We had our first sale today at the Farmer's Market. Prior to this morning, the girls and I had spent quite a bit of time discussing the finer points of selling to the public. We have been secretly observing people we have encountered daily providing customer service to us and talking about their approach. A few years ago, my oldest had taken a toastminor course which had focussed on public speaking; so we reviewed all that she had been taught there. Short of that, though, turns out I have zero experience with sales. Not only that, but it is definitely not one of my strong points. The lovely gentleman running the Farmer's Market was so helpful and gave all three of us some wonderful tips for engaging the public but all three of us need a lot more practice finding our voice. Despite our shortcomings, we had lots of positive feedback and the girls were able to sell enough to convince them to do it again in a couple weeks. This time we'll be "testing out a new market" as they say in the sales world. I know we have a lot to learn but I'm excited to see how much we improve as the months go on.
When I was sixteen, my folks bought a print shop and thus I was immersed into a wonderful world that I would have never experienced had they decided to stay in our small town plodding along like they had for the first part of my life. Instead our family began an adventure full of stinky ink, reams and reams of paper, the chugging of an AB Dick and coalating till the cows came home. For those of you who have never experienced the back room of a print shop, let me just tell you it has ingrained memories full of smells, sights and sounds that I can still conjure up today. The day the girls and I started our assembly line to package up the cards brought me right back to that back room where I spent hours and hours walking around a table putting book after book together for our local community to share with one another. The girls where quite overwhelmed with the daunting piles in front of them at the beginning but they soon got the feel of sorting the stacks and folding the cards and in no time their skill had dramatically improved. They were quite proud of themselves when we had our product stacked and ready to sell. It was fun spending the time with them reminicing about when I was a young girl. I hope our project turns out to be successful and we can spend more hours talking over our stack of cards. This morning, my mind was full of too many thoughts and as exciting as this endeavor has been it can also become quite overwhelming at times. I have a tendency to let my mind get the better of me and it is something that I have been working on; so, while I am getting better at it, let's just say I'm not a natural yet. I mentioned this morning to the girls that I was feeling very anxious about all that we have undertaken. All of a sudden, they hopped off their chairs and insisted that I do some breathing exercises with them. Both of the girls had the same amazing grade one teacher that has the wisdom to teach them how powerful our breath can be. The class would often do deep breathing exercises to calm down their busy little brains. All at once, perspectives were shifted and all was right with the world again. I'll never forget this lesson that my girls gave me. I should mention that prior to motherhood, I was a graphic designer. Fortunately, the skills I acquired are much like riding a bike; I'm a little rusty but nothing a little practice can't fix. I forgot how much I love the field of design. It's especially wonderful now amongst the chaos of family life that I can truly appreciate the simplicity of it. The girls were eager students for this part of our journey. Well, I should say for the first part of it anyway. They, like myself, did eventually tire of scrutinizing the endless choices of fonts. We definitely paced ourselves on this task. I made a promise to myself at the beginning to devote a period of time to our business each and every day. That one simple promise was extraordinary in its effect.
Over the course of the last few weeks, the girls have become quite confident, little designers. I think they are very proud of their designs and can't wait to see them in print. |
Kathi and the girlsWe're a team of one mom and her two daughters. Together we are learning all the ins and outs of starting and running a home based business. Archives
November 2013
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