She opened her own business, and the neighbors at the entrance decided that it was a charitable organization with free services. I had to disperse the line of freeloaders with a filthy broom.
My mother taught me to sew when I was a child. She sewed beautifully herself, learned from books and magazines. If you remember, there were times when decent clothes were not available.
So my mother got out of the situation by buying a sewing machine from her hands and taking a stack of magazines with patterns from her fashionista friend. The result of her amateur performance, as dad said, exceeded all our expectations.
The outfits in which I flaunted at the holidays became the envy of all my girlfriends. Later, my mother also learned to machine embroidery and began to decorate my dresses and suits with beautiful patterns.
You should have seen my prom dress! It was a real sensation, all the popular girls of our “parallel” just gnashed their teeth in anger. In general, it is not surprising that I also began to sew.
First for yourself. She sewed bed linen, clothes for her children, things for her husband. It turned out well, my friends and their acquaintances began to contact me. So I got the idea to open my own atelier.
I had a small workshop in my plans, but with the prospect of expansion. If there are many orders, you can invite another seamstress. Just then, in our city, they announced additional measures to support small businesses.
I spread my brains, conferred with my husband and girlfriends. There were risks, of course. Suddenly business will not go, there will be few clients. However, I still made up my mind. A suitable room was found in our house.
Very convenient, no need to go through the whole city. At lunchtime, I come home and generally have a great opportunity to look after my schoolchildren. Together with my husband, we did a cosmetic renovation in the room.
I ordered a sign, decorated the entrance with large flowerpots. Found some good fabric suppliers. I have expanded the range of my services and now I am also engaged in minor repairs of clothes.
From the words of my friends, I know how sometimes you need to have a good seamstress or a small atelier on hand. Replace zippers on clothes, hem pants, patch holes in your favorite things. All this is also important for my end user.
One of my friends, for example, once tearfully complained that she had to drag herself to another part of the city to replace the zipper on her down jacket. Not a single studio was found in the vicinity of her house. You understand how annoying people are to waste time.
One fine day, a woman with a package in her hands looked into my studio. I took a closer look and recognized her as my next door neighbor. She also threw up her hands: “So you opened an atelier in our house? But we don’t know. We thought someone was a stranger. That’s luck.”
The woman explained that she needed to hem new trousers. I bought it on the market, but at home I found that the length of the thing did not suit her. “You can do it for me like a neighbor, at a discount. After all, we are not strangers.”
Of course, I was very surprised by the last words. I did not know that living in the same entrance makes citizens relatives. But, since I just had a promotion for new customers, I made a nice discount for the woman.
And since then it has started. All the inhabitants of our entrance reached out to me with various requests to sew, sew, rip and tuck. The promotion for new customers has long ended for me.
And the impudence of the neighbors does not come to a logical end. Everyone asks to do the work not only at a discount, but simply for free. As if the fact that one of them lives above or below me gives them some kind of exclusive right.
I understand when grandmothers, who already have a tiny pension, beg for a price reduction. But when quite wealthy people who park expensive cars in our yard are asked to do something for nothing, my hair just stands on end.
Some of these rich people said to me: “There is work for two minutes, do you also want to take money for this?” Can you imagine? That is, they seriously devalue my work, my skills, which, by the way, they do not possess.
What if I come to their car service and ask them to fix my car for free? I will say that there is work for an hour. Will it be nonsense for them too? At first, in response to such impudent requests, I apologized and said that the action was over.
But, seeing dissatisfied muzzles, and I can’t put it differently, freeloaders, I began to sharply answer that I don’t do charity work. My husband is completely supportive. He says that lovers of freebies should be driven away, far and for a long time.
The neighbors did not understand me, and now a good half of the entrance does not talk to me. You see, offended. Say, I opened my own business, became a star and felt superior to everyone.
They call me different words bad. No, my dears, it was you who went too far and forgot that every work must be paid, including the services of your neighbor.
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