A little over two years ago, I signed the lease on a small shop in Yverdon without really knowing whether I was making the best decision of my life or the most reckless. I'd never run an independent business. I came from mass retail, with a cheesemaker's apprenticeship diploma (CFC) in my pocket and fifteen years on the shop floor. Here's how I got here, and what I'd do differently if I had to start again.
From cheese to the shop floor, then the urge for something else
My path isn't the obvious one for someone who now runs a CBD shop. I trained as a cheesemaker before switching to sales: salesman, then department manager, then store manager in Swiss retail. It was a good school: managing stock, understanding customers, leading a team. But after several years, the desire to work for myself – to own my decisions rather than apply those of a head office – became stronger than the security of a fixed salary.
CBD: a passion before a business
Choosing CBD wasn't a marketing calculation. I've loved and known this product for many years, long before thinking of making it my job. I love the diversity of flower varieties and the way each customer finds their own relationship with the product, often very different from the customer before. Opening a shop around something I already genuinely enjoyed, rather than a product chosen purely for profitability, changed the way I work.
Yverdon: an obvious choice
I come from Novalles, a small village not far from here. Yverdon is the town closest to my heart, the one I grew up around and know inside out. I never seriously considered opening anywhere else. It mattered to me to build this project in a region where I felt at home, rather than in a big city where I'd have been just one shop among many.
You always ask yourself questions afterwards: was it the right time? The right path? I don't have a definitive answer, even two years later. What I do know is that I've never regretted trying.
What I'd do differently
If I started again, I think I'd stick to a smaller product range at first, rather than covering almost everything from day one: flowers, resins, oils, vapes, herbal teas, headshop. At the time, that diversity seemed like a strength, a way to meet every request. Looking back, it's hard to know exactly what would have been best. A smaller range might have let me master each category better, give better advice and manage stock better. But it would also have left some customers without an answer. You want to give everything for the customer, and sometimes it works very well, and sometimes a product added too quickly never really finds its place. It's not a failure – just the price of learning when you start without a ready-made model.
Working from the heart, surrounded by a team
What hasn't changed since day one is how I approach this job. I work mostly from the heart, not just with spreadsheets and margins. That means taking the time to explain, sometimes getting it wrong, starting again, and never seeing a customer as a mere transaction. And I couldn't do it alone: I have an incredible team around me, people who carry this project with the same sincerity as me, day after day. Two years on, with the doubts and mistakes that come with it, it's still this team and this town that make me want to keep going.
