My apologies to the three people who actually read this blog for not posting anything in - oh - a month now! In a nutshell, I'm here and still alive. It's just that it's tax season for the business so I've been trying to pull everything together with the help of a very competant accountant and get everything filed to the tax authorities on time. And then my bank decided to levy incredible fees if I don't keep a minimum of $5000 in the bank starting Feb 5. Yes, I'm supposed to have $5K of my own money just sitting there but not being used. Because there's just so much other cash available to small businesses these days! So I've also been finding a new bank, opening up those accounts, and now switching over my merchant account and other logistics that are tied directly into my bank account.
I do have some good news to share: Despite a heck of a year my business ended the year with a profit. A true "In the Black" profit. Sales ended up being down about 4% which isn't too shabby considering the state of economy but what really saved me was the cost cutting I did throughout the year.
And now the bad news: Despite having a pretty darn good year I'm struggling for motivation. I don't know if it's simply because I love my part-time job so much or if I still have post-holiday hangover from all the holiday orders, but I'm having trouble getting excited about another year. Don't get me wrong, I'm on board for another year but I'm not sure how long I can keep doing this year in and year out. So I'm going to take some time this year to get everything in order and write up things like an Operations Manual so that all the information about the business isn't simply wrapped up in my head. Not only is it a good idea to have all that written down anyway (and I should have done it years ago) but if (a BIG if!) I decide down the road I want to sell the business I will need those materials so I may as well start working on them now.
In the meantime I'm planning to clean up my office next week in the hopes that a clean and organized office will help me find some of that lost motivation.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
It's beginning to look a lot like...
In truth, up in my neck of the woods it's beginning to look a lot like flooding of epic proportions (definitely thinking now may be time to invest in some ark building classes) but it is starting to look like Christmas.
Things have been so busy around here lately, including retail shows the past two weekends (the first one was spectacular and tons of fun, the second one not so much of either) and drop ship orders going out daily, that it's sometimes hard to get into the holiday spirit. Every year I seem to surface right around the 17th of December when things finally slow down a bit only to realize that I'm rapidly bearing down on Christmas. I don't even want to talk about how early Hanukkah was this year - that was patently unfair to everyone and definitely something that needs to be taken under advisory by the Rabbinical Counsel! It was basically "hurry up and eat your Thanksgiving turkey so we can get to Hanukkah!"
But it's slowly dawning on me that Christmas is right around the corner. This year we even got a tree up and lit which is a marked improvement over our lack of any holiday decorations last year. I have some Christmas cookies baking in the oven and this afternoon, if things go according to plan, I'll light the Christmas tree candle (our tree is fake since I hate cutting down real ones so I invested in an incredible fir tree candle from Thymes (thymes.com) to give me that holiday smell) and give thanks to the Internet for allowing me to do all my shopping without setting foot in a single store. Internet shopping is a godsend to enrepreneurs like myself who rely on fourth quarter for 75% of sales revenue!
Things have been so busy around here lately, including retail shows the past two weekends (the first one was spectacular and tons of fun, the second one not so much of either) and drop ship orders going out daily, that it's sometimes hard to get into the holiday spirit. Every year I seem to surface right around the 17th of December when things finally slow down a bit only to realize that I'm rapidly bearing down on Christmas. I don't even want to talk about how early Hanukkah was this year - that was patently unfair to everyone and definitely something that needs to be taken under advisory by the Rabbinical Counsel! It was basically "hurry up and eat your Thanksgiving turkey so we can get to Hanukkah!"
But it's slowly dawning on me that Christmas is right around the corner. This year we even got a tree up and lit which is a marked improvement over our lack of any holiday decorations last year. I have some Christmas cookies baking in the oven and this afternoon, if things go according to plan, I'll light the Christmas tree candle (our tree is fake since I hate cutting down real ones so I invested in an incredible fir tree candle from Thymes (thymes.com) to give me that holiday smell) and give thanks to the Internet for allowing me to do all my shopping without setting foot in a single store. Internet shopping is a godsend to enrepreneurs like myself who rely on fourth quarter for 75% of sales revenue!
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
That'll teach me...
If you haven't done so already, read the post just below this one first.
Now that you've read that - here is how I saw my day going:
1. putter around a bit
2. think about doing something productive
3. get absorbed in mindless internet surfing
4. take a nap
5. go to yoga - congratulate myself on being productive
6. debate what to have for dinner since hubby is working late - seriously contemplate just eating chocolate chips and marshmellows
Here's what really happened. Not 5 minutes - and I'm not exaggerating - literally minutes after getting that last post written I get a phone call from one of my drop ship retailers. Turns out they've been having problems with their drop ship software and I had 27 orders waiting for me. Some of which that have been sitting there since Nov. 24th! I almost laughed out loud given that I had just gloated over the fact that all orders were out the door. Silly girl!
I just spent the last several hours frantically packaging, invoicing, printing shipping slips, printing mailing labels, packing into shipping boxes, and rushing to UPS where I managed to drop off all 27 orders with 7 minutes to spare before they closed pickup for the evening.
Remind me to never ever again revel in the fact that things are quiet. The Universe is just waiting to smack me upside the head. So today - Universe 1 Entrepreneur 0
Now that you've read that - here is how I saw my day going:
1. putter around a bit
2. think about doing something productive
3. get absorbed in mindless internet surfing
4. take a nap
5. go to yoga - congratulate myself on being productive
6. debate what to have for dinner since hubby is working late - seriously contemplate just eating chocolate chips and marshmellows
Here's what really happened. Not 5 minutes - and I'm not exaggerating - literally minutes after getting that last post written I get a phone call from one of my drop ship retailers. Turns out they've been having problems with their drop ship software and I had 27 orders waiting for me. Some of which that have been sitting there since Nov. 24th! I almost laughed out loud given that I had just gloated over the fact that all orders were out the door. Silly girl!
I just spent the last several hours frantically packaging, invoicing, printing shipping slips, printing mailing labels, packing into shipping boxes, and rushing to UPS where I managed to drop off all 27 orders with 7 minutes to spare before they closed pickup for the evening.
Remind me to never ever again revel in the fact that things are quiet. The Universe is just waiting to smack me upside the head. So today - Universe 1 Entrepreneur 0
...tiptoe...
...i'm quietly tiptoeing on here to announce in a whisper (lest the internet gods hear me) that as of right now every single order for the year is done AND i'm all caught up from last week's show and have even made more product in advance of this weekend's show. What on earth am I going to do with myself for the rest of the day?
(here's a few ideas...update the last 3 months of quickbooks, clean my office, make sure all bills are paid...do some work on my book (yep - a book - more on that later)...work on the website for said book (more on that later too)...sweep the upstairs...quickbooks (again - it's that important)...)
So yes, there's things that need to get done but nothing that needs to be done today. I'm debating between working on QuickBooks and taking a nap with my dogs. Hmmm...which way to go on that decision?
(here's a few ideas...update the last 3 months of quickbooks, clean my office, make sure all bills are paid...do some work on my book (yep - a book - more on that later)...work on the website for said book (more on that later too)...sweep the upstairs...quickbooks (again - it's that important)...)
So yes, there's things that need to get done but nothing that needs to be done today. I'm debating between working on QuickBooks and taking a nap with my dogs. Hmmm...which way to go on that decision?
Monday, December 6, 2010
Silent Night
I'm officially taking tonight off from work of any kind (well - except perhaps housework). It's been a whirwind week between lots of time at the part-time gig and then a big holiday show this past Saturday and Sunday. But man did I have fun! This was the second time I've done this holiday show and it's probably one of my favorites. Just a really fun vibe and lots and lots of customers to talk to (and a good deal of money made too!). But the turnaround from that back into another full and busy week has me feeling a tad exhausted. There's still plenty to do - especially since I have another holiday show this upcoming Saturday - but I'm taking tonight off. Now I just need to find something stupid on tv to zone out to because I simply don't have it in me to read anything of any substance and, sadly, don't have any easy reading material in the house.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Bad Business Practices 101
I *just* - as in minutes ago - got my company's new holiday products listed on my company website. Yes, I am a horrible horrible businesswoman. I know I should have gotten it done weeks ago but it just never happened. The main culprit is my computer which still refuses to allow me access to my own website. So I had to pull up my relic of a business school computer. Granted, it takes 10 minutes to boot up but it gives me access to my own site.
I may be asking Santa for a new computer this year. I've been good, right?
In other news, I received a certified letter on Monday which sent me into an absolute tizzy. Certified letters never contain anything good and my head ran through 101 scenarios - none of which were positive - before I went to go pick up the letter on Tuesday as I had been at the part-time gig when they tried to deliver on Monday and they needed my signature. Only to complicate matters a massive (well, massive by Northwest standards) snowstorm had surprised my city and we were basically all in lockdown starting Monday night. So I carefully dug my car out and made it to the post office only to find out that in the chaos of the snowstorm the day before, my certified letter had somehow been misplaced. "Oh don't worry, I'm sure we'll find it before too long," the nice post office people assured me as my heart raced convinced that I was now headed to the clinker for some unknown offense that I wasn't addressing.
Long story short, the letter finally showed up on Friday but not before I lost a tremendous amount of sleep over it and likely cut a year off my lifespan. Turns out I hadn't put my telephone number on a specific piece of administration paperwork and they need said telephone number (and apparently $50 for their troubles) to be able to file it properly.
Needless to say, I feel a tad foolish for my reaction. But on a more positive note, said paperwork is now back in the mail to them (with their $50) and I have all my holiday products listed on my website. Oh - and Thanksgiving went off without too much trouble thanks to the fact that the snow melted enough to allow my better half to make it to the smoked BBQ joint that I had ordered our turkey from. Seriously - outsourcing the turkey makes the whole day much more enjoyable!
I may be asking Santa for a new computer this year. I've been good, right?
In other news, I received a certified letter on Monday which sent me into an absolute tizzy. Certified letters never contain anything good and my head ran through 101 scenarios - none of which were positive - before I went to go pick up the letter on Tuesday as I had been at the part-time gig when they tried to deliver on Monday and they needed my signature. Only to complicate matters a massive (well, massive by Northwest standards) snowstorm had surprised my city and we were basically all in lockdown starting Monday night. So I carefully dug my car out and made it to the post office only to find out that in the chaos of the snowstorm the day before, my certified letter had somehow been misplaced. "Oh don't worry, I'm sure we'll find it before too long," the nice post office people assured me as my heart raced convinced that I was now headed to the clinker for some unknown offense that I wasn't addressing.
Long story short, the letter finally showed up on Friday but not before I lost a tremendous amount of sleep over it and likely cut a year off my lifespan. Turns out I hadn't put my telephone number on a specific piece of administration paperwork and they need said telephone number (and apparently $50 for their troubles) to be able to file it properly.
Needless to say, I feel a tad foolish for my reaction. But on a more positive note, said paperwork is now back in the mail to them (with their $50) and I have all my holiday products listed on my website. Oh - and Thanksgiving went off without too much trouble thanks to the fact that the snow melted enough to allow my better half to make it to the smoked BBQ joint that I had ordered our turkey from. Seriously - outsourcing the turkey makes the whole day much more enjoyable!
Friday, November 19, 2010
Bad Blogger
A title I've definitely earned as of late - bad blogger! It's not that I don't think of posts - it's just that the technology doesn't currently exist to turn my thoughts into actual posts and time is something I'm having a hard time finding lately. I've been getting in a surprising number of last-minute wholesale orders (well, last minute when you figure Thanksgiving and the true beginning of the holiday season is next week) and of course all of those retailers want me to ship their orders right now!!!!! I debate telling them that if they had thought ahead and either ordered before now or, at the very least, preordered so that I could have had their order ready and waiting to ship, then they could have it right now. Instead they go to the back of the ever-growing line.
Then toss in the part-time gig, a friend in town last weekend, family coming into town next week, and two retail shows in the next two weeks and things are a bit frantic. My mother asked me what I wanted for Christmas the other day and I told her what I could really use is an extra week before Thanksgiving to try and get everything under control. Instead it looks like it's full steam ahead until Dec. 23rd when I'm shutting down the business (and possibly myself as well) until after the new year.
In the meantime, I got a call from a larger company that I dropship items for asking what I had in line for Holidays 2011. My head just about exploded when I heard that. 2011 - I'm still trying to figure out how to make it through 2010 in one piece! That's a phone call I have to return on Monday...do you have any ideas?
Then toss in the part-time gig, a friend in town last weekend, family coming into town next week, and two retail shows in the next two weeks and things are a bit frantic. My mother asked me what I wanted for Christmas the other day and I told her what I could really use is an extra week before Thanksgiving to try and get everything under control. Instead it looks like it's full steam ahead until Dec. 23rd when I'm shutting down the business (and possibly myself as well) until after the new year.
In the meantime, I got a call from a larger company that I dropship items for asking what I had in line for Holidays 2011. My head just about exploded when I heard that. 2011 - I'm still trying to figure out how to make it through 2010 in one piece! That's a phone call I have to return on Monday...do you have any ideas?
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