Our Going Out of Business Sale opens to the public on Wednesday the 8th. We'll be closed for business after today, for three days of preparation - hanging signs, doing interviews with newspapers and other media outlets, and rearranging product to maximize visibility and, hopefully, sales. It's going to be some long days, and it will be exhausting, but I'm hoping it will be worth while at the end of it all. What I do know is that all three of us are working super hard to make this happen. (I found it highly amusing when Travis was questioning the valuation we had placed on some items, DH came back to him with direct quotations from Travis' own book to hold up his position. Go DH!- LOL)
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I've got a bunch of signage - not just the huge "Going Out of Business" sign for the exterior, but also lots of window signs, and signs to hang from ropes that I'll string for overhead. I'll have to make sure that those signs don't interfere with our alarm system which works on infrared light connections. |
We spent yesterday fielding questions from customers who had received cards for our opening day, or who had heard we were closing and wanted to confirm (while buying beads, of course). We're rearranged product display boards, consolidated products into more visible areas, I photographed all of the signage we've got from Travis, and we're still exchanging emails with him regarding specific points of potential contention. I'll be checking his book today to double-check time frames for signage and other important things, like when new discount levels kick in, etc.
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The difficulty with any business is "What is the business actually worth? What's the valuation?" A lot of different factors go into that - the actual physical merchandise, the settings - showcases, etc - and the customer base loyalty. One of the things is the displays, and we know the value of our displays - we've researched it heavily. We can support our valuation, and support the discount levels we've placed on them by directly referring to what he actually said in his book. We quoted the paragraph to him verbatim. |
I'm warning all of you ahead of time, that my posts may be shorter than usual - just a quick check-in to say "I'm still here", and "I care about each of you, but just can't chat right now". LOL Oh and talking about "chatting", Aearwen, I'm not really sure if we'll have the opportunity for our Wednesday chats until after we've shut the store down at the end of May! That's a long time away, so we'll have to play things by ear, but I suspect I'll be at the shop six days a week for the next six weeks or so.
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We're going to be playing a lot of this by ear and by feel. DH wants more $ out of the business than I do, but he's my money man. I want the customers to be happy/sad. Happy for the bargains, but sad to see us go. And I want them to still check out the last deals as we get towards the end of May and final closing. |
The only real negative to all of this is my sciatica. That's not going away. A good massage or maybe a chiropractor might help, but that takes time that I just don't have. I might get in touch with my oldest niece - she's a licensed massage therapist and may have some recommendations for me. Aside from that, I'll just have to live with the discomfort and hope that it can work itself out.
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I just can't seem to shake my sciatica pain. It's primarily at the bottom of my ass - so sitting is uncomfortable, and standing is a bit better, but not my favorite since I have a lot of computer work to do which requires sitting in most cases. Even just driving to and from work is painful. SUCKS! LOL |
So, I've blathered on long enough. I'll be back on Monday and Tuesday mornings, for sure, but then we open for our invitational event on Wednesday and it might just be a quick check-in to say "I'm still here" from that point onward. (Aearwen - no Wednesday phone call this week for sure, and I'll be playing it by ear from that point until the sale ends.) Enjoy your weekend and Slava Ukraini.
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