Pre Vacation Thoughts

The countdown is on. The town car is coming to pick us at in 8 hours and my clothes are currently in a giant heap on the floor. So it's official - vacation time.

More or less everything on the to do list did get done. Except QuickBooks...no surprise I pushed that one off. And I still have to do "Pack for Trip." I was very excited earlier today to figure out how to put an "Out of Office" message on my email inbox so I can look all legit and what not. And I have a good friend looking over the rest of the emails that come in should something need immediate attention.

So since there's not a lot to write about business wise I thought I'd share two very random thoughts with you for sheer entertainment value.

1. Here is my new travel love:

Yes, the Amazon Kindle. Love It! Let's just say that this slim little devil, that weighs maybe 8oz, currently holds 20 books to keep me entertained on what is going to be a very very very long flight tomorrow. Really the flight starts tomorrow and ends on Thursday morning. So I've got lots of reading time penciled in. I borrowed it from my mom and used it for the first time yesterday on my flight back from Wyoming (where my dogs are currently holed up with my parents while I travel - howling with the coyotes from what I've been told) and just got so sucked into the book I started that I didn't even notice that I was reading an electronic thingy-mi-gig and not a book. In fact the flight attendent had to come over and ask me to "turn off your book" which is just not something I ever thought I'd hear anyone say. So excited. As is my better half as this means it'll keep me from bothering him profusely for the entire trip and it means he doesn't have to carry 50lbs of books to keep me company.

Secondly, I was going to bring some knitting with me for the flight but figured that may be more hassle then it's worth. But I did finish that really cute strawberry hat I mentioned before and it is honestly even cuter in person. So I was ecstatic to find out that my friend Lisa is having a baby girl later this year so I can send it to her because it's just too cute. I was also thinking of perhaps knitting a pumpkin one with orange and green to see how that turns out. If I got really crafty I could probably also make it into a jack-o-latern. So I've got some fun projects waiting for me when I get home. And Lisa may end up with years worth of baby hats. Lisa - send me your address via facebook. :)

I'm off folks. Cookies to bake (for dessert) and clothes to pack. See you on the other side.

Ball O Stress

The Zen Calm is officially gone. I have become...

ok - so apparently that's what you get when you put "stressed bunny" into google images. Yes, I am a little stress bunny. Vacation - ironically - always does that to me because I'm somehow convinced that my little business world will fall apart in my abscence. I realize that's not likely...but that doesn't stop me from writing three pages worth of to-do's. I wish I was joking but I'm not. It's three pages long right now.

Maybe if I had one of these I wouldn't be so stressed:

Ironically - you also get this picture when you put those same words into google images.

Things I didn't Know

I just learned today that you can set an alert on Google to let you know when people are talking about a specific thing - in my case I set one up for my company name (and the two ways people always end up spelling it). I'm sure the more technophile folks out there already knew about this but I'm slow on the tech-uptake. Check it out here if you haven't already:
http://google.com/alerts

Helloooooo

Yep, it's been quiet around here but that's because I'm doing my typical try to cram 3+ weeks of work into one week in advance of heading out on vacation next week. One huge downside of that work pattern is that it takes away the "Zen Calm" I've been trying to achieve with regards to work. But a lot has gotten accomplished. My new packaging got far enough done (final touches still need to be put on) that I can send samples to the bigger company who placed a bigger order last year. This time I will try to convince them that not only do they want to order from me - but they want to give me plenty of lead time as well! Photos have been taken of the new Fall products and the ad that is due on Thursday is in the works. So just a flurry of activity as of late.

My usual lament this time of year is that right now a ton of money is going out and not too much coming in. Hopefully that will change. Hopefully. I did take a look at the tradeshow booth assignments for the two big Fall tradeshows and was surprised to see how many booths are still untaken. Though it is only June so there's plenty of time for that to change. On the one hand fewer booths displaying could be a good thing as there's less competition for retailer dollars. But then there's always the worry that retailers won't be showing up as well. At least one of the shows is in Vegas. At the very least I'll be able to drown any sorrows in a drink that comes with a little umbrella while seated at the pool.

It's All Relative

I just read something that made my day. It was a request from a reporter (sent out to a large group - not just me) who was looking for "CEO's from successful businesses." Since this was a lifestyle piece and I'm not apt to talk to the media about my personal life to begin with, I already knew I wouldn't be responding but when I saw the "successful" part I figured that knocked me out of the running as well. And then, a line or two later, "successful" is defined as at least $50K in sales.

I'm not going to say whether my little business would qualify or not based on that that metric, but I will say that it caught me by surprise. Yes, $50K in sales is nothing to snear at. I'm happy for every penny along the way. But when I read "successful" I honestly thought of $1M in sales, maybe $500K at the least, but certainly more than $50K.

It was an interesting awakening because $50K is something my business either can reach or already has (purposefully staying vague, sorry). But I wouldn't have considered $50K successful before reading that. And then I had to ask myself, why not? I know I've talked about this before, but "successful" is a vague description and it seems to be a moving one as well. At first "successful" may be that first sale, then $10K in sales, then $50K in sales, then $100K in sales...you see how it goes. Successful isn't something I necessarily think my business is because I'm seriously working my A$$ off for every dollar. But to an outsider maybe this little business is successful? And perhaps I ought to look at it from the vantagepoint of an outsider from time to time to remind myself how very far we've come.

The Self-Employed & The Recession

Well-written article in the NYTimes Magazine about self-employment and the recession. Though I'll warn you that it's not very uplifting:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/magazine/07unemployed-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hpw

Random Summer Thoughts

I happened to read a friend's blog this morning where a recent post talked about doing things for herself this summer and encouraging others to do the same. Truth be told, the blog is really geared toward moms and while I'm not one, I would sometimes argue that my business feels - and acts - like a child. So taking a page from her blog I'll post the question on to you. Is there anything you want to do - take a class, start and finish a project, change a behavior, etc - that you can start and finish during the summer (using Memorial Day to Labor Day as the deadlines). Some examples that were given were taking a class at a local community college or arts cooperative, planning to call 2-3 people you've been meaning to catch up with and haven't in a long time, getting the baseboards in your living room painted (if anyone really wants to do that last one but doesn't have the baseboards I'd be happy to supply you with some that really do need a little TLC).

The key is that it can't be about your "everyday." So if you're a mom it can't be about, for example, getting your kid to swim lessons on time this summer. If you're a business owner it can't be about increasing sales XX% this summer, if you work in cubeland it can't be about finishing that big project the boss is breathing down your neck for, and if you're a triathlete it can't be about finding that sweet spot in your quest for the ultimate aerodynamic bike position. It has to be about you and be something that would take you outside of your norm. A summer resolution so to speak...

I've been thinking about it for a few days and decided this would be a good thing for me to do as well. I am horrible about letting work become all-consuming and definitely think an outside outlet - aside from teaching the broken leg how to run again - is probably a good thing. Besides, in a few short months I will hopefully be busier then I know what to do with getting ready for the holiday buying season so taking a little extra time out right now for "me" will probably be beneficial. To that end, I've come up with two things:

1. Take the dogs to the park every Friday morning the weather allows. And by 'park' I mean the Big Boy Park which requires us to drive 20 minutes to get to but is literally a dog's dream with acres of fields to run around in, tons of new and exciting smells, and even water access to get in a little swimming on a hot day. I took the dogs last week and forgot how much fun it is to watch them run around and be crazy. Best of all, the crazy people who dress their dogs up in tiera's aren't at the park at 9am on a Friday. Those are the type of people who just hate to watch Princess roll in the dirt which means, without a doubt, my dogs are immediately attracted to them as a dog that needs to be tackled and rolled in the dirt. Needless to say this doesn't usually end well. But Friday mornings appear to be a great time to go and let the dogs be...dogs! And I love watching them be dogs.

2. I've decided I'm going to knit a hat. This hat specifically:

I should mention that I just learned how to knit this past winter and by no means am accomplished at it. But that hat is just too cute not to try. Lest anyone start thinking the wrong thing because I'm knitting baby hats all I'll say is think about the circumfrance of babies/infants' heads to that of adults'. For someone with a limited attention span it is probably much better to only tackle baby hats. Besides, lots of friends are having kids so if I can actually get this pattern nailed down (not likely - but I'll try) I will have a go-to girl baby gift. (Course wouldn't you know it, every friend thus far this year is having a boy.) I'll post a picture of whatever it turns out looking like. Even if it just ends up being a bunch of string all jumbled together.

What about you? What summer resolutions could you make this year?