merry christmas

hope you all had some time to just lay around and enjoy a day off.....

A GOLDEN TIME

this time of year is golden to me....the numbers come in, i can look at the shelves and see what happened with my product picks.., its year end!!!!

i do a lot of the yearly plan at this time....when all the parts of last years plan come to light....what worked and what didnt..what we have too much of what we didnt get enough of...... what the state of the store is...how bad last year really was...

.what saved us...dh says we cut our spending to adjust to the horrible reality this last year...and i think we picked out some pretty cool stuff last year...

. and what our goals should be for the coming year.... ...

.we have new issues this coming year....good ones....my health insurance is off the table....turned 65...thats saving us about 800 a month in insurance.....its pretty bad when your dh cant wait for you to turn 65!!! lol.... i can hardly believe it ...we are trying for almost a month off in january...im dreading it... im not good at vacations....but we have a great crew, not really worried there....

.so basically im having fun right now trying to sift thru everything and come up with

a great recipe for 2010...and im bugging everybody here at the store and lots of other folks for their opinions on everything... im asking them hard questions....like what worked best this year? etc etc... I NEED SOME WILD IDEAS FOR THE STORE!!!

here are some of the lists i will be thinking about...it helps to get it on paper....and it really helps to look at last years lists..... to see what you forgot about or let drop without giving it a good try...

1. what sold out in christmas ...whats left...
2. best sellers in the different categories....fooo foo, country, garden, key west,
3. revamping the store...?????
4. marketing .
5. ORPHAN IDEAS..the things still waiting around for their big chance...
6. what went up what went down...what to cut...
7. web ideas...site,email plans....facebook .. etsy....blog roll, how to make it all more interactive....im still looking for more store forums..... ???
8. best ideas all year...worst...
9. what to buy...i love this part...
10. events.... what worked this past year....

these are some of the lists that will be jiggleing around in my head and that i will be talking about with everybody in the next few weeks...

.and then its the big wholesale show where we make the main product decisions for the coming year...

also i keep a couple of notebooks thru the year...nothing too organized but lots of ideas....so i like to really go thru those too.... at this point all information and viewpoints are good... and i like to hear as much as i can from everybody....

all this helps me focus on the goals we have .... its fuzzy but it kind of works.... i dont want to get too organized.... so many good things for us have happened by serendipity...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

and heres something completely different ....FOR YOUR BLOG....

.VIDEo BLOGGING..... i would love to see us all do it!!! http://2minuteswithava.com/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~