An Intriguing Tale Of Being An Owner

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So the new cafe opened for business a few weeks ago and I’ve heard really good reviews of the cafe – but it is high end food I have to warn you and with granite countertops houston that they are using, you can imagine how much they paid to renovate the entire place.   The counter tops from houston were very beautiful, in fact I liked it so much – I had to ask them where they got them from that is how I knew they were from a place in Houston.

Food was lovely, the ambiance even nicer but it’s a small cafe and they are now opened till 8pm from 8am.  I would love to try their desserts with some friends some day but I know that there must be more than the desserts that are good.  It’s really good to see new businesses opening downtown and I really hope they do well and is successful.

So a customer came in to pick up his computer and he had to wait for the boss to come back to tell him what he had done.  He asked if I can get him a seat in which i reply “sure”.  So I pulled out an office chair and wanted to bring it out of the counter for him but he came behind the counter and insisted on sitting behind the counter where the cash register is *slap forehead*.  I was shocked and didn’t know what to say but just let him sit behind the counter.  I don’t know if I should laugh or to just roll my eyes – I mean it’s alright to sit and wait – but ello!  how am I gonna ring money into the cash register with you sitting where my cash counter is.  *sigh*.  I say we see all sorts of people and each time – it gets weirder and stranger – hahah! the joy of owning your own business.

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The boss started taking in some musical instruments, from ordinary guitars to electric ones and the other day someone came in with a Sound Percussion Drums and he would have bought it too – if it wasn’t because we don’t have space in the store.  That’s the reason why he keeps wanted a bigger store and I can fully understand it but I hate to get into something that we are not good at.  Musical instruments are just not his thing and to get a friend to come test the stuff that he wants to buy all the time isn’t a feasible thing to do.  So for now, I’m not saying very much about it but soon I’m going to tell him to only collect them for his own but not for the business because it’s too risky to get into such expensive stuff when he doesn’t know too much about it.  Time is also another factor that he needs to factor into all his new venture.

When you are a parent, you really have to behave like one – that way your kid will know that you are serious about stuff and be the parent not being afraid to stand up against your kid instead of us – the poor honest businessmen.   Like they say – if you spare the rod – you will spoil your child and then what is going to happen to him or her when she grows up and you cannot pick them up and spank them for being naughty or dishonest to you and worst still society.

You see the other day – a kid came in to sell a few things and a few days later – his father came to say that he wasn’t supposed to sell it and kinda threaten us with the cops if we didn’t just hand back $300 worth of things we legally paid for them.  The kid had spent all the money on the internet and instead of going after his kid – he came after us.  JOY!

Anyhow, the boss told him to go right ahead and do whatever he needs to do – because we were willing to sell back the things to him for the exact same amount we had paid for it but nope he wants it back for free – muahahhahaa!!!  he left – not happy with us of course, but a few days later – came back with his son – and apparently he can’t do nothing about it – because his son has a brain of his own.  You can’t control your teenage kid and you want to come run MY business.  WTF right!  yes ! dealing with retarded parents are the worst and we have quite a few of this kind.

We just did our taxes and the more you have to pay in taxes, the less you will get in child benefit and medical insurance *sigh* – so there is really no winning the government is there?  This year we made more money than last year – so we are paying more in taxes and getting less in child benefit starting in May.  And for those who don’t work a single day – they get the maximum of $400 – $500 per child – so those are the people who’ve like 4- 6 children each and never work a day in their life.   And the government is only too happy to foot out the money to these people – no problem at all.  *sigh*.  Wished there were more incentive for the hardworking people and not the lazy people.

For some it’s not often but for us since we owned our own business and don’t have anyone to babysit our kid, we have no choice but to bring her to work.  And of course, we have play dates at work too, luckily we’ve sectioned out a space for her to play and watch tv with her friends and of course our trusted yo yos for all the kids to play together.  When the kids are bored, we tell them to compete against each other on how long they can play with their yo yos and also what kind of different tricks they can come up with.  It’s fun seeing them enjoy my childhood game this much and the ones who come up with the most tricks usually get one to bring home – or a prize candy.   So if you have a bring your kid to work day, try buying some yo yos and let your kid practice and play with them when they get bored after the initial few hours.  It works all the time for us.

The newest movies are always placed right on top and me and some customers have a hard time getting to the very top of the shelf most times – so I told the boss that it’s about time we invested in the two step stools – so that we can get to the movies.  Shorter customers don’t want to reach up to the very top to get the latest because it can be quite awkward for them or they are afraid they may knock something down in the meantime – but if you leave the two step stools nearby – and encourage them to use it the first time – they would then use it in the future too.   But of course, we have to get one that is sturdy – don’t want to get sue for a broken arm or leg right?  some money you just gotta spend.

Откъде да купя икона

One of the things we have had been planning to do for the longest time is to change all our lights in the store to led lighting – for we all know that LED lighting are safe and they don’t cost as much in electricity in the long run.   But since the building doesn’t belong to us – we were hoping the the landlord would come on board with us on this – but of course, we all know that not all landlords are willing to spend extra money if they don’t have to. So we have been saving up for the change and even though initially it would cost us a bit – I feel that it’s a great way to save money in the future – plus if we do move to another location, we can bring our LED lights with us anytime, so no worries about losing out on the investment.

Once in a while customer comes into the store and rent a movie that is in french – normally there will be subtitles in the movie but sometimes – customer don’t know how to turn on the subtitle through their remote control.  So they come in demanding that they get another movie because they can’t get to watch it as there was no subtitle.  So instead of telling them that they don’t know how to turn on their subtitle or trying to teach them how to – which would cost us more time – we let them rent another for free.  Can’t help ppl who are stupid.  Now had he come and asked nicely that would be a totally different story.  But nope ppl need to be rude – thinking that they will get a better deal – sorry! nope!

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It’s funny how some people can call the store up and ask for help with their burn games.  This happens way too often and why in the hell would we help people who burn games off from someone or the internet?  It really baffles me -  and they call up and tell us that this game doesn’t work – and of course we think they had bought it from us – and only to find out that they had burnt the game.  So the boss – would answer them ” sorry dude – can’t help you with stolen games”  and of course, they would rudely hang up.  *shake head*

Well, not really in town – near town but not that near either.  Apparently it happened last nite at about 11.30pm – but we were still awake and while some customer came in to say that their apartment were shaking we didn’t feel a thing.  Makes me think if the end of the world is coming.  Well, we are not telling our kid because she gets paranoid about everything and anything.

About a month ago, I read on a local facebook ssite that a local bakery was closing its door downtown.  Of course, some fans of the bakery was upset because they didn’t know about it.  So owner of the store wrote on her FB that business was affected back in December when people started spreading rumors that she had closed in December 2011.

So is it true that the rumors affected her business that much that she had to close?  lets analyze it a little shall we?  I think the rumor started when she had to close for a family funeral – which lasted for a week I think and then in December – the bakery didn’t open much either due to some oven problems and then electrical problems and heating problems thereafter. After which, she had renovations signs put up which didn’t say when she was coming back and even though she was moving her studio to elsewhere – there was no notice of it either.

Subsequently, someone spoke with another business owner who was going to move into the building she was currently in – and that kinda settled everybody’s mind that she was closed.  So to blame it on rumors – I can’t say that is all the truth and yes, rumors initially did hurt her – but she should have not closed for so many weeks – can’t really assure the customers if you are eh.  You have to start all over again – if you intend to close this long.  But having said that – that’s only my humble opinion – and not worth listening – she probably had other more reasonable reasons that – everything is just speculations on our part.

Yes!  a lot of buzz lately about the hockey tickets being sold out right after the box office is opened and fans lining up over night to get tickets and some not even getting them.  Of course, there are some who wants to make a few bucks out of it by selling their extra tickets online for a huge amount of profit and people getting all mad about it.   We have customers and friends who are die hard fans of hockey too and they were all upset that they didn’t get tickets even though they were up at 5am in the morning.   Lucky for me – the boss isn’t into sports else – you know who will be up in the middle of the night!

We are still trying to price up the best price for a new sign for the store.  Currently waiting for another quote from the other sign shop in town – just to give them a chance – but it had been a week and I’m only gonna wait till end of the week – and that’s it folks.  If he was really serious about our $800 business – he would have gotten back to us by now.  I don’t appreciate having to wait so long.

When you own your own business – you tend to spend a lot more wisely because every penny earned doesn’t come easy.  While people may think that being a business owner – we make a lot of money – truth is, we spend frugally and wisely but there are some things you have buy for the quality of it and not quantity.   Take for example my laundry room – a place that I want to put my a good ironing board for ironing – so I looked for several options like a generic one or a good one like the brabantia ironing boards that I had been eying on.  Why buy such an expensive board when we say we are spending wisely?  well, you really pay for what you get – you don’t want a wobbly iron board – this one also gives you a 10 years guarantee – and the board is broader – thus making it easier to iron a bigger shirt or pants and it has a protective non-slip cap.   So I’m leaning towards buying this board instead of one I have to change every year because of a torn cover or a wobbly leg etc.  So yes, spending wisely doesn’t mean I have to be el cheapo all the time – although I am quite the el cheapo most times – but I believed in buying quality and not quantity.

I want to tell my ex-boss to come invest in Canada – come build hotels here – come see the land we have and the many opportunities they can contribute to the town here – but how do I sell the town to the investors from Asia?  I scratched my head and I thought really  hard about it and I don’t really know how to begin.  Selling the town to investors is unlike trying to sell trail cameras at our store – it’s a lot harder and a lot more investment I’m asking from these investors and developers.   I talked to someone from the town and even he who had been living in this town all his life – don’t know what to tell me.

There is so much potential in this town – if I had the money – lots of it – I would definitely be doing the investing myself – but with the little we have – I have to be careful with our investment.  I cannot afford to lose our hard earn money on something that would fail right?  now if I am thinking this way – would I be confident enough to ask other ppl for their money?  what if they lose their money too?  So how do I sell this town to the people I know who’ve got money?  how do i bring money into Canada? how can I help the town to flourish?

One thing that I don’t missed of home is the Freedom of Speech.  Recently, some teenagers were in the town hall showing their disgust that the government put some kids out of a home that could have been a safe haven for them – while they try and sort thru’ stuff.  I’m very proud of these kids – at least they dare to speak up – they dare to challenge the government. Had this been back home – they would probably be in lock up and their parents need to bail them out – or they would need to go to court for unlawful assembly.  Back home you can’t say anything bad about the government – so Freedom of Speech is not something I missed at all.

As a migrant – I’m truly amazed at some of the things the people say about the government – but they so deserved it because they are really not doing the best for its people.  The taxes is high – and you can see that the ruling party like back home is playing it the way they liked it.  But I guess all government body is this way eh.  I hope they do something for these kids – some really do need a lot of help.

At the rate this town is going – we have no choice to but diversify our business – and do things that we can make money on.  But having said that – I told the boss that we can’t go into something that we don’t know about or not familiar about.  During the last 12 years – we’ve tried to do a little of this and that – because we want to make money the honest way.  Lately, we have been doing a little bit of 2nd hand guitars and guitar strings and picks, the other day – a customer came in to ask if we had some Zvex Pedals and truth be told we wouldn’t have known what it is till we google it.  So yes, as much as we loved the money – we are not going to be rushing out to find a supplier for Zyvex pedals anytime soon – as we really don’t know what we are dealing with – so we are going to leave this to the expert in music.  Unfortunately, this town does not have a proper music store and the one that we have is small and out of town.

So we had thought about investing in a commercial building since we did pay closed to $160K thus far for rent – for 12 yrs in business.  So why not invest in a building and own the building right like everyone was discussing the other day.  A chat with one of the council today – made us think again because the taxes for commercial building is twice as much as a residential building and depending on how much you paid for the building – you get tax like 4 -5 % of that price.  Now if you want to buy a building in the hot district area – the taxes are way too high to even try and buy anything there – so that’s useless.  Having said that – it would be a good investment had the town not been going downhill since 6 yrs ago.  We are indeed blessed that we are still doing well – but for how long?  especially if there is no tourists – and no new economic industry coming to town.  So for now – we are just happy to be renting.

Some customers of ours is talking about Hal-Con in Halifax in October 2012 and while some are going to be dressed up in their favorite anime and cartoon  heroes,  their spouses on the other hand wants to get some adult lingerie costumes to attend Hal-Con with them.    Now that would be interesting – but some of these adult lingerie costumes are very well – made and they are suitable for the event – like the one in school girl costume plus I think some wants to get the adult lingerie costumes because they come in plus size and nurses uniforms.  I like the bridal ones – because I can smear some red paint on and I can be some horror story bride.  I think the girlfriends of our customers are really creative and I would loved to see them in costumes before they leave for the city when the time comes.