too much?

my week ahead

1. DEALING WITH jons auction..he went to a good one yesterday and got 2 box trucks full.... it was a camp selling out...i think we got about 70 chairs, 10 huge tables, lab equipment, cute little metal boxes with birdhouse shape....tampon receptacles....lol... he didnt know... 5 pianos, 20 little oak kids chairs, and 27 old hickory couches and chairs....he brought 2 truckloads home...and will get the rest monday...jon gets all the fun...i had to stay at the store and work...i used to go every saturday....



2. CHRISTMAS ...... OPENHOUSE.. THE WHOLE STORE WILL BE TRANSFORMED FOR OUR CHRISTMAS OPENHOUSE IN ABOUT 4 WEEKS........INCLUDING PLANNING FOR :::::christmas gift bags ...THE TREES...... CHRISTMAS SCHEDULING, CHRISTMAS LAYOUT, CHRISTMAS ADVERTIZING...RIGHT NOWITS ALL PACKED AWAY....



3. .FLUFF UP THE STORE...we can hardly get thru the antique primitive room...



4. wreath project...carol is making the neatest christmas ball wreaths...i think they will be good sellers...



5. etsy plans...want to present it with more emphasis on steampunk....ITS GOING PRETTY WELL AND WE HAVE LOTS MORE TO PUT ON http://www.gypsymarket.etsy.com/ weve decided not to go for another website for selling...



6. where to go with junk art....way too many ideas in this world....but i dont even have a good place to sell....i think its a huge trend and getting bigger and bigger on the national scene....



7. THE LOGISTICS.... where to put 10 8 ft tables...just the physical part of jons sale seems pretty impossible...we are packed right now before we unload all the trucks....



8. final christmas orders



9. necklace project...ruth can solder!!!! i just bought a big collection of old matchbooks....with great vintage art....



10. upgrade my computer skills and try and use the web better...im loving facebook but have no idea where its place will be...we do have a fan page....i m on a great business forum with such good guys who are so generous talking about blogs and all things web related....im trying to learn from them......http://www.small-business-forum.net/

thats about it...once in a while i get a negative thought is we are too big for our location.... we have too much stuff , too many things going on....but like dh says it is what it is....we arent moving....somehow we just have to get more people to come here...

whenever i think we might have too much stuff , or too much going on, it passes quickly... therE is always room for more... if its interesting...

our business has been built on .if its a good price go for it..if we can sell it.....thats why jon bought 5 pianos...at least he passed on 40 boxes of books for 1$ each....if a good primitive buyer comes thru boy will i have some tables to sell....the bad part is our habits formed when we had tons of wholesale buyers who could use a truckload if it was priced right...oh well!

like mae west sayS

TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THiNG CAN BE WONDERFUL....

steampunk altered art, trash to treasure and junk
thats where my head is lately.... and for a long time as you can see in our robot above...we had her made about 15 yrs ago...shes 14 ft tall...
see the baby...and the iud...
back to the junk idea

its all over our store...

#from our giant islands and counters from salvaged parts....
#to all things industrial that we stock and sell to stay at home moms as well as the big time show dealers
who come thru sometimes...

# to our rough room,aka junk rooom,aka orphan room...its is full of nice saveable stuff, so superior to the particle board crapola out there in the furniture world......

# our big signs on shutters and windows..and cutting out words from the ceiling tin...
# jons birdhouses out of old cans and garage junk
# the raw materials , like doors, windows, spindles, shutters, and getting to hear or see the neat results in peoples homes.... they bring me in pictures sometimes...
#to filling our etsy site with the fun junky vintage raw materials for the junk/steampunk/altered artists out there on the web... http://www.gypsymarket.etsy.com/

this is the theme im seeing in so many places...

i think its a big trend that will fit our store like a glove ...
. its in the shelter magazines,

the big antique shows,

in the most high end shops,

at the fleas,

the big altered art/junk events that just happened.... both packed with buyers ..
[.country living faire and junk bonanza,} all the wonderful texas shows you can see in the blog world... etc etc....

so our job, in the retail world, is to figure how to best make money on this big idea thats sweeping the country.... thats all...
like my daughter says...weve always been about junk.meaning green oak ,,.. .and its nice to see the rest of the world catching on....

just take a look at the pottery barns ads....you can easily see they check out the fleas and antique stores.....

wierd, but our store has been reflected in country living since it started publication.....from deep country back when we covered everywall with everything and the colors were mostly dark......to now with completely different approach and colors but the same fun reusing spirit.... i still cover every wall at home ....

funny money,,,,

value is so funny in antiques....jon got these rugs at an auction...they look great , the family was rich, one is marked made in iran.....we paid about 80$ .....they are either factory made, and worth very little, like karastan or real orientals.....i cant tell ....the pattern is on the back , the colors are great..... so whats the price..?

..yesterday i said they are between 100 each or 1000 each..... im waiting for my rug buyer , he will want them if they are good orientals, if he doesnt want them that tells me they might be worth 100.... hes the expert....and weve sold to him before...

we sent word to him thru our antique buddy network,i dont have his number, he just called, hes on his way.... now i have to decide how to handle this.....should my goal be 1000 each? what if they are 5000 rugs? should i care.... maybe ask 2000 and let him take that or offer less......i am so rarely in this position,,,,as i think its horrible and unprofessional to not have something priced....rugs are about the only thing i ever dont price by what i paid.....but he is getting to see them instead of me selling them for 100....

the last time this happened....our parting deal was him paying us 6000$ for a big filthy pile of rugs... after the deal was made, he said he would have paid $7000....and i told him i would have taken $5000.....it was pretty funny......the big one he sent to turkey to be repaired....it must have been a heck of a rug...

...but we have a good relationship...the only way i ever get good rugs is by dumb luck at auction.... i know a teeny bit , but not really enough to know w hat im looking at...

he told me on the phone that the made in iran tag meant they were after ww1....

maybe i will just throw myself at his mercy.... or offer them at 2000, for the pair...

hmmmm.

FINAL REPORT;;;;; ..basically , let him have them at any price.... one was horribly damaged...and the other also not good...i knew there was a hole., thats all jon told me and it was that plus water damage....... but big and worth sending to turkey to get repaired...costing way more than what he paid....im satisfied...and happy with the guy...he knows i know nothing....and respect his very good reputation.... .i told him i was hoping for 2 or 3000 and he said he was too....

what we learned..... since hes spending 7 or 800 to get the hole repaired and it will still have lots serious off color and worn down spots....bad ones....my guess is one like this in good condition we could sell for 2 or 3000....thats my wild guess anyway....

isnt it georgous!!!

outside the box inventory

today im at a big antique show/flea in springfield ohio.......getting great outside the box inventory..... stuff you cant get at the gift shows....things i really think make our store a destination....things that you just cant get at the big gift shows.....
we bought all day today including...
.antique ships wheels
huge baskets
locker baskets
old road signs
all kinds of antique wooden containers from china
little stools
halloween crafts
big fun carved fish
little buddah heads
big glass jars
recycled cow, penguin, and car....these are so cool!!!

and so much more!!!!
got to meet sandy and joe from http://www.rhubarb-reign.blogspot.com/ and see their cool booth in person...i love reading her show adventures....
we are close to the country living show in columbus...but are passingit up formore fleamarketing tomorrow...its a beautiful weekend over here in ohio..
the guy who sold me a lot of this sells to terain...which i gather is a big deal altho i have never seen one....

today i liked about everything junky and tried to restrain myself.....

wish i knew ....

is this what they call steampunk!!!!!

this is by an old antique buddy who is an alcoholic and fabulous outsider artist.... http://www.alcoholicoutsiderartist.blogspot.com/

wish i knew how to do some of this...DONT YA JUST LOVE ARTISTS!!! where would we be without them..

really i wish i had the clientel to sell this kind of stuff in the store.......and support the artists ....but im in corn country for one thing....and i cant get

$$200 for a darling little robot...dang!!!! i really love them....but i cant blame the artists for their prices either....

i do buy for myself sometimes....and sometimes i think hey i work for very little a lot of times..now and in the past.....so why do artists want to start out so high?....

for the inner wonk in you

heres a new place i found http://www.laurenandemira.com/ and their blog about business...they wrote a book ... the boss of you..

LOOKS LIKE A LOT OF GOOD STUFF IN THERE...

lots of interesting business info and ideas... a new place to explore. im going back tonight....now off to work..

A GREAT DAY.... we had such a good weekend....and im so glad we went to the cash and carry and got all that fall...it looked great and sold great..lots of garland, and all the misc . went out the door today.....our idea of good used furniture is paying off too....it was like a party in there today...over 10 cars in the parking lot most of the day....

. A SUPER HOT THING...those great battery LIGHTS AND CANDLES.

.we are reordering like mad tomorrow...

MAYBE THINGS ARE TURNING AROUND...

clint eastwood and toughts for the day

~~~~I WANT TO BE LIKE CLINT EASTWOOD, BB KING, AND SENATOR BYRD..or alan greenspan ....... and just keep working deep into old age...im definitely hoping for 20 more years in the business....if my luck holds out ..

in antiques, i have lots of great old role models who loved their work and never did give it up.... until their bodies just gave out....

.one old customer actually came here the day he had chest pains, by old i mean in his 80s...his wife was furious wanting to take him to the hospital... .instead she had to drive him 45 miles to come see us.........he always wanted good things before 1850 and i had one.... a big corner cabinet...he couldnt get out of the car, . we drug it out into the parking lot and twirled it around and he bought it....then said ...take me to the hospital alice.... he was so rattled he didnt even beat me down on my price... he was one of my favorites....back then...he looked down on anything made after 1850...such a snob....but he would call me faithfully every week to see if i had something for him..that was the last time i saw him....... also on a different occasion,he was blind in one eye, he fell down in my rocks on the way up the steps to the store.....

~~ SMALL WORLD.... my blog is getting me in trouble....i talk about one guy a lot..hes so much fun and gives me business and show info and stories from texas to atlanta... i never use his name...well he was somewhere in america and talking about something and his buddy said"oh, i know all about it"...and that he'd read it on here...and recognized his friend/my friend ....... my friend kind of ripped me..i was so innocent....and i dont ever tell anything i consider bad...it was maybe about the deer head he painted like a Holstein...

~~ DUH....DONT ORDER WHAT YOU CANT PAY FOR... .i think i ahave read this as a plot before...... what maybe stores dont REALIZE is that your reputation gets tossed around all over a show or on the road...among reps, among companies, between reps and other stores...... if you dont pay on time or if your credit card gets declined , a lot of people know about it...especially if you are well known.......its a bad sign.

~~~KINDNESS OF STRANGERS... there is a lot of that going around..... today a dealer called....and said she had 8 tables and just got charged for 7...shes sending a check...

.i wish i had a picture of her for you...she and her dh drove a long way to come here....in a car!! and they got 8 tables in it.... shes going to paint them up for her store....

~~~~we might have to make our thing function on fewer or lower sales.....that would be so bad....but if the economy doesnt come back right that might be our new reality.....my plots in this direction would be MAKE MORE ON WHAT WE DO SELL... but how? **** to have a few more nice big expensive things for some of the buyers........*****and to keep working at being way more careful about the buying, the shipping , the bulk discounts....and all those things that can make lots of little differences.....****keep our prices down and try to be that place with the right stuff at the good price....

having our monthly and yearly numbers not grow or even sink a little is just gross to me....and scary.... its like we are STARTING ALL OVER IN A WAY... and we are definitely in a region with horrible un and under employment......they just dont have as much money to spend as they used to....thats a fact...

whats working this week......

this week our fall is selling great..
some things that are working...

~~~on the the harvest tables, the long candle holders with garland around them , are selling

~~and im so glad i bought lanterns...we have been putting the battery tealights or tall candles in them with some fall foilage...and the are selling....

~~~~lots of wire and metal pumpkins are selling...

........we have a whole new section of fall....

its refreshing

..i think our customers hope for something nice seasonally from us....even tho they can go almost anywhere....

facebook and shoptalk

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Rochester-IN/Green-Oak-Antiques/128260302593?ref=nf

well, im trying it..... i love blogging and dont plan to give that up,and i dont quite see how facebook would be different...but im giving it a shot.....its a different venue i guess....

im also doing a personal page....ann burton wootten furnivall....or just ann burton....... AND HOPE SOME PEOPLE over 40 or business people OR CYBER FRIENDS find me and want to be friends....oh gad, i think one of my kids did just hit 40..... so far its mostly family and people my kids age......... lots of my antique buddies dont even have a computer!!

so IF YOU NEED/want A FRIEND COME SEE ME/ FRIEND ME???!!! weird words.

and from my class of 1962 only 4 are on....so im kind of lonesome on there....

but im trying to listen to Rick segel and others telling us businesses we should give facebook a whirl..so im doing a fan page for green oak...

ON MY MIND

1. THE ECONOMY...i think its getting better but will be different..... and i worry about the big stores and All their constant sales.... this is so against us....as small retailers...
2. NEED A NEW VENUE...the things i tried this year didnt work.... 2 mall booths..... we continue to have all our eggs in one basket, THE STORE, and that scares the @#*&&^ out of me....weve always had something major on the side... ..... oops i forgot about etsy....its another basket but only about 1 to 300$ a month...we cant do shows.... no people...we cant move......i dont see the Internet working at the level im talking about...... im loving junk art..and like what we are making.....but where to sell it is the question....also thinking about offereing trunk shows... with the garden iron...
3. NEW CUSTOMERS...scary thing is i dont quite get them... i dont have the seat of the pants intuition about them like i have always had about my old customers..i dont have the code words to attract more of them....they are young and like our stuff but i dont know what they do with it or how they decorate or what their ideals are....
4. PRODUCTIVITY.....we have a workforce...and i have to keep us making money not just dusting!!! but what...
5. INTERNET DECISIONS..we have a new selling site ...laying dormant....i see so little evidence of a site in my field making money...to me making money would have to mean at least 5000$$$ a month.... i cant make us put out the effort to give it a try on the info ive gathered so far........ do you know anyone making that amount on line? would love to hear...
6. WHAT to buy .....thats always a fun problem.....im going for the new girls ....and they sure arent like me in their choices............so im trying to figure it out...the good thing is they really seem to like our store....im thinking its about style, recycling, quality and saving money....AND they are kind of adventurous and outside the box...so that still feels right...

road trip

we went to saugatuck michigan..... such a neat town....and a yearly get away for dh and i......full of arty shops and clothes....and several antique stops on the way.... its always inspiring to me to see others stores and how its going and whats working......
the whole town was having its sidewalk days...thats why we went.....huge crowds...nice loud band playing in the middle of town.... some kind of sale about everywhere...end of summer and its on the lake....
we went to our favorite restaurant....and they forgot us, they sat us and never came back....and they werent busy at all....... in 2 places someone said hi....both were the owners.... have you ever been waited on by a guy from india!!!! its almost always a great example for what to do right...
lots and lots of closed shops on the way up on the red arrow highway......you would have tons to choose from if you wanted to be up there........ but we did see 2 nice busy antique places....
what i brought away....besides way too much totally bored young girls representing businesses....trying not to do their jobs...was.....
*****a big funky art sign....hanging in an art section..that might be fun here ..IM THINKING OF AN ART SECTION...OR JUNK ART SECTION
***a cute pic of little kids....in the big family restaurant that forgot us.... labelled ...FUTURE OWNERS....we have jons kids pictures on the door anyway....they might like that..
***the most gorgeous place was marco polo..in harbet.... closed for the day, but i could look in the window....it was fabulous...the total gallery affect...showing how the pieces would look in a fabulous home.....wouldnt work here we have way too much stuff but it was very impressive...kind of a mix among industrial cottage and mission...
***outside displays...one place had wonderful tall metal fountains and used arches really well...
i get so bogged down with our different spaces....i love seeing how others arrange theirs.....

not to be braggy....but our workers get compliments all the time for their friendliness and helpfulness..... i know we have awful problems like any store....but hardly any customer has ever been here and not been spoken to...at least once!!! anyway, thats always our goal....and its sincerely bought into by our workers.... we just dont sit around and look bored with you and keep talking about the party, the kids, the whatever....we know our money comes from our customers....

after we got forgotten at the restaurant we headed down to south haven and ate at clementines.....totally packed with diners and a gorgeous building all put back into its antique glory........and super super service....and reasonable prices.... it was a huge place and just doing great.....

im so into junk art now and was sorry not to see more of that.....

another business part of the day was listening to npr on the way up...... lots of talk about the economy....and how its getting better but we americans have lost equity in our homes , lost our 401ks etc etc...so we are grumpy and not in a big hurry to spend like before......and dh and i acted in the way they were describing......we like nice expensive sheets from the outlet polo store so we stopped there on the way up, at michigan city....we like high thread count but are too cheap to pay full price.....but there, at discount, the pillowcases were 69$ and the whole set would have been almost 200$....i guess we could still afford that if we just had to have them...., we bought there before, but it felt too extravagant and we didnt buy ...

big changeover

now its all about fall.... we went to offingers and bought lots of great stuff....this week we will be bringing it all out....garland, pumpkins, great signs, big handmade things, some barnwood frames..... the fall season is pretty short....but i love it....

i bought lots of lights and lots of block things....

we went to offingers in Ohio.... a big one day cash and carry....i love cash and carry... no shipping, no bad catalog decisions, no back orders, big stuff, ....and lots of competition so good deals... they were packed and lots of happy vendors....

lots of big orders coming in too.... so we will be super busy for a week or two...

my work list is huge....but we have lots of help....moving a whole section today...to make room for fall....

im on facebook...kind of weird.... so far its mostly personal but im hoping for some business friends....since my main life is about this wonderful business adventure....and my family is out there with me....my personal is under my name...annburtonwoottenfurnivall.....and the store fan page is greenoakantiques... im not too sure how this will ever relate to sales at the store....but its kind of interesting and fun....im hoping t find some old college roommates....

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1421037692&v=feed&story_fbid=1127355110339

and heres the stores fanpage..... i dont wuite see why....the blogs seem bigger and better....but its a different venue i guess...and rick segel says to do it....i like him a lot...

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rochester-IN/Green-Oak-Antiques/128260302593?ref=s

found and enjoyed...

usually i dont care for anything written just for women..especially when it comes to business,,,...but i just got a wonderful book....BLOGGING FOR BLISS.......BY TARA FREY...heres her blog http://www.bellapink.typepad.com/

the book is laid out so nice...kind of like a blog i guess....lots of eye candy and great info too..it gives a lot of basic advice and introduces a lot of wonderful blogs.....i want to see every blog in it....looks like some will be a little sweet and tame for me.... the ones about family and entertaining and cooking and sewing and soccer practice,,,but im looking forward to reading on lots of new spots....

its a beautiful book and im really enjoying it.... its written by a real blogger, not a tekk guy....

`````````````````````````````

its nothing like my favorite cyber business expert... http://www.ittybiz.com/ .who plainly talks about making business work right.... especially web businesses...its a huge site but somewhere in there she walks you thru her launch of a web book or whatever it was .......where she made 175,000$ in a short time..

.whenever i think about web selling i have to remind myself that this ittybiz woman is one of the few i know of who, imho, im pretty sure is actually make a great wage off their web efforts...lol... ..if i ever try a web thing i will go to her and try and soak up as much as i can.. shes very cool and knows a whole lot....lots too tekky and webby for me......its full of really great ideas and practical info......

watch it...she cusses .......

what amazes me is im all location and inventory....and her thing, thru my eyes, has no location and no inventory.... and she got to move to england because it sounded fun...i assume her business fits into a laptop...... mine needs 10,000 sq ft....plus jons yard!!! and we work like dogs dragging it around..

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

also found this week, over on http://www.rhubarb-reigh.blogspot.com/ ... this exciting artist, http://www.maggietaylor.com/ .....a beautiful website with the wildest pictures......

i love her work...

~~~~~~~~~

rick segel....i really like him for retail advice....today he was talking about the new economy....like it was going to stay kind of down or at least different and not ever back where it was....but it could still be good...

he was also all for facebook for stores....i dont quite get that , but thinking about it...

AND he said a store was a love it or leave it situation.... heres his blog... www.ricksegel.com

its over.....

we had a great sale....even better than last year..up about 10%.....one lady scraped her leg, a glass disaster, about 10 goblets crashed to the floor mortifying a nice shopper.... a scuffle in the road when the traffic jammed... 90 + degrees..and at least 2 people there on oxygen....

. .3 wonderful big sales, and great crowd of buyers at the smaller level....

......if you came ....thank you so much....

..now the remains of the 50 cent row is in our good will store........and lots of the rest will be at nappanee auction in a couple of weeks... my oldest grandson worked helping people to their cars.....and got a tip!!! its such a relief when this thing is over and no problems.....

we partied pretty hardy at the lake....until late....

today we got 3/4s of it put away....

and trying to get back to normal and all our fall plans....

today 2 men asked me for work.one, a neighbor, knocked on my door before 9....... i wish i had more to offer, or some idea that could productively use the workers available....

we got a 2$ check....and the woman who bought 700 50 cent items one year...came....but didnt break her record.... the farthest travellers were about a tie...one from tennessee and one from wisconsin....ONE LADY ON OXYGEN!! sat in the shade and smoked like a chimney for a long time, while her family shopped...

we think about 900 came...

hot and perky...

we got featured on a beautiful blog.... http://lapetitcoterie.blogspot.com/ shes an old customer and a good cyber friend...she has a new french flavored business...

..another very exciting frenchy friend also put us on her blog... http://www.peacockparkdesign.blogspot.com/ she loves big fabulous architectural stuff just like we do... i love her stuff!!!



yesterday was great....shock!!!! we did much better than the saturday the year before.... i really think things might be getting better and there might be lots of pent up desire ..

..back to today....wade stayed all night and is out there in the kitchen making salmon cucumber sandwiches and dealing with his 24 lbs of chicken wings.his lunch menu....after piles of pastries and fancy cookies for breakfast ..

...he stays all night with us on yardsale day...and we watched rumpole of the bailey last night....we love LOTS OF english tv...

the chaos starts at 8....this year my grandson matthew will be helping too.... first time....
18 people working today....
its going to be hot and we are all ready and perky... i get lots of compliments on my crew....boy does that feel good....

YARDSALE....great start....

....its all ready .....today and friday were great.....we are about as ready as possible..


one shop keeper drove from tennessee....thanks gina!!! and another from wisconsin....and both seemed real happy with our stuff and prices...

this is us after setting it all up....lisa and christa unloaded it all earlier in the week.......mimi, carol, me , lisa ruth and christa.. setting it all out and pricing everything in 4 hrs!!!! we price by sticker color..all one price on each row....we sorted by price quite a bit in the store so that saved a lot of time...


all done and covered up...lisa and christa..

carol and ruth above

ruth and christa below.

it is so full this year!!!

wonderful....stuff this year.....we are hoping for some serious junkers....everybody coming thru the store seems excited about it..... .....its going to e super hot tomorrow..90.....but hey its august!!! and thats normal....we have tons of great help tomorrow....and are about as ready as we can be.....

tomorrow is all about caviar cucumber sandwiches, wade in his tux, and long rows of cheap misc..... and hopefully about 800 people..... there were sure a lot today......

THIS WEEK....facebook , work, and etc

this is the biggest work week we have and the biggest money week....the yardsale is sunday....ive been keeping 6 or 7 people working on many projects all week....very very exhausting....we have moved so much merchandise to its right place for the sale..... kind of scary, investing this much effort....paid effort....but our customers have come thru every time....i know this whole year has been different tho....and locally our school starts tomorrow!!! poor kids....so our date might be all wrong./...the sale has been so good in the past i just cant risk changing much about it.... last year was over 800 people...

last night i let 2 women in after hours..i was way too tired!! and almost said no to the person on the phone...........i cant let retail come in after hours....it takes a long time to see everything.... .after she let me know she had spent plenty with me in the past and if i didnt want to bother with her she wouldnt stop, i came to my senses and realized they were dealers in an 18 ft trailer so said yes!!!! thank heavens!!! 5 nice pieces of furniture sold...and i got to meet 2 fun women with wads of cash and heading to the 127 yardsale...i asked how far they would go....i think it goes hundreds of miles...they had no restrictions except the 18 ft of space i guess....those lucky dogs....i let them use their credit cards so they could save their cash for the shopping...

FACEBOOK...my dil , terrri, will be working in the store soon...shes our webmistress and im trying to make some web goals for us.....

facebook is a total mystery to me....but i know its a possible tool and used by lots and lots of my customers....so im going to try to get up to speed and try some ways for our store to use it....... some good talk here http://ricksegel.com/blog/

i dont get it at all ....yet...if they already go to my store blog why would they go to facebook? whats the difference? why do both?...... ANY HINTS FOR ME??

gad...i heard 2 twitter plots yesterday....im not going to be twittering!!! one was a fancy resturant on wheels in santa monica that used twitter to tell customers where the truck is....and another is a michigan shopkeeper who lets her customers know her schedule...

im not going personal....altho i do have some college friends i would love to find..

new projects...

i have so much work to do this week getting ready for the yardsale..grueling work and a whole lot of it...last night we stamped 1600 postcards....
.im enjoying thinking about those far off projects that dont require immediate action.....the new ideas that are percolating up and look all good...baby ideas that only have high hopes and good parts...
like.... giant collages
cement fun...rock mosaics ,
cement troughs
a whole new look around the amy butler colors, for my young homemakers
a new black section...
big dressforms decorated
captured fairies...
my collage ideas
a big steampunk robot
a dressform covered with jewels.
fabulous cloches covering little wonders

i love this business!!!!
my work list today,double check scheduling for sale... rearrange chickens, plan out the work for 4 people, start packing up the half price room and mark it right for the yardsale, saleprice the furniture about 200 pcs, , call in 2 more ads for the sale...pricing all the stuff that came in this week..... and deal with who knows what...jon is at 20 yardsales this morning... we have a great crew ....
I LOVE THIS BUSINESS....PART 2 today was great
...one wonderful young fun creative customer....who i want to see what she does with all her stuff and ideas....name of rhonda....she has a big booth in hearts desire up in elkhart...going there to see her booth is definitely on my to do list...its so inspiring to talk to someone loving the same stuff/junk i do..and she might even have a worse work schedule than me...lol.....our husbands sound a lot alike too....showing fake panic when we say we have an idea!!!
AND ANOTHER funny old man.... i feel i can write about him, since he doesnt even own a computer...and will never see.... he comes pretty often, and collects something very wonderful and expensive and wanted....big metal statues of women, the beautiful metal and ceramic ones from the early 1900s....dh does too, but this guy has a big enough wallet to pay for the good stuff...marble and bronze,,they are usually draped but definitely WOMEN...with lots of good parts apparent...., anyway we are friends and he comes in once in a while.... today he was so cute..hes a widower and lonely....he kind of giggled and said....my wife used to make me keep my statues hidden away but now they are all over the house.....
the other old guy i had yesterday was with his wife...who i really like...i gave her a great price on something and then the husband tried to beat me down more....he had a patch over his eye!!! he was nice too tho...
my 2 other favs always butter me up, they are in their 80s, and very big spenders if i get the right thing... hows my girl doing....before trying to get something out of me...i save victorian gold for one and the other is lusting for a bottle thats not for sale....
i seem to know a lot of old guys and one of the best things about them...is i seem kind of young to them!! that doesnt happen too much to me.
some places im the old bat whos got it made ....or if they dont know me, the little frumpy housewife...actually i have a housekeeper and dont even do grocery shopping or laundry....THANK HEAVENS..

heres our mailer....the postcard we are sending out to 3800 this year..... the stamps went up of course...we have about 800 on our email list....thats the easy part...i wold be afraid to give up the snail mail tho.....we print them here and will be stamping them tonight to be mailed out friday or sat....

i cant say enough about annual events....this one is about 30 yrs old.....every year.... and attendance has been as high as 1000....who knows this year....our garden party this year was almost on track....the big minus is the dealer buying...they havent been around much this year....

we comb the store and take out tons and tons....plus the auction leftovers all year which are in storage until next thursday...

i have to have extra help for the next 10 days....to do list for the week..... the yardsale tables stretch about 120 ft and are totally full and priced...we use color stickers to tell the clerks the price...

heres part of my list...

scheduling the 18 to 20 people for the big day....finishing up the advertising, sale pricing all the furniture, making room outside in the parking lot for lots of prim furniture, unloading the rough room,combing the store for all the merchandise that goes in all the different places..50 cents 24 4$ or half price.....its a true sale...and a way to get rid of all the leftovers, mistakes, damaged, tired of , overpriced, etc etc etc ...

this is so worth it...and im not complaining....have to say tho, in the old days the dealers would come on friday and buy up 7 or 8,000 of stuff.that was a great start to the big event.....thats not really happening anymore....the antiquers are about gone....and too many of the new store girls are closed or on budgets....hate that...

ITS A JUNGLE OUT THERE

my childhood heroes; nancy drew , sheena queen of the jungle and later ayn rand have really helped my form my business outlook .....
too bad they cant fix the pesky economic climate..... ....
i wonder what they would do this year ...
WORD ON THE STREET.... i have heard of some back to work talk around our area....some good g.m. talk ...some new things going on..... i sure hope so...
. we are working hard to not lay anyone off.... we dont want to....it takes at least 4 people to run the store whenever we are open..2 to carry, one on the floor and one at the counter.....and i dont want to change that..
.being A VIRGO im good at worrying...will the customers really go back to their old spending habits? or will they be more conservative?... in lots of ways tighter budgets work for our store......
yardsale..WE ARE WORKING ON SO MANY PARTS OF IT....
.postcards....half printed
..ad...finalized
....STORAGE AREA PILING UP...last week we priced about 30 MORE boxes of stuff for the sale....... and yesterday i bought a whole truck load of cheap stuff at auction.... .....
going to auction makes you realize how bad looking and cheap old giftstore merchandise is...im thinking here of resin angels and fairies...
the yardsale does have about 40 ft row of 50 cent items so i went kind of wild!!!!
????? i could have a ball going back to my roots, going to auctions all the time and getting tons of antiques..BUT WOULD IT WORK FOR THE STORE ????.. would the new girls buy or even care? they dont really seem TO value or know real antiques...i need to get to know these new customers better...

DELEGATING

dh says i cant delegate...but i dont think thats right..... he doesnt delegate much at all in his part...ive seen him struggle of hours to find a 50 cent mistake on the books... and he would never let anyone esle do any of his bookwork...
im so glad to have delegated lots of things i used to do alone...
*counter work im sure glad to get out of this one....you can get trapped....and it has to be just right...and she can shield me from some of the phone calls...
*most of the carrying, i can still do it of course....but i try and let someone else do it....still if im there a lot of time its easier for me just to grab...

*half the buying, and carpenter ordering..jon does half and i do half.... he thinks i should be out buying more because i know the smalls better.....
*half the fluffing i would love to hire a great merchandizer....we do the best we can... im in awe of a great displayer.... of course its art and they cant tell you how they do it!!!
*ordering, for the gift department i mark what i want in the catalog and how many with a sticker and carol does the rest!!! yay i dont get why i should care if my workers know what we pay..... not many secrets around here...
cleaning......i dont think we ever cleaned in the old days...i sure didnt...
i would like to delegate more....but not so much that i dont even need to be in the store.....

i go for the idea that the best manure for the garden is the farmers footprints

...... i would like to delegate more like the emyth says...and make more time for running the business not just doing the work..... but its pretty hard....i need to know whats going on at all times........ lots of my customers tell me i work too hard...but i dont see it that way...4 or 5 things going on at once and getting interrupted all day long seems normal ...

i have so much stress and pressure and frustration...its a boiler room for me most of the time... .there are so many details and people to deal with..and space and projects.......sometimes i just go in the back and paint ON a piece of furniture....now WE have about the best crew weve ever had so that helps a whole lot... the stress doesnt spoil it for me thats for sure...
ive tried hiring a potential manager about 3 times....and it never has worked out yet.... ...

THINGS I WISH I COULD DELEGATE....and have it turn out like i want...

1. advertizing
2. a whole section, like the foo foo or the country, ordering and displaying...
3. putting the antiques away correctly...

THINGS I WOULD NEVER WANT TO DELEGATE

1. BUYING
2. display, not completely anyway
3. designing
4. painting
5. being on the floor with the customers, roaming around on the floor..

thinking about stress....im on a stress discussion online....mostly about women with stores and stress......and i m getting to feel like the oddball, for being too ok or positive....... i know i face tons of stress too ........BUT and its a big one....our store is DOING WHAT ITS SUPPOSED TO DO, it supports us and lets me do my own thing...that outweighs a lot of the hard parts of running a store....... .....

if i was facing closing or not being able to pay the bills , or owing friends or family that would be a whole different thing...

.my point is stress is probably more about the math or financial health of the store . and not the hassles and workload.....im a happy camper and work like a dog....i want to keep on working like a dog... if our math goes lots further downhill i dont know what i would do..

as always, i cant help but blame the advice women seem to soak up, from the popular press and their friends and from people wanting to sell them things... live your dream, you can make it, go girl..when really we are in the same boat as the men in business and better look hard at the realities we have to face if we want to survive........

. we experienced having a business go under, about 30 yrs ago and it was devastating.....all i can say is if you are facing that....get it over with quick..... if its really unsolvable..... and our situation was... the whole thing had changed and we were stuck with totally the wrong price.... and our customers moved on to the other store .... this was a record store when a discounter came to town with new record prices... we had to close....it was very sad and embarrassing and taught me a lot....mainly that its all about the customers...lol... but it gave us a good hardnosed, careful background for our green oak antiques venture... http://www.greenoakantiques.com/