| Thursday, October 11, 2007 |
| ok, news........ |
Gosh, so many little things that will hopefully amount to big things in time.........
Flipped the store so there's only a small rack of summer stuff, got a couple discount boxes, one is $8, the other is $12. Mostly summer stuff. I think I do a decent job of turning product over, I definitely don't have an excess of old stuff gathering dust in the back. This is a great area for sticking stuff out front at night. If the items are in decent condition, they'll get picked up.
Still hurting for cold weather items, but each year gets better. Designers at this level typically don't produce for fall/winter, it's more work, higher cost, but a bad habit to be in as a designer in Canada. There are way more selling months during the cold weather than the warm. I'm slowly adapting, learning how to produce stuff myself vs. rely on others who haven't fully committed to designing/producing as a career venture.
Traffic continues to be slow. It's so unpredictable; I've got a monthly newsletter with promotional offers in it, have hot unique items produced by local artists at the lowest prices in the city, many of the items use recycled materials even. I found an artist to paint shoes, then his talent, work ethic and internet savvy have turned the shoes into a global sensation. But I cannot get people into the store. There really is only so much you can do. Competition is fierce for customer dollars and time. At least right now there is a lot of buzz around the store. But this too is a lesson. Hype is just talk, not spending. Things appear to happening, and I guess they are, but this little shop will not benefit from that talk directly for some time, if ever.
Contrary to the tone of the last paragraph, I'm doing great. Returning to the 2nd job soon, I'm looking forward to the change. We will definitely get to year 3. My uncle keeps telling me that before long I'll be so busy with the business I won't know what to do. All I can do right now is to keep working on making the store/product/promotions better and keep smiling and enjoying the visitors who stop in. And I truly do enjoy bringing local fashion to them. |
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