An Intriguing Tale Of Being An Owner

The new year just started and 2012 began for us with much business and I’m thankful for it and our customers.  But the boss is buying way too much at this point of them and yes – I can understand that if we don’t buy we won’t have anything to sell but careful investment is the way to go and not letting our money sit too long in the store is my philosophy.  So while the boss is a big spender – which should be the other way round – I on the other hand will hold on tightly and pull back the purse string and remind him constantly about careful investment.   That’s why I tell the boss – I play a very important part in the store – and he doesn’t even realised it – nor appreciate it sometimes.

No ! we are not getting into the pawn license silly but we are watching the show religiously  not only because it’s fun to see what people sell and what they are worth but because we get to learn a thing or two from these guys on how they do business.  And from them we learned to tell people – ” it’s not because we don’t trust you – we just don’t trust anyone”  and that should be the way to go when it comes to doing business.  But unfortunately, the boss is sometimes too lenient – and still goes out of the way to help people.  As for me – I’ve learned my lesson and never to trust anyone.  2 regulars that I had trusted and told the boss too – didn’t come back and pay us – one was like 10 years ago and the other was like 2 yrs ago.  Yes! Losers!  so whenever I trust anyone – around this town – I always get slapped for trusting them – so I trust no one in this town no more.

For the last one year – the entire town has been in debate  – some more actively than  others and some care more than others – some couldn’t care less but some pretend to care for their own gain.  *shrug* but I can’t really blame them can I?  Most people would say – to each his own – we take care of our own first.  Is that your assumption too?  Is that your stand too?

I think the boss must think I’m mad sometimes – for being so passionate about what’s going on in this town – after all – truthfully I’m really not from here.  So why you asked am I sometimes so pissed off?  especially when we are doing a lot better than when we had the ferry and tourists.   Some may think that I’m crazy and spending too much time in trying to make things better but I’m thinking not for myself only but for the rest of the people in town and the kids and the future of this town.  What has this town gotta offer the younger generation?

Christmas is tomorrow – and as I reflect on the many hours I spend reading up the forum and FB pages – I think next year – I’m going to give it a rest and concentrate on what matters most first.  My kid and the store – and the rest is going to have to wait till I’m free.  So for now – debate or not – the above cartoon tells you how I feel about the situation in this town but not at our business or life.  We are doing pretty well – despite everything.  I think the town had ignore the signs for far too long – so this is where we ended up.

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I don’t know about other working moms – but I know how hard it is for me to help out at the store – do my own work yet gotta go home and cook and clean the house.  Some people I know don’t really care what they feed their kids nor if their home is clean but I on the other hand being brought up different – is quite OCD about cleanliness.   When in Asia – it’s easy to hire a maid from Philippines to help you clean and cook while you are out working but in the West – they don’t practice having a maid.  I wished we had residential maid service durham nc here – so that I can get some help with cleaning my home – that way I don’t have to do it on the weekends when I actually want to spend time with my kid and spouse.  Plus truth be told, I don’t really think I clean so well either  – so I do envy those who can get maid service at a reasonable price and who does a great job.

I’ve tried hiring people to clean my house – but they either don’t clean well – or need specific instructions to what I need them to clean.  I don’t have good luck with part time cleaners because they are not trained – and they don’t even come with their own cleaning products.  Why I won’t hire a non-professional anymore is because the last one I hired used one cloth to clean just about everywhere in the house, from the kitchen to my dining table and the other rooms of the house.  And no that cannot be hygienic, so I won’t hire anyone who don’t have a reference have is qualified to clean my home.  When you pay someone to clean your home, you want to make sure they really clean it – and not leave halfway.

Movies have been picking up steadily ever since Movie Gallery closed shop – but to say that we are making thousands every week on movie rentals alone – then you are wrong.  For those who wants to open their own movie rental store now – should re-consider for we too found out that a lot of people are downloading their movies and steadily becoming a pirate.  So rental may be steady – but to say that we are making lots of money – then you might be in for a shock.  For being in rentals for 11 years – we still have people come in and tell us that they didn’t know we rent movies – muahahah!!!

So we broke down and bought 2 infrared heater at the store – just to see if it would help with the oil bill since oil has gone up again.  But after using it for a few days now – it doesn’t seems to work as good as we would like it too.  The store is still pretty cold after turning it on for a few hours – and it’s still running to bring the temperature up in the store.  But having said that we have quite a long store – so that might be why it’s not heating up as well.  Perhaps, it’s only me – we shall see – in a few more days.

While we won’t have the ferry back next year in town – another store has opened in town and their US office had just called today to ask if we would like to do some work for them.  Now that’s really good news because we had wanted to do something like that with the other existing company in town – but they had been such slackers and never took our offer.

I’m just glad that we had the foresight to do anything that will make money in this town – had we stuck ourselves to do only one thing – we wouldn’t have survived for 12 years.   I’m happy that we are beginning to see a lot of new customers coming in and realizing that we do so many things.   But like usual – people still feel that we should be able to match the big chain store and even when we explained to them – they still go to the big chain stores for certain stuff.  But I cannot complain much – despite all the things that is happening in this town – we are still holding up pretty well.

Yes! the xmas parade was this evening and for the first time being in Canada – the weather was great – not too cold nor too warm  – just nice for a Christmas parade.  The boss came out to watch the parade with us till customers starting going into the store.  Unfortunately, the parade is still nothing like the ones we have at home – but at least I get to see them first hand and not on tv eh.  So I count my blessings – you can`t have it all.

About a week ago, a business associate from 2 doors away – invited us for a presentation – by our landlord – for a big announcement with regards to the revitalization of the town.  The business associate asked us to be present if possible to show our support for the landlord but little did we know that the landlord`s agenda wasn`t exactly what we thought he was going to present.  In fact, it had little to do with doing good for the small business owners but for one particular group.  I was very pissed to hear what he had to say – when he announced that this was what the rest of the business owners wanted – to bring a certain tax back for the small business owners.  WTH!!  who in the right frame of mind would want more taxes? and even though he is our landlord – he definitely doesn’t speak for us.  What gives him the right to manipulate all of us – into making time to go listen to his ridiculous suggestions?   And whoever originally invited us thru’ this business associate who was also blind-sided – definitely is cunning to the max !   The nerve of this fellas!!!  who do they think they are!  GOD! or the MAFIA!

We want to carry the Wacom Bamboo Capture at our store but before we do – we have to try out the gadget first and see how we can sell it right?  so yes! we went ahead and bought the Bamboo Capture and will be carrying them at our store.  There are lots of great artists in town apparently – or college student using it in this town.

So a old restaurant from Tusket moved to town ! yipppeeeE!! more places for us to try out good food!  I’ve always like Marco’s and will definitely be visiting them more often than they were in Tusket.   They are no right in the middle of town but still close enough to venture there for lunch and dinner.

Halloween this year – sees the store decorated with big items only.  We forgo the smaller items – and concentrated on the bigger items.  This year also see the store in a better place and after 12 years in business – I have to say that I’m truly happy for the spouse and myself.  Not only do we have a good volunteer at the store – that we can count on and honest – for the very first time – he is also very reliable and flexible with his time.  He also does not give us any personal grievance and works really hard for absolutely  nothing.  I’m happy for the store and myself – no more stress.

The other day – a customer came in to sell his ipod – at the same time – he also said to the boss – that he was in his last year of his computer course and is going to be just like him.  I’m guessing he means as successful ? and own his own business?  or making lots of money repairing them and selling them?  Every now and then – far to often in my opinion – we have people coming in to say stuff like that.  Little do they know that running a successful business is not as easy as they think.  Many of these people don’t have no clue as to where to begin to do anything – because learning stuff from books – with no practical experience is like a nurse doing her internship.

If only it was so easy – but like everything in the many years in business – we just nod and wish them good luck.  4 years ago – a disgruntled ex-employer – whose boyfriend also went into a computer course – and of course – he said he was going to put us out of business after he finished his course.  But guess what?  we are still in business – muahahhaha!!

We’ve watched many kids grow up at our store – for the last 12 years being in business and when we first met them – they always tell their parents what a cool store we have.  Most of them would say they want to work here at the store when they grow up – they are just so cute.  We have lot of little boys come thru’ our store more than girls because we have more toys for boys than girls I guess – and you can imagine how many of them we’ve left an impression on.  For when they come home from college and drop in to say hello – they always remind us of how we used to threaten them to be good or else they can’t get any games at our store.  This year for Christmas – we are looking at Personal Creations boys gifts for all these little loyal customers of ours – who’ve made our store a success – because without them – we wouldn’t be here.   At the moment, we have a few boys who comes into our store on a daily basis – so we want to reward them with something special that they can carry with them everyday to school and show off to their friends that they got this little duffel bag from our store – with their name on it.  We have a few choices  that we can choose from – from t-shirts to pencil cases – and they are at reasonable prices – plus I can also get some of these personalize gift for my friend’s kids as well – while I am at it.  So yes!  this year – we have some surprises for our loyal lil’ customers.

These shopping bags were sent by the supplier for Magic the Gathering – I loved it – because it would give those who are fans of Magic the Gathering something to carry their Magic cards in.  I don’t think the supplier sends it to all stores – only for those who are on core level – so there are some good to being a Core level store for Magic The Gathering.  For those who wants one of these bags – don’t forget to come buy some Magic cards.

The boss decided to buy some guitars from people who came into the store to sell them not too long ago and as you all know – I’m not very keen on getting stuff that we are not familiar with.  I don’t know how to tell a good guitar from a broken one – or the make and brand of it.  Anyhow after the first one showed up at our store – we are getting more people who wants to bring in their guitar for sale.  But of course, since the first one haven’t sold yet – I don’t think he was willing to buy anymore.  Someone came in and asked if we were also giving guitar lessons here since we have the guitars at our store now – funny right!  now if we had someone who knows how to play the guitar or even tune it – I wouldn’t mind buying more guitars for the store to resell – but as it is – no matter how funky looking any guitar might be – I just wouldn’t know how to price them up.

So I rather – he keeps buying the console guitars for Guitar Heroes and such – and even though we have a lot of those – I know we will sell them eventually.  As I am writing this – another customer just walked in and asked if we give guitar lessons – hahhaha!!!  I kid you not.   So I’m figuring people do want to take lessons but don’t have anywhere to go to in this town.

We started dressing up the store for Halloween – even though we haven’t dressed up the store during Halloween last year.  But I guess this year is different – because things at the store and our personal life is just going so well and smooth.  So we have taken time to go shop for some Halloween decor for the store.  Say hello to my new sitting partner at the store – there he sits quietly as I type away and yak with the customers.  I haven’t given it a name yet – you have any ideas?

Yes! we are gonna be opened for Thanksgiving Day – at least a few hours – from 12 – 6pm – bummer that the chinese restaurant is not opened and neither is good old timmie’s.  Oh well, we will survived – it’s just one day.  But yes!  we worked really hard and is opened on all holidays – but now that we have Gary – that’s not that bad  and if we really wanted to take time off – we can.

We hope that we will continue to do well – for the rest of the year – this year – the time had really flew – I don’t know where all those days went – but we are very blessed – business had been good and the spouse had been making some good choices and not buying anything that we need to keep for a long time.  I hope that next year we will be able to take some proper time off – i fully trust Gary – I know there is nothing to be worried about when he is at the store.  In fact, he always goes beyond his call of duty to help us.

We were up in Halifax a few weeks ago  – and had gone looking for breakfast nearby the hotel.  Who wants to pay $25 for breakfast right?  And look what we found!  the Halifax Mac store!  I’ve known about it for a long time now – but never got a chance to visit and it was within walking distance of the hotel we stayed in – how nice right?  So you asked did we visit the store?  Nope !  no time still – I’m just curious to see the setup – since all the Mac store around the whole is so huge and you know – everything so Mac like.  I’ve been to the one in New York, Japan as well as the one in Madrid – so you can understand why I wanna see what it is like in this Mac store right.  Maybe next time.

Movie rentals has finally picked up this week – and even though it’s not like when we started 12 years ago – it’s a good sign for us – just as long – no one decides that we are making so much money and wants a piece of the pie.  For in this area – you cannot support more than 1 movie rental place.   I hope the rental continues to be good – but I think we are doing better with games.