DOLORES' STORY
With her faith and a blank check, she decided to believe in God. She took a leap of faith and opened the doors to Fashions by Dolores, and thirty-plus years later, God has proven, He is a promise keeper!
I started my business by faith, over thirty years ago. I started selling clothes out of my house, and when I could no longer sell from my home, I had a friend that owned an empty building, and one day I just told him, I'm going to rent your place, and I'm going to give you $300 for it. He looked at me and said, oh, okay. Not long after I said this to him, I rented his place, and my brother helped me get it ready for my store to open.
At the time, I didn't have any inventory, so I went to LA. to purchase some clothes to sell. I wrote a check from an account with no money to pay for the clothes and bought everything I needed. When I returned from LA, I had a grand opening, and the sales from my grand opening covered the check I wrote in LA. God is so faithful.
I stayed in this building for a year before relocating to Eastmont Mall in Oakland. At the time, I was attending church at the Center of Hope Community Church under Bishop Ernestine Reems, and while I was out of town with the Bishop, a Prophet told me, I see you at a nearby mall, and I see your name on tags. When I came back home, my friend was moving into the mall, and I said, well, I just got a prophecy, I should move in there, too. I moved into the mall on a 6-month trial, and my rent was $500 a month. At some point, I was told the mall would raise my rent, but they never did over the ten years I was in this space. When the mall moved the County services into the mall, they moved me downstairs, and my rent increased to $1,700 a month. When a big shoe store moved out, I said, "I am going to get that location," and I did, for $5,000 a month; my brother said, you can't pay that, but it was just in my spirit to move. I moved into the new location, and from that time, the business continued to grow. I was in the mall for twenty years, and I was never late or missed a payment. When something is of God, and you know it, He leads you to it, and He will keep you going.
When I left Eastmont Mall, I moved into Somersville Mall in Antioch, and God continued to show Himself in favorable ways faithfully. I stayed in this mall for four-years. One day, a lady from Bayfair Mall in San Leandro came into my store; she was looking for someone else; she looked around, saw my stuff, and asked if I would be interested in relocating to Bayfair Mall. That offer came with God's continued favor, and I have been at Bayfair Mall going on five years. Even with the challenges of racial injustice with the recent rioting, God kept me! God will surely watches over His word."