An Intriguing Tale Of Being An Owner

For years.. i never liked being left in the store alone.. even for an hour.. but that’s because i have reason. I also let the man do the negotiation.. and the paper work.. and alot of other things. I am just in the store.. because it would drive me nuts.. if i were to stay at home.. 24/7… with a very demanding baby.

The reason was very simple.. because an ex-employee had called immigration on me.. 8 yrs ago.. stating that she was fired.. because PB hired yours truly.. the “illegal immigrant” to take over her job. Of course, you and I know it wasn’t true. I also do not get involved in the town’s doing .. and although i rant alot.. i try to keep it down and not voiced it too openly.

But things changed 2 weeks ago.. and i’m just like any Canadian citizen.. and i have my rights.. the same as any Canadian citizen. Muahahha!! watch out .. Y-Town..!!

For the last 8 yrs, we have been renting our store premises because a 30% downpayment is required for commercial properties around here. As a business owner of a small business, our cash flow needs to be flexible and to fork out such a huge downpayment may render us in a tight position with our suppliers. Having said that, 8 years of rent can actually be put into a mortgage to build up our asset or the principle of the loan.

To find the right lender, that can provide us with the right credit terms requires alot of research work and time, which we simply cannot afford.  By using Money Magic, they do all the work for you and source the right product that meets our requirement.  What is most important is they are independent and do not represent or work for just one lender and is therefore able to be objective and confidently recommend what is best for us.

Why do ppl bring their things into our store.. and hope to sell it to another customer.. AT OUR STORE.. !!!! that’s my pet peeve..!! We have to pay for rent.. heat, gas .. telephone, lights, water and property taxes.. and yet.. they come in and resell their stuff directly to our customer/s .. without even offering us anything.. !!! Do you do that to other ppl’s store..?? What makes these ppl think they can do that..?? Standing in our property and doing sales in our store..!! as if it is their grandfather’s place..!!!! FED-UP..!!

Anyone who experienced winter as long as we do here.. will understand why we cannot wait till summer comes. I for one.. cannot wait to barbecue and have garden parties and get together.. with friends and family. As busy as we are .. running our own business, summer time is meant for soaking in the sunshine.. and the warmth.

With our deck on our backyard, i can’t wait to sit under the market umbrella and enjoy the summer breeze watching golfer/s from our backyard.. because the golf course is just behind our house. Great way to enjoy the summer don’t you think. Affordable because at wholesale prices  and durable, our umbrella gives us hours of enjoyment when we are out in the open.

The man must love junk. We chanced upon a few pallets of old computers.. and guess what.. ?? the man wants to try and fix it to re-sell. They are like Pentium 3 computers.. from like years ago..and a few pallets makes up like 60 old computers to look at.

I swear no one loves the junk better than my man..! repairing.. and fixing things is his thing .. it seems. Although we are outta the clearance center stuff for so many years.. i think he just love the thrill of buying pallets.

We never, never like to upset our employee’s schedule.. if possible. Well.. unless the emergency.. had to do with the lil’ brat. When one has a kid, or an employee has a kid, you’ve gotta take into consideration that these emergencies are bound to happen. And whoever works for us.. we are very accommodating.

You will never find another more accommodating boss than us.. when it comes to this kinda emergencies.. and as for us.. we try not to inconvenience the employee if possible.. when we do have an emergency with our kid. But someone told me that i was wrong to think that way.. for the employee is paid to come help us.. and be an asset .. and not the other way round. So all these years of being someone’s boss.. i did it wrong..??

It truly saddens me.. when i hear that during the recent town meeting that only 2 people attended besides the town councilors. One was the local paper’s reporter … and the other was a resident in town. And what’s worst was .. that certain town councils had decided on the spot that they weren’t gonna discuss some issues on the agenda, just because they so choose to. There is no transparency .. in these meetings at all.. and we all know what this is gonna lead to. I guess if you wanna survive in this town.. you’ve gotta be chummies with the town councilors eh..?

I’ve always dread whenever we go on a road trip.. and the man wants me to read the map for him. Firstly, I’ve got motion sickness, so reading a map in a moving car can be really taxing for someone like me. The next time we go on a road trip, I’m making the man invest on a GPS. I’m just no good at reading maps.

Sometimes we wonder why our ex-employees get sick all the time. They truly have all sorts of reasons for not turning up to work. Sometimes we don’t even know .. if they are telling the truth about their illness or not. But one thing for sure, if i were an employee, i would want to try and stay healthy. I hear getting a colon cleanser can revitalize your body and it cleans out the toxin inside your body, plus you get to lose some excess weight as well.

In our kinda business, it is very important that we are kept informed of what is happening around town. Be it that someone’s house got broken into .. or a convenient store got robbed. And even when what items at the big stores are on sale. And ppl think that running a business is easy..?? These information doesn’t come turning up on your doorsteps.. we have to do alot of reading and research work. And to think the ex-workers can say.. we make all the money.. too naive..?

I’m sure everyone knows from all the ranting i do .. running a business with the man, that it can get quite stressful dealing with people at the store in general. Not only for the past 8 yrs did we have to deal with ex-workers who gave us so much headaches, we have to deal with crooks that ripped us off.

It is definitely not easy at all and some said kava kava can be used to dispel stress. At one point of running our business, i could definitely use some of it. It is said.. that it is all natural and definitely not harmful at all, as it is all herbs. And for centuries.. our forefathers used herbs .. before medicine was even invented.

On Monday mornings.. we always come back to the store.. with massive amount of messages on the phone. Because ppl think that we are opened . .even though our sign said.. we are only open.. Mondays to Saturday.

Well ..you can blame it on slacker boss.. who haven’t even changed the phone message.. to inform the customer/s that we are not opened on Sundays. And how long..?? A year at least. if not more…! so you can’t really blame me for taunting him.. every Monday when we get to work.

Yup.. it was snowing yesterday.. and i think the storm that was up in Toronto missed us. So you can imagine.. how it affects our business every year.. that even in March.. it is still so cold. Power and oil bills were usually high during this time of the year.. but with this new store.. we’ve noticed that we only need to turn the heat up for a few hours. .and then turn it right down.. and we are all set for the rest of the day. So hopefully, with the new store.. even though customers may not spend so much because of saving up for heat and food.. we also donch have to spend as much .. as our previous years.

I told our employees that we were going to the Big Apple for a short trip .. because it was nearer to drive to New York than to go to Toronto for renewal of my passport as they have an embassy there for me to do it. Plus I can kill 2 birds with one stone.. by visiting my best friend who is in Connecticut.

Looking at all the choices we have for New York Hotels at the Big Apple, I’ll have to say that one is spoiled for choices. But since we are going as a family, we need to find a hotel that is affordable.. yet comfortable and right in the middle of everything, so we don’t have to drive too much while we are there.  Booking online with no stress nor hassle and getting the best rates is what I am looking and New York Hotels.com provides all these and more.  Awesome site that I would recommend for comparison for rates as well.

We love to help our customers in any way we can. But because of several businesses shut down by Microsoft because they had put pirated copies of XP or office in their customer’s computer for free, we try to educated our customer/s that a legal copy is the way to go. But everytime, a customer comes in to have their computer reformatted… they expect us to provide them with a copy FREE-OF-CHARGE. And anyone who knows us, knows we NEVER do something like that .. and try as we might.. the customer/s donch wanna understand, that it is against the law. What would you do..? if you were us..?? we donch wanna upset the customer nor lose their business. But moreso, we donch wanna do anything illegal. Pray tell..??

When you own your own business.. you have an obligation to your customer/s .. to be opened .. when they need the things from your store. I know .. that our ex-employees do not understand .. this very simple concept.. and when they get ill … they donch care.. or they don’t take care of their own health.. and get ill whenever they want.. without thinking of the obligation to the customer/s.

We feel so bad.. that we had to close half day on Friday.. and only opened a few hours.. because of the brat going to the hospital to have her teeth fix.. and on Saturday closed earlier than usual.. because we needed groceries. Some may say.. that it’s alright.. but i know that PB wasn’t too pleased about it.. because he doesn’t wanna drive the customer/s away .. especially in such bad weather. What would you do . . if the shop you patronized ain’t open.. when you need to get a movie or a computer part badly.. that nite..?  Would you be upset..?? or curse at the store and its owners…??

I needed to have the curtains we bought hemmed because they never have the right size for our windows in any store. A call to a fabric store.. and apparently we need to make an appointment to get our curtains hemmed. Muahahahhaha!! yes.. you heard right..! now if i had my own sewing machine.. it would have been done in 5 mins. An appointment to hem the curtains.. muahahahhahahaha!!! this town is too funny..!!  Can you imagine us .. tell our customer/s to make an appt to bring their computer in for fixing..??

Buying a home or investing in any property has got to be most peoples’ biggest investment, it is definitely a huge decision to make. My grandmother used to tell us that if we wanted to invest in anything it should be the property market, and a wise woman she was afterall, she was the one who bought our grandfather’s house for $20K and it is now worth more than $1.5million.

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It came as no surprise to me.. to learn that the Ruling party lost control of 3 states, Kedah, Penang and Kelantan. In fact, I heard blogger Jeff Ooi won Penang over and I’m certainly happy for him. Malaysians do need hope.. and a big change.. and i am happy .. that the oppositions did win some seats.

Malaysians had been questioning the ruling party .. for the things they had been doing for the last 5 decades and had been discontented for a long time.  A change was needed and i know of some who traveled afar just to vote and make sure that their vote counted.

We don’t get to go on vacation very often, because we own several businesses and because of our obligation to our customers, we have to be reachable all the time. The recent trip up to the city was because of my citizenship here, but we got some free time and managed to do some stuff that we liked.

Halifax is an amazing city.. with historic building and a story to tell. I had taken a few good pictures of some buildings with fiberglass columns and awesome architectural features. I really hope to get to see more of these buildings.. because they tell a story.