Oh how I wish there were two or three of me but of course there isn't and I do not have any helpers. My husband has his own job so I'm a one woman show.
I don't have an office help, or a cleaner, there is no one to design the product I want to sell or to write the manual. I don't have anyone to write build instructions or to help in my daily work.
I'm an over 50 year old woman that is over weight and that has a progressive disease trust me when I tell you I'm going as fast as I can. I close my shop so I can restock so that every day isn't a mad rush, or so I can make that idea in my head a reality. It takes time to design new items for my shop and oh how I love to be able to offer new weaving or spinning tools.
My day.....
I wake up in the morning (thank God for that). As I drink my coffee I update my order to do list and enter my orders into a system I use to track the taxes I'll owe at the end of the year and make shipping labels and thank you cards. (I feel it's always important to thank your customers!) I then take my list and tape it to my garage wall and begin making the ordered items.
Everything is hand made so there is A LOT of saw dust which I have to vacuum up frequently during the day so I don't drown :) .
Sometimes I have to let glue dry on one project while I start another. Then once all my orders are made I work on getting a finish on them so then I'm off to waxing and buffing or putting on a poly finish.
While my finish is in between coats I begin packaging my orders that need to ship that day and this is always a mad rush for some reason, the good thing is I created all the labels and thank you cards while I was drinking my morning coffee.
Once I've gotten all the orders out that were on my shipping schedule ready, I drive them to a shipping location. (The post office can not be trusted to pick up packages, they often forget!!)
Then I get on with finishing orders that will go out the following day as well as making extra's so I have some items in stock and ready to ship.
Then finally I need to clean the garage (and it's a mess!) so I will have a clean place to work the following day.
So....
Sometimes I close my shop so I can restock or even more fun work on that idea I had for a new product. I am fairly quick at making those ideas into a reality but it does require time to create a prototype so improvements can be made and then finally writing build or use instructions or both.
So there you have it. I am the designer, the purchaser, the manual and build instruction writer, the book keeper and secretary, the logistics manager, the manufacturer and finally the janitor. Well "finally isn't actually completely true because I'm also a wife and house keeper and trust me that takes time too. I'm just a house wife that wants to make weaving tools for you at a price that is affordable. That's it, that is my entire reasoning for working so hard; oh.... but I am also very happy when I get kind words in a review, some days that's what really keeps me working hard so keep them coming.
You can follow my adventures and see what I'm up to by clicking "follow" on my blog. I generally am not so wordy and you might get ideas or find a tool you just couldn't live without.
All my best,
Janet
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