Dear...

Dear Fool Who Seems to enjoy emailing my company lambasting what we do:

I sincerely appreciated yet another of your emails to my company telling me what a hateful person I must be for doing what I do and how what I do is truly a sign that the apocolypse is near. We at XYZ company always enjoy reading emails from potential customers and will take your comments into consideration.

However, it would certainly help further your cause if you would consider doing the following:

1. When sending multiple emails from "multiple" people - it would be far more convincing if said "other" people didn't use word choices and a grammatical style that is eerily similar to your own.

2. When sending multiple emails from "multiple" people it would be far more convincing if said "other" people didn't misspell the same words you did. I could understand if they were big words but your vocabulary does not seem to extend beyond a fifth grade level. But then again neither does your spelling ability.

3. I would be much more willing to engage in a discussion with you if you didn't choose to hide behind fake email address and an apparent multiple personality syndrome.

4. I would take you more seriously if it didn't appear as though you get your jollies by anonymously emailing people you don't know and accusing them of horrible deeds. That just makes you creepy.

Lastly, I realize that you like to think of me as the devil incarnate, but I like to think of you as a troll who is 49 and lives in your mother's basement while getting your jollies by randomly emailing individuals. But if emailing me and getting absolutely no response makes you happy then feel free to keep it up because we at XYZ company want nothing more then to make sure our potential customers are happy.

Sincerely,

Top Dog
XYZ Company Founder

Another Craigslist Post

Yesterday I was back on Craigslist but this time I wasn't looking for packing peanuts - I was looking for a new employee. While during vacation I realized that I don't necessarily have the time right now - with the busiest time of the year right around the corner - to train someone new for the skilled position but I could hire a relatively unskilled person to help me with the product packaging.

So I posted an ad on Craigslist for $25 and could be up there for a month. Instead, I took it down after about 24 hours due to the overwhelming number of responses I got. And I realized that I really suck at this hiring thing. How do you choose between so many good and intelligent people for a part-time hourly job that really doesn't require too much in terms of expertise other than an attention-to-detail? There were some people who it was fairly obvious weren't a good fit but there were more then enough people who, at least on paper, look like they'd be a great fit. I'd love to hire them all but that's not possible so I'm now trying to winnow it down to a manageable number to interview.

In truth, also looking at the caliber of people responding to my ad - which again, is a part-time seasonal unskilled position - it is a little frightening that the job market is apparently that bleak that I'm getting those types of resumes (even one from a PHd candidate). It also makes me wonder, on a social level, how the true unskilled workers can compete in this environment. As an employer, if I have a choice between someone who has more experience/education for the same pay scale as someone who doesn't have that same experience/education I'm always going to go with the former. I don't think I'm the only one in that regard so how does the latter compete?

Back To Work

Phew! Have you ever taken a vacation where you didn't realize how badly you needed it until you were away? That's what this past week was like. Though we didn't go very far - just rented a house about three hours away for the week - it still felt like a world away.

Thankfully not too far away though b/c I was actually reasonably busy with work. We had a number of requests for information which are pretty easy to handle but also got four orders in the course of the week which was a bit of a surprise. In fact right before I left a good friend of mine asked if I wanted her to be ready to ship out any orders while I was gone and I laughed it off thinking that I really wouldn't likely get an order while I was away. Especially this time of year since many retailers are holding off buying anything and trying to clear out their shelves before the Fall tradeshow season starts in a few weeks. So I was incredibly surprised to have those four orders come in last week.

During the course of the week the idea of that supposed open space in the neighborhood I love nagged at the back of my head so I finally figured out who owns/manages the space via the public tax records (thanks to my husband for helping me navigate that one) and left a message with them. I'm still thinking that all of this is fairly unlikely it will come to pass given the amount of improvements I would need to do but I figure I ought to follow it through to it's logical end for the timebeing.

Vacation in the Email Age

I'm on vacation and right now four of the six of us are online checking work email. On the one hand it's great to be able to get back in touch with people ASAP but on the other I guess the days of totally disconnecting from work for a few days are over.

Ah well...email done so it's time to put the salmon the BBQ.

Interesting Turn of Events

I'm supposed to be on vacation turning my mind away from work for a while and enjoying a little R&R. However, it turns out that my sister is interested...or should I say, taking the first steps into looking at...buying an established retail business in her neck of the woods. Why this is interesting is that I've been able to look at all the financials (while a very smart girl, my sister wants to have another set of eyeballs on it to make sure things are adding up as they seem). In addition to being able to potentially help her out it's also a great resource for me to have to see what some of the true costs of running a retail business are as this retail business/production space idea continues to float around in my head. I haven't looked at it indepth yet but I'm eager to try and read more into it. So we'll see...

Now, back to my regularly scheduled vacation...

Social Networking

Last night while at dinner at a friend's house I learned an interesting factoid. Said friend had attended a social networking conference for work and while there learned some of the most interesting - and most successful - small business social networking stems from nonbusiness entities. For example, it's well known that it makes sense to get your Linked In/Facebook etc account to highlight your company website and professional achievements. However, said friend found out that it's sites like Dogster/Catster etc - sites that are geared towards the bringing together of common interest groups - that can really drive web traffic for business sites. He learned that for many small businesses the largest driver of web traffic - despite doing an integrated e-marketing campaign - comes from the CEO's dogster profile. (Dogster, for those who don't know, is the social networking sites for dogs. People go in and upload their dog's profile and then make virtual friends).

So while on vacation next week guess who will be updating her dogs' dogster profiles (yes, we actually did have dogster profiles for them already but they are woefully out of date). Since the dogs are my VPs I figure it's the least they can do. Perhaps this unique foray into will help promote the dogs to VP of e-marketing!

Another Reason to Love Craigslist

For some unknown reason I decided to browse the Craigslist Free listings the other night. It's something I do from time to time simply to see what sort of crazy stuff people put up there and then I wonder about the crazy people who go and take said crazy stuff.

Apparently you can now add me to the list as I saw a posting for free packing peanuts and got very excited! Since the business is mainly wholesale it means I do a lot of shipping and as such use a lot of packing peanuts. Have you ever priced packing peanuts? They're not cheap! Last year I utilized all of the packing peanuts that came with our wedding gifts but have since run out (though I am about to ask a local friend who's getting married if I can 'recycle' the packing peanuts that come with his wedding gifts).

Turns out many people have the problem of getting rid of packing peanuts so they turn to Craigslist and apparently there are others like me looking for packing peanuts. It's the perfect mix of supply and demand. Or maybe it's more like a packing peanut blackmarket much to the disguist of the packing peanut industry. Regardless, I'm now the proud owner of three enormous bags of packing peanuts. Makes me as happy as a pig in...well...in packing peanuts.

Back By Myself

My employee's last day was today as she's moving out of state for a little while. And I'm not really sure what I'm going to do without her. After all the worry and angst about hiring an employee, I found her to be truly invaluable not only for the work she was able to do but also just a great person to be with in the workspace rather than simply talking to myself for hours at a time.

What's more, on her way out today she paid me the best absolute complement. I had asked her to "rate" her experience with me as her manager as I explained that since she was the company's first employee I was sure that mistakes had been made and I wanted to improve on them going forward. Instead she told me that one of the things that made the biggest difference for her and made her really excited to come to work every day was the fact that from Day 1 I trusted her to work independently and didn't feel the need to breath down her neck with every move. Of course I countered with the fact that I trusted her because she is so skilled and, essentially, trustworthy. But still, to hear that I - Ms. Type A, hyper hands-on, and for a long while convinced that no one could do this work as well as I could or would care about it as much as I do. Not only did she prove me very very wrong in that but she was also the type of person which enabled me to let go and loosen up a lot. I guess it's what happens when you get really good employees - you end up learning more from them then you ever imagined. Unfortunately now the next person up to bat is going to have enormous shoes to fill.

Ironically, my employee also used to work retail during school for a number of years at a large but luxury store. So I told her that if the stars aligned in just the right way I may do some more serious research into opening up a production space/retail storefront and in which case I'd be hunting her down to come back and help me run the place. Especially since she has more retail experience then me (I managed to work retail for approx 6 months while in school before realizing that it was not the career option for me...yeah, there are some issues with that I need to work through before going forward with this latest idea)! She was excited by the prospect so perhaps the stars will align just right...

Hmm...thoughts...

I just got off the phone with two different sales reps who I was pumping for information about sales in general (not just my product line but overall in the industry) as a way of gauging what's going on in the larger marketplace. Now I fully realize that I may be jinxing myself here but I was really interested to hear from both that sales are basically at a standstill. Truly it doesn't come as a huge surprise expect for the fact that our sales are pretty much on par with last year. Granted, we're selling more of our lower profit margin products but at the same time costs have been curtailed so our profit margins are looking decent. I was kind of surprised to hear that industry sales were that bad based on our year so far. Course it makes me even more happy about were we are right now!

One of the sales reps also recommended that in terms of stocking up inventory for the holiday season to really work on building up the lowest priced items because that's what seems to be selling right now and she suspects (as do I) that it will remain so through the end of the year. Pretty much along the lines of what I was thinking of doing but good to have some outside validation.

Course in the meantime admist news of slowing industry sales I happened to find the perfect little retail spot today. In the back of my mind I've been thinking that it might be nice to get a space in a great location that I could use as a 24x7 workspace (build the workspace into the back and then I could use it whenever needed as opposed to my scheduled workspace hours) and then have a small retail space upfront for my products and a few others that I like/trust. I'm not even sure if this space is truly availalbe - it just looks empty - but it's in exactly the neighborhood I want, a neighborhood that has my target market nailed down, is in the heart of the little community. From what I can see from the windows it's a great blank slate that I think someone (me?) could do a lot with.

And then the realities of what that means hits me. Not only would it be renting the space but also buying the necessary workspace equipment. Since you'd also have to be open at least 6 days a week in that neighborhood (if not 7) then I'd probably want to hire at least one other person to help out so I could see my husband occasionally on the weekend.

The funny thing is I'm not ever someone who dreamt of opening up a retail store. I don't even like to shop. But I'm believing that if you have to have workspace anyway and can't literally work 100% from your home then you might as well have workspace that can also work for you from a retail standpoint. Anybody have any suggestions because I'm at a lose here...

The Joy of Vacation

I actually have a bunch of things on my mind today...new product ideas & business development opportunities...thinking about bringing on a partner (and as such giving up some of my equity)...the role this current US economy is going to play on my business short-term with this season's tradeshows (and as such how much inventory should I have on hand?) and longterm with the potential fallout of competitors and retailers in the next 12-24 months...if it is 12-24 months can my business handle it from a cashflow perspective...

And now that you have a rundown of all the thoughts running rampant through my mind...lucky you...

But the main theme of today is about vacation. That glorious word that makes you think of crystal clear beaches and umbrella drinks or shoshing down champagne powder with an o'so handsome and flirtatious ski (or snowboard) instructor...mmm...vacation...

But the reality of vacation - and I believe this is the same regardless of whether you're an entrepreneur or corporate cube rat, is that you essentially spend the week before vacation trying to cram at least two weeks worth of work into one week so that you can leave feeling like everything's been accomplished and you'll return to an empty desk with a clear mind. However we all know that you actually come back to a full email inbox and a list of to-dos a mile long. Right now however I'm in that prior week franticness fully believing that if I can just get everything done (in addition to cleaning my house before the inlaws show up this weekend and pack, and plan and shop for meals for 12 people next week) that I'll actually be able to leave this business behind for a week and enjoy my vacation. So why then am I planning on bringing my computer and blackberry on said relaxing vacation? You know, just in case I find myself bored with nothing to do...

Is The Free Ticket Worth The Cost?

I was excited to find out that I have upwards of 40K skymiles via my business credit card. Well, depressed to realize that over the past two+ years I've spent enough money to earn that many miles but heh - now I have miles to spend and I do have places to go!

When I originally got the card I couldn't wait to spend the hardearned miles on personal R&R. Well, the realities of the ebb and flow of cash flow is such that now I realize that I really need to use those points for business air travel and not much-needed personal forays. So I went online today figuring that with the amount of miles I have I can certainly get a ticket from the Pacific Northwest to Chicago for a tradeshow.

Well yes...I can...in a way. Apparently I can get tickets for the days and times I need but it will cost me an additional 7,000 miles. Alternatively, I can get tickets for the day and time I need for the trip out there and the right day for the way back for less then the amount of miles I currently have...aka...for free. So what's the catch? If I take the free ticket I will end up being routed through Atlanta on my way home. Yep, put a picture of the United States in your head right now. I would travel from Chicago to Atlanta, have a layover, then get back on a plane and travel from Atlanta home. Is it just me or is Atlanta not exactly on my way home?

Truth be told I am considering it. My thinking is that I'm usually so wiped out after these tradeshows that I sleep all day anyway so I could just sleep on the plane. But on the other hand that's a really backa$$ward way of getting home.

Showing My Age

Apparently I'm getting old and was reminded of it based on two conversations in my workspace this week.

The first occured with some other workspace partners who are guys in their late 30's who run what I would consider a trendy and funky business. I honestly can't tell you how it came about but at one point we were talking about the bounty of produce available in the Pacific Northwest this time of year and then the conversation turned to how we all wanted to learn how to make jam so that we could preserve the fruits and enjoy them later in the year. This conversation went on for a good 45 minutes before one of these "fun and funky" guys pointed out that you know you're getting old when you get excited talking about how to make jam.

And then today, my employee (who is sadly leaving me in two weeks for a new job in another state) mentioned how a friend of hers was going to be working an event for 'JT.' Truth be told, I had no idea who this 'JT' she was referring to was but she was so excited about it - literally giddy - I played along and said something like "REALLY?" while simultaniously trying to cover the very confused look playing across my face. As I've since learned, 'JT', for anyone out there as old and uncool as myself, is Justin Timberlake. And yes, I do know who Justin Timberlake is - I'm just apparently not "in" enough to recognize his name based on his first two initials. But apparently if you are "in" enough it's something to get quite worked up over.

It's a tad depressing to realize you're getting old...so to drown my sorrows I'm off to figure out how to make jam.

Two Months and Counting

Two months from today I will be boarding a plane and heading to beautiful Las Vegas for the first tradeshow in the flurry that is the Fall Tradeshow Season. Yes, it's a season unto itself so it gets to be capitalized.

Two months from today to get everything needed for what will hopefully be a solid buying season for retailers who are looking to stock their shelves with new and exciting products for the holidays. And man oh man do I have a lot to do between now and then...it's just starting to hit me how much needs to get done.

One of the best things a lot of the industry trade publications do is offer businesses who are going to the shows a chance to advertise for free. However, all their deadlines are looming in the near future so I need to sit down and get to work to get them the information they all need.

Then there are the actual paid advertisements that need to get ready to be sent out on time and the direct mail marketing piece deadline that is also starting to breath down my neck. I'm also trying to figure out how the booths will look this year as I'm constantly trying to ratchet the entire brand identity upwards while still desperately counting my pennies.

And last but not least, I'm also trying to build in enough of an inventory so that I'm not caught with my pants down but at the same time and hoping upon hope that things are so successful this year that I am caught pantless...very pantless.

Oh yeah, let the joy of the holidays begin...as soon as I turn on the fan to run some of the heat out of the house that is.

What makes your heart sing?

There was a story on our local NPR station about the new ice cream store that opened up near my house (too near my house...it's like the ice cream is constantly calling me...and I have absolutely no willpower!). Turns out it was started by a young woman in her late 20's who used to work in an ice cream store back in the Northeast while going to college.

Post college she did what many of us do and took a corporate job that made decent money and was somewhat challenging and stimulating. However, to use a phrase I just read about in the Alpha Dogs book, it didn't make her heart sing.

After a long period of introspection she realized that the time in her life that she was happiest was when she was working in the ice cream store so she set about opening up one of her own. It's a beautiful store too - a real grown up/minimalist decor with absolutely fantastic flavors like salted caramel (which is currently in my fridge calling my name) and balsamic strawberry. And from the looks of it she's doing really well as evidenced by the line I stood in yesterday to get my ice cream.

I've been thinking about whether what I'm doing makes my heart sing ever since I read that phrase earlier today and I have to say that it does. Sure, the pay sucks, but I really do love what I'm doing and really do believe in what I'm doing. Apparently I'm not alone as the Wall Street Journal recently reported that 59% of small business owners wouldn't leave their business to work for someone else even for more money.

So let me ask you, is what your doing making your heart sing?

New Respect for Working Parents

Not that I actually didn't already have oodles of respect for them but last night I got my taste of what it must be like. We had massive thunderstorms here ALL last night (very unusual for the Pacific Northwest) which sent one of my dogs into an absolute meltdown. In her defense, she is a rescue and was shot (yep, with a shotgun) by her prior owner so I can understand how loud noises make her a little jumpy. However, her being up and crazed threw the other pup into a high state of confusion so they were both up and wanderinng the house all night. They wanted on the bed, they wanted off the bed, they wanted to go downstairs, they wanted to come upstairs, they wanted to dig a giant hole in our hardwood floors...that was my night.

I'm not kidding when I say it went on ALL night until finally around 4am I had the sense to make a "safe den" for the post-tramautic stress dog in our closet. Once I was in the safe house with her she calmed down significantly and I was able to catch a few winks on the floor of the closet until around 7am.

Top it off with the fact that I had a phone interview with a trade journalist first thing this morning that I stumbled my way through. Can't say I was at my best during that one!

Yeah, I don't know how you working parents do it. So let me tip my hat to you...and now i'm off to find myself some much-needed coffee.