SO WE'LL START WITH THE COACH PURSE

A new customer walks into our store last week and says that she has a Coach purse she wants to consign. She shows me her receipt, proving its authenticity, then pulls out this GORGEOUS brown Coach purse, matching wallet, and dust bag. She says her husband buys her a new one every two months, and she finally decided she had too many and wouldn't mind a little extra spending money. Must be rough, lol.

Of course, it's all I can do to contain myself - fifty percent of a Coach purse sale is nothing to sneeze at - but I smile and calmly say, "Sure, we'd be happy to sell it for you. I'll set it aside for eBay, as that's the best way to sell a higher-dollar item such as this."

Who knew that it would take an act of Congress to sell a Coach purse on eBay? Even if you have all the paperwork verifying that it's really a Coach (and not, say, a Cooch), eBay will pull your listings before you have the chance to say "Bid Now!"

Six flagged attempts later, I gave up in frustration. I can't tell you how annoyed I was - here I was, sitting on a real authentic moneymaker, and I couldn't sell it!

The next day, one of our regular customers comes in. I'll call her Leeza. She's been with us for well over a year, and when she drops off her things for consignment, the items are almost always in garbage bags. It used to frustrate me, as store policy states ALL dropoffs must be in boxes with lids, but I've gotten over that. It's not unusual for one of Leeza's bags to contain the following:

• 6 empty DVD cases
  
• 2 issues of Yachting magazine (her husband's subscription)
  
• 4 pairs of brand new Hollister jeans
• 2 tubes of used lipstick
• 1 Coach purse
• 1 $3000 diamond tennis bracelet
  

Buried treasures, I call 'em. Obviously Leeza's family has money, so it's always fun to process her items.

Anyway, the day after the eBay fiasco, Leeza comes in with her teenage daughter to drop off two boxes (yes, BOXES! Woohoo!). I figure she knows a thing or three about designer handbags, so I asked her if she had any idea what the purse might be worth. Since eBay wasn't going to work out, I was thinking of putting it on Craigslist, but I had no idea at what value to list it.

The purse was in my car at the time, as I didn't know where to keep it safely in the store (that's another story), so she was guessing its value sight-unseen. From my description, she and her daughter talked about it for a bit, then Leeza said, "Probably about $300-350 new, and you typically price items at about half their original value, right? So I'd say about $150-175 would be a safe bet."

I thanked her profusely, and she left the store. She and her daughter sat in their car and talked for a minute, then Leeza walked back in and said, "If the purse has any leather on it, it's probably worth more than that." I told her that yes, it did have leather handles and accents, then I told her it was in my car and asked if she'd like to see it. She nodded, and we walked outside.

Once I got the purse from the backseat, she held it up and said, "Yes, this is a very nice one." Then she walked it over to her car and showed it to her daughter, who said, "That's easily $400." Pleased to finally have a definitive price range, I thanked them again and took the purse inside, intending to immediately put it on Craigslist with this newfound information.

About two minutes later, Leeza walked into the store and said, "I want to buy it. Ring it up at $200 and I'll take it." Then she handed me her credit card. I rang up the sale, then as I hand her the credit card receipt to sign, she says, "And I want you to have it."

I thought I misunderstood her, and started to protest. She said, "No. You deserve it. You work really hard here, and you always take care of me. I want you to have it."

Again I tried to protest, but she smiled and said, "Listen, I happen to have an extra $200, and I want to do this for you." By this time her daughter had re-entered the store. She also smiled at me and said, "Just take it."

I started to cry. That was definitely the nicest thing anyone's ever done for me at work, and I feel very, very blessed. I certainly never thought I'd have a real Coach purse, but ... wow. How rare is it that something so wonderful happens to a regular Joe like me?

SO MUCH TO SAY; SO LITTLE TIME

Will add more later. Topic list:

• Coach purses
• Personnel changes
• 80s parties
• Sex on the beach

Interest piqued? Stay tuned... ;>

TOMORROW IS A NEW DAY

Well, Aimless was pretty much kinda-sorta let go on Friday. Gary really sucks at firing people. He told her she had a choice:

1 - She could have a raise, but her hours would be cut, or
2 - She could not have a raise, but her hours would stay the same, or
3 - She could not work here at all

Um, yeah. So she said "No!" to the first two - and tossed in a snarky "I could make ten dollars an hour stirring soup!" (where? WHERE?) - but when she left, she told me she'd "contact me on Monday about the schedule." Unfortunately, I was not in the meeting wherein Gary "fired" her, so I didn't know what she was talking about.

It was later that Gary told me about the options he gave her. I could just smack him.

Aimless called me on my cell phone yesterday and said she just didn't understand what was going on. Whatever. The store has not been making enough money to give ANYONE a raise (or even pay me at all, for that matter) since Aimless came on board. She is very, very aware of this, yet she apparently thinks I'm going to be able to pull magical gold coins out of thin air and give them to her.

Anyway, when she called, I told her I was out to lunch with my family (I was) and that I'd have to call her back (oops). I know she's going to be pissed tomorrow when she gets her check, but the truth is that I never promised her a $2-an-hour raise. I went ahead and gave her $1 for this check, but it was painful to do so.

Tomorrow I'm back at the store every day. Again. I guess I'll continue the search for a daytime person (sigh), but honestly I'm not optimistic about the prospects. I just don't understand why it's so hard to find good help these days. Gary says the reason is that besides the two of us - who have a vested interest in the store - no one else really cares. Sadly, he has a point.

One bright spot: Tnk is going to start working for me part-time on Wednesdays. I'm really excited, as she's a fast learner and will do great with the customers. Let's just hope that family-issue thing doesn't rear its ugly head.

By the way, thanks for all the kind words and good advice. Y'all rock.

MOMMA NEVER SAID IT WOULD BE LIKE THIS

Work has been slightly less than a treat lately. Sales have been down, and employee morale is hovering on the brink of extinction. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating just a bit, but my newest employee - we'll call her Aimless - has not turned out to be the saving grace I thought she'd be.

During her interview process, Gary told her that the salary range for her position was between, let's say, six to eight dollars an hour. She signed a contract that basically stated she was in training for the first 30 days, and at the end of that time, she'd be re-evaluated and her salary could possibly go up.

Just for clarification, "Possibly" is NOT the same as "Definitely." "Definitely" is apparently what she heard, as on day 31 she came in to work and said in a sing-song voice, "I'm about to quit my second job, since I'm at eight now!" Having no idea what she was talking about, I remember thinking, "Wow, did she lose weight?" I guess I looked confused, because she stared me in the eye and said "Eight.Dollars.An.Hour."

I reached desperately through my brain for that conversation, as I never recall having it with anyone. I said, "Huh, I thought it was seven, but let me check." I went through her paperwork, and sure enough there was nothing there guaranteeing ANY raise at ANY time. Not that I don't want to give raises, because I really, truly do, but as I said, sales are down and there's just no way I can meet what she wants. I'd never make a promise like that - one that I couldn't keep.

The following week, Aimless went ahead and quit her other job. She had been working at a ballet studio every Tuesday, leaving me to cover the store by myself on those days. With my blessing, I might add. She has repeatedly and frequently told me how grateful she is with my flexibility in scheduling (and if I do say so myself, I am VERY flexible whenever someone needs time off - never have had to say no yet).

All that changed the first day she got to work after quitting that second job. She came in and saw that she was scheduled for every day, and immediately started yelling at me. Yelling. At Me. The Owner. (Why didn't I fire her ass right then...? That question continues to haunt me.) She said, "I can make EIGHTY DOLLARS AN HOUR teaching private ballet lessons, but I can't work with this schedule!" Shocked, I stared at her for a minute, then calmly said that if she needed time off, she had to tell me, as I otherwise have no way of knowing what she needs.

She continued to rant about the schedule, jabbing me with verbal "if it weren't for the scheduling issues" commentaries on a daily basis. Her attitude toward her job has gotten worse with each passing day:

• I now have customers angrily calling me and saying how rude she is.
• I ask her to accomplish a task, but she does something else.
• I tell her to do something, and she stalls until Gary calls in - then she takes instruction from him.
• When I ask her why something was not done, she says, "Gary told me to do THIS instead."

For the record, I am her direct boss and manager, and I always tell her what to do first - I see her first every day; Gary is rarely (if ever) there anymore. Plus, as I said, I'm half-owner of this company, and she should be doing whatever I ask her to do, dammit.

I'm at the point where I dread going to work every day because I know I'm going to get attitude from Aimless. My stomach is in knots by the time I get to the store. (I know, that's stupid.) I soooooooo want to fire her, but Gary is balking because (1) he likes the fact that I have "backup" in case I can't open the store some morning, and (2) he's afraid she'll file for Unemployment. Which she can't, anyway, because she hasn't worked with us long enough, so he's actually making it worse by keeping her.

(Update: He felt this way because he's rarely there, but he did come in last Friday and got to see her attitude in action, so he's starting to come around.)

All I know is, I can't work this way. I've already talked to a part-time replacement, who can start working next week. Tomorrow I plan to get Aimless' key back and tell her to hit the road. It's not going to be easy, but it has to be done.

Thoughts and prayers would be greatly appreciated.

EMPLOYEE ISSUES

One of the comments on my previous post asked if I was going to stop telling employee stories now that I'm officially an owner of the business. No worries; I'm definitely not going to stop. I never used anyone's real name - even Gary is not my co-owner's real name - so why shouldn't I share the fun?

Only now that I'm half-responsible for the bills, this latest story is not so much "fun."

I went to the store this morning to check on an eBay item from yesterday, and found that Dubya, who'd closed last night, had left the air conditioner on. But not just one - he left TWO of them on! (The store has three separate units.)

As a point of reference:

My house = 3,050 sf; two-story; poor insulation; single-paned windows
The store = 3,300 sf; single-story; good insulation; three solid walls

Last month's light bills:
My house = $103.00
The store = $500.00

I do not know how that happened, as we haven't been running the heat or a/c in a long time. Understandably, I'm very upset with Dubya, and would love it if it were legal for me to dock his paycheck to pay for the empty store being air conditioned last night.

But that's not all.

He did not set the alarm correctly, meaning if someone had broken in, we'd be screwed.
He left a large area of broken glass in one of the main pathways of the store.
He lied on the check-out form (everyone who does closing has to fill this out) - said he'd turned off the a/c and vacuumed, when he certainly had not.

Thing is, I really like Dubya, and I'm as disappointed in him as I would be if one of my own kids had lied to me.

Hopefully that will be the worst thing that happens this weekend. If not, well, stay tuned!

IT'S BEEN A LONG ROAD

It's a beautiful morning here in Houston. The temperature hovers around 55 degrees, and the sun is shining brightly. I'm enjoying all of this through the glass windows of a newly-acquired office warehouse, where I sit waiting on the AT&T guys to come install a DSL line.

So much has happened in the past few months.

I'd known since October that "Gary" had put the store up for sale (at his wife's urging), but he was asking for way more money than he knew he'd get because he didn't actually want to sell. I wasn't worried - I know the store and the business in general is his passion, and he certainly didn't want out.

The bombshell hit in late January, when he told me that he was finally having to get serious about selling the business, and in fact had two potential buyers lined up. To say that I was shocked would be a tremendous understatement. I knew that he really really didn't want to sell, but was under intense pressure from his wife to do so. She has never been supportive of the store, and in fact has been a hindrance at every turn. If Gary needed to help out with a Saturday delivery, for example, she would suddenly come up with some kind of emergency to try and prevent him from helping out with his own business. Her actions have been ridiculous for years, but lately she's been borderline P/A.

So during this conversation, he offered my sisters and me the opportunity to purchase the store for a fairly low price. That way, he could stay on as a consultant and shareholder, and not feel like he was giving up the business he'd started from the ground floor. The twins and I had several meetings - trying to come up with funding, a company name, division of duties, and so on - and for awhile we were pretty excited about it. But the more I thought about going into business with family, the more depressed I got. I love my sisters, but I was terrified of what our relationship would become in the future.

Eventually I decided that it was just not worth it to risk family harmony for the sake of business. Plus, in the interest of full disclosure, I harbored some resentment that my sisters were going to have equal say with me in what felt like MY store. I'd been there for almost a year (today's my 11-month anniversary, actually), while they don't know anything about the store at all. The fact that they were investing money in the store would mean they got instant power, and part of me had a hard time dealing with that. I think that's because I've been dealing with the "twin thing" all my life - I've put up with years of being excluded, and I sure didn't need that from my business partners.

That being said, the decision not to purchase the store was not at all an easy one. Allowing Gary to sell it to another buyer meant the end of the road for me - as store manager and friend to the owner, I've enjoyed a certain amount of freedom in running the place. Under new management, all that would change. I was intensely sad at the upcoming end of the road, and worst of all - I still had to break the news to Gary.

I called and asked him to meet me at Starbucks the next day so that we could talk. We chitchatted a bit, then when I finally built up the courage, I finally told him that we weren't going to be able to take over the store after all. It was awful. I couldn't stop crying. I felt like I was letting everyone down. Even worse, I felt intense guilt over letting his dream die. He kept telling me not to feel guilty, and not to worry because he'd be fine. While I appreciated the kind words, I know him well enough to see that he was very disappointed.

After leaving Starbucks, I went back to the store and locked up for the night. I flipped the sign to Closed, and couldn't help thinking how poetic that action was. I called my sisters to tell them my decision, and started sobbing into the phone so hard that they could barely understand me. To their great credit, they were both very understanding and agreed with my decision.

I finally calmed down and drove home, but walking into the house and seeing my husband's sympathetic face made me break down again. I went to bed and cried for hours that night.

The next morning, I went downstairs to help get everyone off to work and school. As I was standing in the kitchen, I looked around and realized that I was about to be right back where I'd started the previous year - kids and husband all heading off to work and school, and me stuck at home. It was Thursday morning, and Gary had told me that the new buyers were very eager and would probably want to take over the following Monday. That meant I just had two workdays left, so I went in to open the store for the day, trying desperately to care. Here I was manager of a successful business - and a fun place to work - but it just didn't matter anymore.

Gary took me to lunch that day so we could discuss "closure" on the store - how we were going to have a sale to make more money for the store before it changed hands; how we were going to wrap up eBay listings; how we were going to take inventory; etc. We had received a new piece of equipment the previous day, so I asked him if he wanted to go back to the store and install it. He did, so we headed back, both of us a little melancholy.

I'll never forget this next part: Gary bent over the computer to hook up the new barcode scanner, then sat up and looked slowly around the store. Then he spun around, stared me straight in the eye, and asked with some desperation, "What can I do to keep this place? How can I make that happen?"

"How about you buy in, and we'll be full partners and run this place together?"

He then gave me a ridiculously low purchase price, which helped make the decision even easier.

The next couple of weeks were a complete blur, and I must say, I've learned more since mid-February than I could have picked up in a year of business school. I single-handedly renegotiated our lease for the next two years, saving us in excess of $1000 a month. I've been added to bank accounts and am the proud owner of my first-ever company credit card. I've signed official documents in front of a notary. I've written a HUGE check (okay, I've done that before, but never to buy a business!). Next Tuesday we have a meeting with our accountant. I have never had my own accountant before, and golly, do I feel important. LOL

I've even negotiated a better deal on our new office warehouse. Which brings me back to where I am, still waiting on AT&T to show up. But y'all, I'm a small business owner! I am so happy with the way things have worked out. Wish me luck - and here's hoping 2008 will continue to be happy and prosperous for everyone.

TWO YEARS AGO TODAY

My sister nearly lost her life in a traffic accident involving a drunk driver. Thank God she's still with us today - back on the force, putting away the bad guys - so that we can celebrate these anniversaries.

Happy re-Birthday, Tnk. I love you.

Trace

OOPS, I FORGOT AGAIN

Forgot to blog yesterday. I did have a full day, though, if that's any defense:

7:00 a.m. - Discovered that the Saturn would not start in 30-degree weather
7:35 a.m. - Jump-started the Saturn (my poor Kia took the brunt of starting two cars in the cold)
7:55 a.m. - Arrived at local Wal-Mart, whose auto department is supposed to open at 7:00
7:56 a.m. - Called said Wal-Mart automotive department, who said they couldn't help me, but that someone should be in "shortly"
8:15 a.m. - Realizing that the Saturn had been idling for 20 minutes (I was afraid to turn it off, lest it not restart and strand me at Wal-Mart), I left and drove to another Wal-Mart
8:33 a.m. - Arrived at new Wal-Mart, where not one but two automotive department employees came out to greet me
8:34 a.m. - Determined that the battery had a bad cell and I needed a new one
8:45 a.m. - New battery installed, I was on my way to work at last

9:09 a.m. - After stopping at Sonic for a Diet Cherry Coke, I made it to work
3:45 p.m. - Left work to go home and see kids for awhile
5:05 p.m. - Back at work, because I had to close the store by myself because the scheduled kid quit! :(
7:06 p.m. - Finished closing procedures and locked up the store
7:07 p.m. - Hubby calls and reminds me that Kane needs a haircut before ROTC inspection today (Thursday)
7:12 p.m. - Pulled into driveway and unlocked door so Kane could get into car
7:12:30 p.m. - Backed out of driveway and drove to Supercuts
7:45 p.m. - Finished at Supercuts and drove to Sonic for late-night dinner
8:05 p.m. - Arrived home at last. Watched OU eat it. Ha!

I wasn't awake long after that, so I completely screwed up one of my resolutions already. Ah well. Happy new year!

RESOLVE

I have not made very many new year's resolutions this year, but here a fewI'm going to try and stick with anyway:

Exercise more. This one should be doable, as I was walking every night for at least 30 minutes. Then hubby's ankle got hurt back in November, so we haven't been able to walk for several weeks now. I would go by myself, but I'm nervous walking around the streets by myself after dark. We're going to try riding bikes and see if that's better for the old ankle.

Work less. I told Gary that I no longer want to be manager of the store. The hours were killing me - I was averaging 9-10 hours a day, five days a week, with a couple more hours per day on the weekends. After 23 straight working days, I'd had enough. What we're going to do is hire a new manager and put me back on pricing, plus doing eBay, Craigslist, and the website. I can't wait to get the new guy hired.

Blog more. Ideally, I'd post at least a short little snippet every day; however, I know that this goal is unlikely. One thing that might help is the new toy I got last weekend - check it out here. This thing is so cool! I can listen to music or watch videos or surf the Internet. I think I'm in love.

Complain less. This one may prove to be hard, as it's my nature to want to call up everyone and tell them about the weird customer we had in the store, or the bad service I got at Kroger. To soothe my inner gripeypants, I may blog about this stuff instead. That doesn't count as actual complaining, does it?

I think I'll go play with my new iPod Touch now. No complaints about that...so far.