Sunday Was Laid-Back and We Actually Accomplished Some Things

Hello to all of my friends and readers, happy Monday. DH and I had an interesting Sunday. He had said he had questions about Retail Sales Pro to ask me, and I figured it would just be a LOT easier to just sit him down with the e-book and let him find out most of his answers that way. So I told him to open Dropbox on his computer and find the appropriate file, then start reading. It was certainly skimming more than reading, but after several hours, he had asked me some things, written notes and questions to ask Travis, and generally admitted that we needed marketing help, and it might as well be him as anyone else. So, I guess that's a "go ahead". 

It was a big help having his book handy on 
the computer so that DH could read through 
things and answer a lot of questions without 
actually needing to speak to Travis. 

One good question DH had was whether we would need a license or permit to operate a going out of business sale in the city. I do think there is a limit on how many weeks we can hold a "Going Out of Business Sale" in our city, but I don't recall whether it's six weeks or eight weeks. I'll have to do a bit of online research and figure that out. 

It was nice to sit down at my sewing machine again. It's 
been FOREVER since the last time I did. I own a New 
Home Memory Craft 7000 machine. Actually, I own two 
of them - my Mom bought the same machine shortly after 
I bought mine, and I inherited hers after her death. Hers 
needs repair, but it should only be about $100 or so 
to get it back up and fully functional. Mine had also had an 
issue, but I got mine repaired a few years ago and it works 
like a dream again. Great machine! 

DH had also handed me one of his favorite pairs of pants on Saturday night, requesting that I resew the seams. It turned out that the seams were just fine, the fabric itself was shredding because he's worn them so much. I resewed what I could while he was reading through the e-book on his computer, and they're wearable again, but not for very long. I could see other areas where the fabric will tear shortly, so he might be able to get another week, maybe two from them, but not much more than that. 

We're watching Season 5 of "Vera" now. We've seen 
most, if not all, of the episodes before, but that doesn't 
matter. We love the show. 

So, Sunday was relatively laid-back. He read and asked occasional questions, I sewed and tried to make fabric appear where there was none (that was an interesting trick). Still, it was a pleasant day, and we topped it off by watching another episode of "Vera", so all was good. I hope all of you had a lovely weekend and are ready to start the week off on a good note. Have an excellent Monday and Slava Ukraini. 

Etsy, Retail Sales Pro and Hockey - Somewhere There Must Be a Balance

I got an Etsy order late last night, so I'll be starting my day out today getting it ready to ship. I don't get a lot of orders, but they're always a pleasant surprise to get. Because it is a weekend, shipping may be slightly delayed, but I usually try to have things sent out no later than 48 hours after the order was received. I'll go onto Etsy when I set up the laptop at the shop and let the customer know that the latest it will ship will be Monday morning. 

I don't get a lot of sales on Etsy, but I always love it 
when I sell a strand of Trade Beads. These antique 
beads are highly treasured and getting quite rare. The 
strand of White Cross beads I sold yesterday are 
heading to Oklahoma when I get the paperwork completed. 

I started yesterday out by doing several errands that had been stacking up. Primary of these was to start taking our burnt-out 8-foot fluorescent bulbs to Batteries Plus for recycling. I grabbed my first set of 10 and brought them over, along with the two kitchen light bulbs I had just changed earlier in the week. Success! It was an easy drop-off, the price I had been quoted was accurate, and I can start with the bulbs on the main floor next week. I don't like to get into time crunches on days that I work, so I'll be adding bulb recycling to my Wednesday and Friday schedules until they're completely gone. 

It's not difficult to get the bulbs from the shop to the Batteries 
Plus store, it's just a bit slow because I can only carry a 
maximum of four of the long 8-foot bulbs at a time. I try 
to take 10 at a time for recycling - it's a comfortable number to 
keep under control in Minnion. 

Tomorrow is the "Big Talk" between DH and me regarding Travis and what he and his company can do for our closing sale. I'm still working through the e-copy of his book, and I hope I can answer DH's questions as they arise, but at least I can (possibly) look up the answers on my laptop if necessary. I did store it in my Dropbox account, so it's possible that he could also download it for reference, but according to Travis' website, I also have a hard copy in the mail. DH finds hard copy to be more convenient, so I'm hoping it arrives soon. I refuse to spend paper and ink printing out several hundred pages, although in a pinch, I could do that (or print selected pages, if necessary). 

I still want to schedule a phone call 
with Travis where both DH and I can 
be on the phone with him at the same 
time. That's a bit easier said than done, 
but I'm hoping for next week. 

I did make a start on cleaning off one of my collection surfaces in the shop. I think we all have them. Chickie uses the floor level where she stands (which drives me crazy), I use the top of our print drawers which is behind where I stand when I'm processing product, and DH has the rest of the store and all of the back room, which he has cleaned, but it's still cluttered - no real way to avoid the clutter right now. 

I'm actually not fond of real, live pack rats, but this 
pack rat puppet is rather adorable - LOL. 

So, I'm curious. Are you a "pack rat", or do you regularly go through your things and cull, tossing out or donating things you no longer use or want. I must admit to pack rat tendencies, although I can cull and toss when pushed to it. I have varied interests and skills, but most of them revolve around working with glass in a variety of formats, and with metals - mainly copper and silver. Of course, my glass ranges from the multitude of beads in all sizes and shapes that I use, on through the decorative plates of glass that I use in my kiln for fusing. I'm looking forward to getting back to some of that work again in the future. Metal, of course, is used in conjunction with the beads and rarely on its' own. 

Perhaps I should have stuck with writing - it seems to require a much smaller amount of materials - LOL. Have an excellent Saturday and Go Wild - there's a game tonight, so I'm wearing my Kaprizov jersey that a friend was so kind as to give to me. *hugs* Have a great weekend and Slava Ukraini. 

Sales, Phones and Cooking - It's All a ClusterF**k

It's my "Day Off" and that's a bit of a crazy day all around. I did speak with my Retail Sales Pro guy yesterday for a short time and we agreed to set up a second phone call - a follow-up phone call - with both DH and I to ask questions and find out more information. I also forked out the money for a copy of his book which has everything I need to do in it, step by step. The advantage to working with him instead of just buying the book, is the experience and guidance. I think I need some hand-holding. 

There are a few things that really worry 
me about our clearance sale. Primary among 
this is staffing. We run a small business with 
only three people, but for the first 2-3 weeks 
of the sale, I'm going to need at least six 
people on the sales floor and pulling/replacing 
merchandise. I also only have a single sales 
register, so there may be a serious back-up 
there. I really need Travis' advice on these 
types of things, because our store set-up 
is quite unique and the actual store footage 
is quite small. 

I had wanted to schedule the follow-up call for this week, but DH wants to discuss all of this with me on Sunday (which will totally trash Sunday for me, but I guess I'll have to live through it). In the meanwhile, I have a paper copy of the book coming which DH can read, and I'm reading the PDF version which I immediately downloaded onto the laptop. 

I switched over to Clear Rate in early February. On average, 
they should be saving me upwards of $60/month on my 
phone bills, and that's a nice number. But AT&T keeps 
billing me for one of my lines and that's illegal. I might 
have to contact the Attorney General's office for my state 
because I'm getting nowhere with phoning AT&T and 
working with their support staff. 

I also contacted my phone carrier for help and advise. I switched my phones (three business lines) from CenturyLink (for local service) and AT&T (for long distance service) in early February. CenturyLink had no problem with it. AT&T claims that only one of our two accounts was transferred, which is a bunch of bull. I have the PON numbers for each of the three phone lines and have confirmed several times that they are all carried by ClearRate as of the 9th of February. But I'm still receiving AT&T bills and even though they supposedly finally ended this last month, I got another bill earlier this week. 

I may have to contact the Attorney General's office to see 
if they can intercede for me in this issue with AT&T and 
Clear Rate. I know my lines were switched over, and I 
refuse to pay AT&T for service I'm not receiving. Century 
Link still owes me $40+ for one line, but they did repay 
my overpayment on the other lines. AT&T seem to have 
some real issues with that. 

I photographed and sent all of the documentation to ClearRate and they double and triple checked on their end. They are indeed carrying all three of our phone lines for local and long distance service. I'm getting nowhere with AT&T, though. I might have to contact the Attorney General for my state and see if this might be something his office would get involved with. Meanwhile, I'm refusing to pay the latest AT&T bill. If I'm no longer with their service, I'm certainly not going to double-pay a bill. It's also illegal to be billed for phone service from more than a single carrier. So ... interesting times *sigh*. I don't recommend that you live in them at all - the hype just doesn't live up to the reality. 

I'm totally in the mood for some cabbage rolls. It's one 
of those recipes that take over the kitchen. Rather messy 
to make. But they're Oh So Good! I need some "Oh So 
Good" in my life right now - LOL. 

I'm off to the pool, I need to work off some frustration. I think I'll make stuffed cabbage for my dinners today. I finished off the chili last night, and it was a great batch, and I need some comfort food. The stuffed cabbage is more of a production, but it's worth it. It's so good! Here's hoping all of your problems are minor and won't involve idiots like AT&T in your future. Have an excellent Wednesday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini.