Friday, October 27th, 2006
It’s been like Christmas at my house because every so often I’ll come home to a big box waiting outside my door. Pretty soon, I’ll have to open the store in my house if it doesn’t get done being built! A few days ago, I received my MudPie order. The website doesn’t show much, but it’s some really cute baby gifts!
Today, I received a UPS notification that a package will be delivered today at my office! It’s my Precidio order! This is a bunch of cool kitchen goods that are not only stylish, but are very functional too. They even beat many of the pampered chef products in terms of creative uses and functionality.
Wow, how am I ever going to not end up coming home with half of my store because these products are so neat! If the store isn’t ready for me soon, it’s going to be nearly impossible!
Monday, October 23rd, 2006
Dove has a pretty powerful ad campaign going on right now. I’m sure you’ve all seen it…the “love your skin” commercials with average women dancing around in their underwear.
This is the latest…watch the video on the company’s homepage: http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com/
Here’s another to play with: http://demo.fb.se/e/girlpower/retouch/retouch/index.html
This, of course, makes us graphic designers look terrible. Believe me, I know exactly how that transformation happens. I’m guilty of it myself. Do you think that the photo on my “about” page is straight out of the camera? Hardly. We could all use a little digital face-lift. I find myself wondering who’s fault it is…the designers or the magazine executive. I’d be tempted to say it’s the mag execs. who are telling the designers to “make her skin look better…make her eyes pop, etc.”
Frankly, I don’t find anything wrong with a few touch-ups here and there, but it’s the effect it has on young girls that is so sad. On the Dove page, click on “Inside the Campaign” and then the “Listen to the voice of little girls” video and you’ll see what I’m talking about.
Bravo, Dove, for taking such a stand on this. Of course, I have to wonder what the true motivation for Dove is…increased revenue and PR…but nevertheless, Bravo!
Friday, October 20th, 2006
I always feel like I have to post with someting new and exciting to tell. I guess that doesn’t have to be so - unless, of course, you’d rather not read unless there’s excitement. Let me know, will ya?
Well, there isn’t much today….just the same old, same old. I’m busy trying to please clients who don’t know what they want and juggling new projects. It’s a curse and blessing being someone who can get most anything done. The most often asked question in my office is, “Can you do this?” My answer, of course is, “Yup, no problem” - because it’s often something that I can whip out from underneath my hat in no time. Of course, it never happens that way. I run into technical issues, or they come back with the same task over and over again when it would have been quicker for them to learn how to do it themselves. My biggest challenge with this is finding the balance between just doing it as quick as can be and not billing them because then they’ll expect perfection. This way I can always say, “Well, I didn’t charge you for it, but if you want me to look into it further, I can bill you.” However, I don’t like to do business that way, so more times than not, I end up doing it gratis without billing, but I end up doing it to perfection because that’s me…Mrs. Perfectionist. I should just start billing them. Then, everyone wins.
In store news: I’ve been looking into getting a big outdoor sign made. I’m awaiting a quote from someone. It have no idea how much to expect…we’ll see. I also looked into furniture. Everything I saw said it would take 4-6 weeks to come in. Yikes, I better get ordering it because it’s been a week since I signed the lease. The space is going to be ready for move-in before I know it. I’ve been thinking about posting a sign in the office saying, “Office Hours by appointment until further notice” so I could just do store things until it’s up and running. What I really need is a clone of myself. One to be in the office running the more profitable end of the business - the design aspect, and the other getting the store open. If only I could afford to hire a full-time designer who could be here. What a dilema!
Monday, October 16th, 2006
My first set of inventory arrived today! It was waiting for me at my doorstep (the store is still under construction, so I can’t have anything ship there.
The first product to arrive is the Zip-it bags. They come in a variety of sizes and colors, but basically, it’s one long zipper that zips into a handy, stylish bag! How’s that for creative?
Be sure to check out the store when it opens to get your very own Zip-it!
Wednesday, October 11th, 2006
Yesterday, I completed most of my inventory purchasing at the Minneapolis Gift Mart. It was two days of the most exciting shopping I’ve ever done! Day 1, I power-shopped my way through EVERY store at the mart. I didn’t buy anything, but collected catalogs from all the places I was interested in. I had to drop off a pile at my car 4 times because there were so many!
I went home and parked myself on the couch with a pad of paper, a pen, and a cat on my lap. I went through all the catalogs and put together what I think will be a winning combination of merchandise for the store. I’m SO excited to carry these products - they truly are fantastic!
Then, yesterday, I went back to the mart equipped with a list of all the items I needed to purchase. Have you ever spent an entire day making purchase after purchase? It took me nearly 7 hours to make all of my purchases. What a rush that was! I simply sat down with each sales person and told them I wanted “this” and “6 of that.” It actually didn’t end up costing as much as I anticipated. I was able to carry a couple of really neat lines because I had been conservative elsewhere.
Among the products I picked up were:
- A FANTASTIC bath & body line made locally
- A wonderful candle line that’s new and trendy
- An amazing handbag line that will make you say, “cool!”
- Lots of photo frames, and other decor items
- Baby gift items
- New items for the kitchen
- A few stationery items
- Lots of other cute little fill-in items
I know I’m forgetting something…
The rest of the week is back to busy-crazy land. I received another project last night and all the previous ones are still looming overhead. This, of course, is FABULOUS news for the business, I’m just having a hard time staying on top of it all while trying to get the store open. The good thing is, the more I work, the better I feel about things. I’ve had a lot of weekends lately where we weren’t even home so I couldn’t do anything work-related. This weekend I FINALLY get to stay home and I am itching to get caught up on non-client related aspects of the biz. I hope to get a new website up soon, featuring my existing services as well as a teaser ad for the store. I also need to update my portfolio section.
WOW, business is great. I couldn’t have ever imagined what this would be like. Until next time…
Friday, October 6th, 2006
Well, I am the proud owner of a handfull of debt! I just closed on all the financing for the store. Whew! It’s official! There’s no turning back now.
So, I was thinking, the place I’m looking at comes pretty bare - it’s new construction so basically there’s a hunk of concrete and a bathroom. Well, I think I’ll have to supply the fixtures for inside the bathroom. So, my loyal readers and fans (just a joke about the fan part!!), I need your help with a little poll. Please respond by leaving a comment in the comment area.
Would you rather use:
a) a non-electric paper towel dispenser where you grab a sheet and pull it, it tears off and another sheet appears
b) one of those paper towel dispensers that you wave in front of it and it spits out a sheet
c) an electric blow-drying machine, reducing waste and mess.
Any other recommendations for this “JOHN”? I never thought I’d be outfitting a public restroom in all my life.
Thursday, October 5th, 2006
In honor of the upcoming Halloween Holiday, today we’ll be cooking up a fabulous combination! Don’t ask me how I came up with this one. Well, actually, yes please do.
Let me give you the recipe…
Boiling Blood: Allow something work-related to get to you. Can’t be more specific than that. I can say that proper boiling temperature is reached in the creative world when there is a matter at hand that is HUMAN-related. Yes, often times you will come across something technically-related that will definitely attempt to raise internal fluid temperature, but it will almost never reach boiling point nearly as smoothly as a little biped soup will.
If you’re looking for that extra sizzling boil, be sure to add a heap of existing stress on top of it all. The stress alone will often do it, but it most certainly helps to heighten the temperature.
How about a little appetizer? Well, I should have mentioned this first, but with a main course like Boiling Blood, it’s so easy to forget about the appetizer. Let’s back-track, shall we?
Excitement: If you want to give yourself a great start to the weekend EARLY in the week, be sure to serve up this delectable emotion as guests arrive. Perhaps earlier in the week you found yourself going crazy with all the new projects that were coming your way? Bogged down by the thought of having a MAJOR lease to sign and a MAJOR banking transaction taking place on Friday? Do something that was a first and exciting move for Ekcetera, contract new jobs out to your valuable future employee! Excitement is sure to follow once you stop and realize that while this was a major stressor and you wanted to shriek every time someone asked you a question, this is actually great news for your business. I’ve never had so much to do at once!
Well, that’s it for today, I’m off to Woodbury to enjoy some retail therapy.
Stay tuned, next, my husband teaches us how to crash a single engine plane into the ground after a busy day engineering.
Cheers!
Tuesday, October 3rd, 2006
When I first started planning this store, I had selected November 1 as an opening date. As things are picking up, I realize that it would be a TIGHT SQUEEZE to open by Nov 1. Once I sign my lease - which will probably be this week - the builder needs 3 weeks to finish the space. Then, I have 60 days from that point to finish my build-out. Being that the store is all about DIY, and I’m on a budget, hubby and I plan to do as much of the buildout ourselves as possible. WOW, what we’ve gotten ourselves into! So, if we can get into the space by the end of October, we’ll have to work night and day to get things done before the end of the year.
I’ll gladly accept lunch deliveries and volunteers during this time! I have a feeling that the store will literally be my home for a while.
On another note, since things have picked up lately - both with the store and with the addition of some new clients and projects - I once again feel as behind as ever. I’m looking at other craft and photography sites and envying all of the people who have time to do their hobby and enjoy it. The grass is always greener, right?
Friday, September 29th, 2006
I spoke with a women today who is interested in taking some classes and learning more about Photoshop and Digital Photography. Much to her surprise, we are the place where she can get hands-on experience with it all! As I explained that we are holding classes in St. Paul until the store opens, then will be moving to that location with additional services and such, she was really excited and asked to be added to my mailing list.
This is the kind of interaction that is vital to the success of Ekcetera at this point and I feel so fortunate to be able to be the person that spoke with this woman. Yes, I still am a company of one and most inquiries will come to me for a while, but it won’t be long until I have multiple employees and my interaction with the end client will be less and less. I hope that my passion for this business can be conveyed through my conversation with people and it is very important for me to be at the customer level interacting with clients. I cherish these moments now because I am the one person interacting with clients, but as the business grows, this will become harder and harder.
I proclaim, in writing, that as my business grows and I become busier and busier that I will take the time to stop and take some customer phone calls and be on the sales floor of my store interacting with customers explaining to them what we can offer and helping them with their creative pursuits.
This is one way that I can make sure that my mission in building Ekcetera remains apparent and it will also help instill a culture among the employees of the company that the only true way this concept can be successful is with the creation of a community of creative people who are interested in helping each other and sharing ideas.
This company is not your typical retail store. I don’t need people to exist strictly for the purpose of stocking shelves and my customers don’t come into the store to buy something and then leave. This is a community I’m building. It’s a place to come to get inspiration. It’s a place where the people working there are able to throw ideas out and in turn, take ideas from customers and work together to make the store better, and to make the customer’s project better.
I must come back an read this when I start to face the challanges of transitioning from a one-man business to being the CEO/President of a growing company with may facets.
Wednesday, September 27th, 2006
This is where my inexperience shows. When I’m big and famous, I’ll have my best friend, Awna write a biography of my entrepreneurship trials and I’ll comment to those wanting to start their own business…”It NEVER HURTS to be 10 steps ahead of where you think you need to be.” I’ve purchased a house before, purchased a car, entered into a lease agreement, and done many other things that seem to be the closest in terms of working with a ton of papers and signatures to what I’m doing with Ekcetera, but apparently this is the point in which I don’t have enough experience to realize how much work is indeed involved in opening a store. This is NO typical mortgage, lease, or loan. I thought I’d have to jump through the typical hoops and lose my mind while doing it, but after that’s over…I’d be ready to roll. NOT TRUE.
Case 1: What happens when I do in fact have the loan papers signed, and the money in my not-yet-existing business bank account? Then, I have to be ready to spend some of it. When I first looked into the lease I’m currently sitting on for the store location, it said that I had to have the store open within 60 days before I started paying rent. I was thinking, “no problem, I’ll probably be quicker than that.” Well, I haven’t signed the lease yet, but as soon as I do, I haven’t done much beyond that. It’s time to step up and move beyond these steps. Otherwise, I’ll be lucky if I have one paint chip by day 60.
Case 2: I got a phone call today from a lady who sells flooring. I had requested some samples. She’s interested in sitting down with me and talking about what I need, etc. This took me by surprise…! I’m not ready to actually choose flooring yet? I haven’t even received my loan payout, let alone signed a lease! But, after I thought about it for a while, I decided that I better set up that appointment because if things happen like they usually do, I’ll have the other items closed and out the door in no time and I’ll be sitting on a huge hunk of concrete, some bare walls, and flooring that is backordered. (knock on wood)
Case 3: The loan underwriter would like to see proof of insurance on my business. What? Insurance? You mean I have to insure the business BEFORE it actually exists? I think there might be a misunderstanding there that this store is a NEW division for Ekcetera and nothing exists as of now. But, again, it got me thinking that if this lease-signing experience will be anything like the last, they’ll want to see proof of insurance THE DAY I sign the lease. I find it odd that you can take out insurance on something that you don’t even occupy yet, but I guess what company wouldn’t take your money if you were willing to give it to them? So, I better start shopping around and find a policy so I can be ready to present it when I sign on the dotted line. WOW
So, my list of things to keep me 10 steps ahead includes:
- Designing the store layout
- Research furniture and equipment
- Choose paint colors
- Research contractors for electricity and such
- Find an internet/phone provider
- Assign my eager husband to design furniture we will build together. (He’s a mechanical engineer so he’s itching to use his CAD software and make me some unbelievably technical diagram of the shelf I need on the wall. THAT’S WHY I LOVE HIM SO MUCH!)
I definitely have an idea of all these things in my head, but just haven’t been challanged to put them down on paper yet. So, if I can have these items completed by the time I sign off on the loan and lease, I should be on track. Crazy, huh? Let’s call this lesson 1000 because it’s significant enough to get a number and the first 999 I’ve already encountered would require lots of hard thinking in order to recall in a moment’s notice.