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Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Some Rambling . . .

Hello again.  I figured since I have posted on our Etsy Site, Facebook Page, Twitter, and Google+ page I should probably fill you guys in as well. . . .

Here is the deal.  We put our site "On Vacation."  It's a cute way of saying "Temporarily Closed."  We are coming back though.  Emphasis on temporary.  In fact we are not really gone.  I'm still here.  I plan on being here for awhile.   (You might not know it from my lack of activity on this blog but I am here.  More on that later.)  So if you have questions, thoughts, ideas, gripes, or whatever send them on to me and I will be happy to respond.  For those of you wondering here is what is going on:

Life.

As I've said elsewhere this isn't a bad thing.  On the contrary good things are happening.  Basically my wife just finished grad school yesterday.  We are all very excited for her but it made for a bit of a stressful go for a couple of months.  Her constantly studying and me picking up slack (which I happily did) to make sure she could continue to study until her professors told her to stop.  (Which considering she finished yesterday should be sometime in August.)

So her graduation ceremony is in two weeks.  Family is coming into town and staying with us (so my leather shop will be someone's dresser for a week) and we have a lot planned for that.  Not to mention a close friend of ours is also finishing Nursing School and is becoming and RN so there is a lot celebrating and alcohol consumption in our future.  (For those that dislike alcohol I'll pretend it's root beer.)

That is the fun side of things but there is also a practical consumer of our time.  Now my wife is in a search of a job.  She is applying all over the United States.  From what her "career counselors" in her grad program tell us, the busy interview time is also in the next three weeks.  And considering she has applied to many positions already we are expecting (hoping) she starts to get calls for interviews.  I'm sure you are asking what that has to do with my leather work.  Putting aside all the family events in the near future (in addition to a real vacation that we are going on the first week of June) my wife is a big part of the store.  Not only does she make stuff for the shop but she also handles a lot of the business side of things.  While I'm OK at that part and can hold my own, it wouldn't be a good idea with all this stuff going on.  I would not be able to give my customers the attention they deserve.  I don't want to risk upsetting a customer just because I wanted to keep the shop open all year around.

Now if she gets a job near our home then I will be able to open the shop right after we get back from our real vacation and everything will be great.  But if she gets a job that requires us to relocate then that will entail a whole new set of challenges.  I didn't want to have 9 unfulfilled orders in the balance while we figure out how to move to Alaska or wherever.  Why am I explaining myself?  Because I feel you should know why I would do something like this.  I want you to know that I had a good reason to put my shop on hold.

I also wanted to inform you of this because I thought I would pass along a little bit of my philosophy and the way I do things.  In my "real" life I work for a great company.  A phenomenal company really.  A couple of years back they sent me on a seminar called "95 Share."  I could write up five to ten blog posts about this seminar but it was unlike any business seminar I have ever attended.  I recommend it.  To make a long story short the whole point of the seminar is to treat your customers, your coworkers, your employees, everyone you come into contact with right.  Treat them right.  Do right by them and they will do right by you.  Don't tell them how great you are, show them.  Simple concept.  It works.  When I started my shop I used this philosophy and it has worked.  It generates more business but that is just a side benefit.  (The guy that runs the seminar would argue with me on whether it is a side benefit thing or the whole point but stick with me.)  It just makes you feel good.  Even if the customer is driving you crazy with off the wall questions and requests when all is said and done, if you treated that customer right, then you feel good.  So do they.  It just works.

Shifting gears one last time I want to apologize for the lack of activity on the site here.  About a month ago I received some bad news that disheartened me for a little bit.  Nothing Earth shattering or anything.  But it was bad news that directly related to my leather work.  I can't get into details but ultimately it made me want to take a break from leather.  I still filled orders and went through the motions but I had lost the desire to lock myself in my workshop and work on new ideas.  This also aided in my interest in this blog.  I do want to point out this has nothing to do with the current shop situation.  The last few weeks I have wanted to get back into the workshop but I just haven't had the time.  Every day the urge grows.  So look out for more stuff.

Well I have rambled on long enough.  Thanks for stopping by.  As always, send me any questions you have and Happy Crafting!