Remembering my first

The day I opened my store was such a blur, but in all the craziness, I can clearly remember my first real customer. The store opened at 10 AM and for the first few hours, friends and family popped in and out. My first sale was to a friend of mine, a fellow store owner in the shopping center. She bought a hipster overnighter as a birthday gift for a friend of hers.

But that sale didn't really count. She knew me, and like many of my girlfriends, had stopped by while we were setting up. She spotted the bag a week before we opened and said that she would buy it as soon as we were "officially" in business. While I sincerely appreciated the business, it wasn't a bonafide honest to goodness real sale to someone I had never met.

That happened just after lunch.

A group of women wandered in and began checking things out. I followed them around with enthusiastic and over-eager explanations of all of the products they were looking at. They finally gathered around a display of fold-up tote bags.

"Oh, these look just like the Longchamp," one of the women said. I had no idea what she was talking about.

Another added, "Fifteen dollars? They would make great gifts!" She scooped up three bags.

The truth was, I hated those totes. But they were inexpensive, and I needed some filler items since my opening budget was so tight. The colors worked for our display, so I ended up ordering a ton of them. We wrapped the bags and sent the woman on her way. Later I found out that the bags were a knock off of a ridiculously expensive brand of collapsible french bags.

So that is where I am now with my writing. Lots of friends proclaiming the cleverness of my products and a few lined up to "buy," but no real customers yet. And the truth is, I can't wait for that first sale.

Knock off cheapie thing that I hate or not, it is going to feel damn good to sell it.

Blog bog

If a blog entry is posted and no one leaves a comment, does it even make a sound?

Every so often I start wondering about the bizarre motivation behind this whole blog thing. Why choose to write this way? I read a statistic recently that said that there are over 15 million active blogs. Those are just the blogs that have been posted to in the last 90 days. There are millions more that have been abandoned. Portions of peoples lives are languishing out in cyberspace, little orphaned thoughts guarded by outdated snapshots of the family dog.

I guess the more important question is, would I still write this stuff if absolutely no one was reading it? Probably not. It would be like talking to myself.

And that is just crazy, right?

Oh baby!

As soon as I drop Little Guy at pre-school, I am off to visit a friend who just had a baby girl a few weeks ago. I can't wait to see my friend and lay eyes on her precious little gal. She and I haven't known each other long, so I have never known her NOT pregnant.

The best part about holding a brand new baby? Handing her back to her Momma and then heading home for a full night of sleep!

Working girl

So I recently got a little job. Sort of.

I am going to be writing blog posts and web content for my former store. It is in many ways the perfect job for me, since I know the business so very intimately. The gal I sold it to has spent the better part of this year working on developing an eCommerce site. I think it looks fantastic and it really conveys the essence of the in-store experience, something that isn't always easy to do.

Initially, I will be bartering for store credit. Though not a paying gig, it is a solid arrangement, and I have a feeling it is going to lead to bigger opportunities. We are still working out a few kinks with the look and feel and content, but things are starting to come together.

So now and then, be sure to visit me over here too. And if something strikes your fancy be sure to comment and then of course, throw my girlfriend a little business.

It's just a little job and even though my 9 to 5 is actually little more like 9 to 10, it still feels pretty great to be a working girl again.

Breaking news

We will now interrupt your regularly scheduled program to bring you this very important announcement:

I AM HOME ALONE.

Thank you for your patience and co-operation.
We will now re-join our regular program already in progress.