Surprisingly successful store changes direction on a dime

Jami Paparich and Jen Geoghegan set out to sell home decor, but they found themselves refinishing furniture, which they didn't particularly want to do, so now they're selling Tshirts, candles and soaps.

Oh, and did we mention this all happened in about 90 days? Here's how the whirlwind whirled: The 20-something entrepreneurs, friends for a couple of years, decided to go into business for themselves with Papagan Originals, a store selling home decorative items including restored furniture.

They leased shopping center space at 3993 S.McCarran Blvd.

and opened their doors on June 4.

A Reno Gazette-Journal reporter stopped by.

Geoghegan and Paparich casually mentioned that they'd be willing to refinish furniture brought in by customers.

The next thing they knew, Paparich and Geoghegan had a steady stream of customers bringing by beat-up furniture for restoration.

Papagan Originals was profitable within days, even if the business wasn't exactly what its owners envisioned.

"Not that we minded.

Everyone loved our work," Geohegan says."We couldn't say 'no' to money."

On the other hand, Paparich says, it didn't take long for the duo to figure out that they didn't like working in the fumes of furniture stripper.

Their storefront location wasn't set up for the venture in which they accidentally found themselves.

"It had taken on a life of its own," she says.

Riding a train that was building momentum in a direction they didn't want to go, Paparich and Geoghegan jumped off.

They decided instead to sell T-shirts of their own design along with handcrafted candles and soaps.

They closed the store's doors for two weeks, built a new inventory, organized some hostess parties both in the store and in homes around town and rolled out the new products.

A few weeks later, they're nearly breaking even again and they're a heck of lot happier.

The moral of the story, Geoghegan says, is simple: "If you're going to have your own business, don't do something you don't like."