Some of Sapna Alim's best ideas for her home decor store Liloo on Queen Street East have simply walked through her doors. 

Like the time when a favourite client came in to ask a favour. Could Alim transform her home to look like the store just days before the first open house? Of course, she said yes, staged the entire home and it sold in three days. In the process, a new sideline aimed at real estate was born.

It's a nimbleness that goes beyond the usual MBA advice to just work the business plan that has served her well, particularly in what has turned out to be a challenging first few years.

"Ninety per cent of our brilliant ideas come from our customers," says Alim. "Seriously, other business owners in the neighbourhood and your clients give you the answers."

Opened in 2006, Liloo was Alim's dream venture to bring a modern Indian twist to home decor.  With its exposed brick interiors, the large, stylized Ganesh behind the counter and a mix of scarves, bedding and wooden boxes, the shop is no mere Gerrard India Bazaar outpost, but rather part of Queen and Broadview's recent revitalization.

Yet it was the very choice of location in Riverside (aka South Riverdale) that has been a blessing and a challenge for Alim and co-owner Amanda Steele.  The duo, who had met in the hospitality industry -- Steele is an accountant by day and Alim had worked for her -- were attracted by the low rents, the lack of cutthroat competition like on Queen West and The Beaches, as well as the potential to be part of an untapped but supportive community where they could learn on the job.  What they were unprepared for was arriving in an up and coming area just ahead of the gentrification curve.

"Our first year was pretty rough in terms of traffic," says Alim. "It was a bit of a ghost town in this neighbourhood."

Riverside may be in the midst of a youthful foodie renaissance -- LPK's Culinary Groove, Loic Goumet to Go, The Comrade, Pop Bistro and the new Lynne Crawford boite Ruby Watchco -- but it is also an area physically dominated by Jilly's infamous come-hither sexpot posters looming over the streetscape.   It took the construction of new lofts and the continued influx of first-time home buyers encouraged by low mortgage rates deeper into South Riverdale that has shifted the neighbourhood's demographic, bringing a younger, more design-oriented customer base into Liloo. 

But more than that, it's the community's neighbourliness that is a point of pride for the store's owners.  Although Steele is both the Vice-Chair and treasurer of the Riverside District Business Improvement Area, Alim can count off the numerous ways the duo have benefited from the advantages the neighbourhood has created for them.  There was the real estate agent who needed a supply of client gifts as well as the co-owner of the floral design store Stemz, who walked into Liloo and saw the handcrafted paper boxes and recognized they would be the perfect complement to her bridal business.   Now 30% of Liloo's revenue comes from the services they offer; Alim hopes that one day it will cover 60% of her business. 

It has also helped that Alim and Steele understood the importance paying attention to customer taste. Photographs of Indian landscapes were beautiful, but were jettisoned once they realized art and textiles don't mix.  Clothing like kurtas had to go because Canadian bodies don't easily fit Indian sizes.  Instead it's the silk throw cushions and pashmina shawls that have found a permanent place in the Liloo inventory as have a private line of soaps and candles, again suggested by a customer who thought their corporate gifts could be better branded.

"We've had to change our product mix," admits Alim. "I mean, how many times can you come in and buy a bed spread?"

Retailing has not been without disappointments. Part of Alim's vision had always included regular buying trips to India.  But rising travel costs combined with the difficulty of sourcing unique fair trade products consistently led to a reappraisal of that part of the business.

"Anything I source from India is never long-term," she says. "I can't call up that family in a village and place an order." Instead, she has learned to navigate trade shows for the kind of regular supply chain every retailer needs.

Four years on, the pair is satisfied with their achievements, including experiments in sharing their retail space with young female entrepreneurs who wanted to test out the market.  As Steele points out, their learning curve to master retail has been steep but worthwhile. 

"The location has been difficult but we are seeing the rewards from being here," says Steele, "and we love the community." 

Their lesson? "You have to morph, you have to grow," says Alim. "And stick to your core values."

The ideas have not stopped coming; Alim wants to start producing her own line of bedding.  That makes perfect sense for a woman whose first name means dream and whose store, named after her mother, means eternal.

Piali Roy is a Toronto-based freelance writer.