "accidents like this take about 3-4 months to come back from.” Not ideal - but I could hope to be back open in time for the Christmas rush.

But it seemed, the bad news would keep coming. Months would go by, I would chase and chase and nothing ever seemed to move forward.

After 2 weeks I started avoiding going anywhere locally in case I saw anyone who knew about what had happened, because everyone would ask.

I've never hated 8 words so much in my life "So what's happening with the shop now then?"

So to help avoid this question - in January 2024, I rebranded to Genesis Creative.

"Genesis" actually means "new beginnings" - and for me, this was a new beginning, but it also fit with my line of work as a brand designer.

For a while, I held on wanting to reopen the shop, with the new direction of course. However, by May 2024 I’d given up hoping. I’d been told the landlord wanted to take the driver to court and that this could take months, if not years to resolve.

𝗦𝗼 𝗜 𝗯𝗲𝗴𝗮𝗻 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝘁 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀.

I’d actually found somewhere and was ready to sign, but then in April 2024 my website went down. I won't go into much detail here. But financially, it came down to;

𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗶𝘀𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗿 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝘄𝗲𝗯𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗲?

And I wanted a 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘳 website. One that would make me look the dogs bollocks. So I gave up on having a premises, invested in my marketing and settled on clearing everything out of the shop.

Now, running a business by yourself is difficult anyway. All the hats you have to wear and now somehow, I needed to navigate the clearance of a shop. Selling off stock, getting rid of contents that I no longer needed or had space for.

But, at least there was no rush right?

Wrong.

Fast forward to July 2024 and I get a phone call from the estate agents "A builder will be in the next couple of days to fit a shop front.”

𝗜 𝘄𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝗮 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿 - 𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗻𝗼 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗽 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗻𝘁.

And after a year of chasing everyone, I just assumed it had been held up - again. So I carried on as usual.

Then on the 18th of July 2024, I got an email from the estate agents.

To summarise - “The shop front went on today, when are you moving your stuff out?"

I replied "by the end of September latest.”

You'd think, after everything that has happened, 2 months would be acceptable? But no, this email chain evolved into a full blown argument with none other than Mr Unempathetic himself.

Exact words - “My client isn’t going to allow you to stay until end of September without paying rent.” The client being the landlord. The landlord who has taken 𝘢 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳 to fit a shop front back on. A shop front that took 𝘢 𝘥𝘢𝘺 to install and a delay that has cost me 𝘢 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳 of anxiety and stress.

So of course I argued;

“Everything that's happened has disrupted and basically ruined the business I'd opened" .... "nobody has given me a second thought. Funny how things change now you's all want rent paying.”

Raging doesn't even come close.

I carried on - “As far as I am concerned I am not within any lease agreement”

And finally, we get to my favourite email of all time - “The lease agreement was never abolished"…. "I would also point out that you are not my client. The landlord is my client"….. "As far as I am concerned, the tenancy is still running, rent is now due as from today.”

There was no way on this Earth I was giving anyone a penny for rent. Absolutely f*@king not.

Anyway, I spoke to a legal advisor - "get the keys, get your stuff and get out asap."

So that’s what I did.

Now to answer the 3 FAQs I got every time I spoke to anyone about this;

1 - 𝘋𝘪𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘪𝘳𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘪𝘵?

No - laughing gas doesn’t stay in the system long enough to be tested, so despite being "in possession” of it, there’s no way to prove she was on it.

2 - Did 𝘺𝘰𝘶 get 𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘣𝘺 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦?

Yes - I got both contents and business disruption payouts (if you’re reading this and have neither of those - get them).

3 - Are you okay?

Absolutely now that the PTSD has worn off (ha).

But in all seriousness - I wasn’t at the time, I’m not one for discussing my feelings and issues with people, but this made it feel like I had no escape - I was constantly being asked about it and most days I wanted to just pretend it didn't exist.

The business suffered massively, and as a matter of fact, 5 months later I closed every online account that I still had open for print selling and moved away from it altogether to focus solely on Genesis.

I’m just glad it’s behind me now and something I can see as part of the journey rather than the whole story.

(Cheese alert 🧀) — as awful as it was, I really do believe things happen for a reason. Yes, it was sh*t. Yes, it was traumatic. But if it hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t be where I am today with Genesis.