Friday, September 17, 2010

I Miss Her




Early July, my college bound daughter took my oldest daughter and myself on a'Wild Goose' chase. Yes, I said that. Allow me to explain.

Earlier this year her dad had surgery, he's a diabetic. She was fretting about how far she should go for college, Ball State had a fantastic Construction Management program so this is where she wanted to be, but it was too far away in case there was an emergency with her dad. My oldest and I convinced her to follow her dreams and let us worry about emergencies and how they would be handled.

So, she made all arrangments for myself and my oldest to accompany her to orientation, we had a room on campus, the whole nine yards. We leave the night before orientation on this five hour drive. We arrive a half hour before check in, okay that's fine. We check in, pay for the room and off to orientation we go, which by the way was suppose to be optional for parents.

After sitting through the first hour of orientation, my oldest daughter and I decided we needed to go to our room and freshen up, after all we've been up all night on the road, only to find out that we could not access our room until 4:30 pm. Can you imagine the look of shock on our faces. It's July in Muncie, IN, it's hot and you got my money without telling me how long I had to wait for a room, talking about customer service.

The campus was beautiful but not enough to keep me awake. During one part of orientaion, front row seat, smack dab in the speakers face, I fell asleep. So much so that I was told I was snoring by a nudging older daughter, "Mother, you're snoring", I tried, I just couldn't stay awake and by now, I've covered almost all the campus on foot and it's 2 o'clock in the afternoon.

After having gone through a day and a half of torture at this campus, this young lady decides a week before school that she doesn't want to attend Ball State, instead she wants to be closer to home, three hours away. At the last minute we enrolled in the University of Central Missouri. Don't you just love it.

I dropped her off the 16th of August and for Labor Day weekend I was on the road again picking her up for a weekend at home and to do laundry and I am now on my second care package from home. I think if it was me, being away from home I'd take advantage of the freedom. Not my kid, no she calls at least three times a week, IM's me on Facebook and oh yes, I must play games with her online. Thinks she misses me. I miss her too.

Ball State, Muncie, IN was founded by the Brothers 'Ball' of the Ball Jar company. My family used their products for years, I found it funny, of course I've given up on canning.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Ready For the Holidays - Pt. 5




Getting the Word Out

We’ve covered a lot up to this point and there is always more to know. I’ve made several banners preparing for the upcoming holiday season and a few to represent the upcoming fall season. During the past week I’ve given thought to how to get the word out, ‘It’s that time of year.’

Last year I instituted a lay-a-way plan in my shop for items over a certain dollar amount. Now is the time to announce you’re ready to do custom made items to assure delivery for the holiday. Get out your mailing list and notify your customers you’re ready to accommodate them for the holiday. Let them know if you’ve added a new line. You can do this by sending out a brochure, postcards or use your blog. If you don’t have a blog, start one.

This doesn’t have to be a costly event. You can make each of these items by using your Microsoft Publisher program. I use Microsoft PowerPoint to make my banners, you can also use Paint, but I find it difficult to work with.

Insert your logo or your holiday banner, pictures of your featured items with descriptions, no prices (you want to bring them to your site).

Offer coupons to repeat customers, free shipping on select items for a limited time. Put links to your store in all your social networking profiles. Offer gift wrapping if you don’t already.

Post new items on your blog, people love to see what you’ve done or what you’re working on.

With all this in mind, remember there holidays throughout the year and you can even invent some of your own.

I hope this helps your holiday season a little brighter,a little easier and prosperous for you.

Have fun putting your shop together and keep me posted, I would love to see what you've done.

Above is one of my new holiday banners, made using PowerPoint and clipart from Microsoft.com, it's free.