Kudos to DWR

Someone at Design Within Reach is keeping an eye on the bloggersphere and I commend them for commenting on my last post. I also commend them for keeping track of the blog world and social networking - as that's something I'm hoping to do more of in the new year.

I should also add that while I didn't end up purchasing the shelving system through DWR, the rest of our house is essentially something straight out of one of their catalogues and up until this incident we've always been really happy with them.

So DWR and I are now even.

Marketing Plan v. 1.0

I've been working on the 2009 Marketing Plan for a few weeks now. It sorta gets worked on in bits and pieces as the inspiration hits me. Truthfully, most of it is in place with the exception of the "social networking" piece. I've decided that I need to spend more energy on buiding up our retail sales (in addition to our wholesale sales) and one of the ways I want to work on this is via social networking. The only problem is that despite being relatively web savvy, I really have no idea how to go about this. So in my usual fashion I've purchased a book or two from Amazon and am trying to learn about it that way as well as asking friends who are much more in the know then I am. I even signed up for a Twitter account - though I have yet to figure out what the heck to actually do with it.

The only concrete part of the social networking plan I have figured out is that I need to spend more time being part of online communities/forums that relate directly to my industry and my end consumer. Though I do find it ironic that technically that part of my marketing plan is basically "spend more time screwing around on the web." As if I don't do enough of that already!

So Much for Procrastination

I got a call today from Design Within Reach that the great cube shelving system I ordered - despite saying they were in stock on their website - is not only backordered but won't be coming in at all. So glad it took them 4+ days to figure that one out.

I did find four sets available new on ebay so I bought them. It was actually even cheaper on Ebay then the Design Within Reach sale. But after I purchased it I learned that the sellers address is something like ebayorders @ DWR.com (dwr= design within reach). So I'm not holding out hope that these cubes are actually in existence. The better half is telling me to keep my hopes up and that this may be a DWR liquidator and that he wouldn't have put them on ebay if he didn't actually have the quantity listed online (he said he had 8 units and I ordered 4 of them) but until I actually see them I'm going to be highly skeptical.

Keep your fingers crossed for me because now that I've gone ahead and spent the money on them I'm fallen in love with them and really don't want to have to figure out an alternative. They're just too perfect!

Last Minute Holiday Gift Idea

While it is the holidays, I received sad news last night that a dear friend's dog passed away. It reminded me that if you are searching for any minute gift ideas, one that pretty much any animal lover would appreciate is a donation to their local animal shelter.

If you do have pets at home and would give them an extra hug in Soleil's name I'm sure the newest addition to puppy heaven would appreciate it.

Sometimes Procrastination Does Pay Off

Back in the Fall, while attending one of the tradeshows I had to go to, I saw a few vendors with what I thought was just the best booth display setup I had seen (short of the companies who invest $gazzillion in their booth displays which is just not feasible for little ol' me). It essentially is a modular bookshelf made up of squares that you could adjust and reconfigure as you desired. So you could build what looked like a pyramid out of the boxes, or a simple "bookcase" of boxes. The flexibility the system gave you was unmatched from anything you could rent from the tradeshow company. But it gets better - the entire system could be broken down into flat pieces and was relatively light which is key for shipping from tradeshow to tradeshow. Add to that the fact that you don't need tools to put it together which technically would require you to hire a union man at $30/half hour and it really is the perfect system for tradeshows.

I found out that the system came from Design Within Reach (tried to find a photo but it looks like they just took it off their website) and have been keeping an eye on the item. I almost bought it a few months ago when they were offering free shipping which would have saved me about $50 but ended up not doing it for one reason or another. Then yesterday I ended up showing my sister the units and realized that they had been marked down from $245 per set to $95 per set. That's a drastic savings! Not to mention that you also got free shipping. Needless to say I went ahead and ordered them yesterday and ened up saving myself $588 in unit costs and $50 in shipping. That is a pretty great savings! Not to mention, what the units ended up costing me is equivelent to what I typically pay to rent tradeshow furniture at just one show. Which means by the time I hit the second show next year I will have saved money.

Course I just got an email from the company saying that the item is backordered but since they don't charge my card until it ships and I don't technically need it until August I'm not going to worry about it just yet and bask in the glory of my $638 saved plus the additional approximate $400 per show I will save on tradeshows going forward.

Working Like A Dog

Just in case there's any question about whether or not I'm working while home for the holidays I present this picture as evidence.

Home Sweet Home

I'm home...well, the parental home. And yes, the picture is a picture of my home. Extra points if you can name the town. While I love where hubby and I currently live, I absolutely adore my so-called 'hometown' (didn't actually grow up here but my whole family is here and, in truth, I didn't really grow up anywhere since we moved around a ton. So this is as good as a hometown as any). I want to buy a ranch in this general area one day and have tons of dogs, bunnies, goats, horses, riding cows (a cow that can be saddled - strange but true!). Best of all, I think hubby actually wants the same thing too - or at least he says he does. I think we're still at least 15-20 years away from that actually coming to fruition but it is good to have goals. In the meantime, I always look forward to coming home.

The benefit of running my own business is that I am able to escape for a few weeks every December to come home. This year things got a little crazier then usual as I was frantically trying to get the house ready for an appraisal as we're hoping to refinance, and then also trying to get out of town before the massive storm hit the Pacific Northwest. I honestly think I got out just in the nick of time though the two day drive still had us going through some pretty miserable conditions.

But I'm home now, the dogs are with me (the reason for driving), and I even brought home some inventory and - surprisingly enough at this late stage - have even had a decent amount of orders. Mostly retail but also two wholesale which really surprised me. Do you really want to place a wholesale order and then request ground shipping? It won't get to you until the 22nd? Apparently they did and who am I to argue.

As I mentioned above, hubby and I are hoping to one day move out this way. It dawned on me that to help move that goal along I needed to make some goals for my business. And not just 1 year goals - but true 5 year goals that include both revenue targets and what that would do for the business. IE - at revenue figure X I ccan hire on a fulltime manager. At revenue figure Y I can start to pay back the loans that were used to cover startup costs. The funny thing is - and I didn't plan it out this way - it looks like my goal is for the company to grow by approx 75%each of the next three years which is on target for how much it grew this year. Nothing like ambitious goals in a down economy!