Retail Therapy

Help to future biz owners

Life is good right now. Things have picked up at Swank and I just got back from Las Vegas for a buying trip. I did the spring buying and saw lots of great styles and people. It is really fun to sit back and watch everyone go by at the markets. Lots of amazing looking people, music, clothes and yes, also lots of business going on. I love seeing how different styles look on people who throw things together effortlessly.

Often, I feel that I have written when I have been having a slow long day and I don't always talk about how much I love what I do. I am really lucky to have made this work out and I am really happy to talk to anyone who wants any advice on how to start their own biz. call me and we can chat

What I love about my industry is that we all work really hard but play hard while doing it. Does that make sense? At the market you work long hours, stay up way way too late and function the next day. If I was going to a desk job the next day, I wouldn't be able to function. But that is why I am doing this. I think am fighting adulthood but also being responsible in some ways.

I appreciate all the people who have let me know they read my blog. I need to get better at writing more. I do it so randomly, and know that I will never have the most proper grammer or flow to it. It just rolls off as it comes out, not always the best but it will do for now.

Scary Alcohol effects

Last night I had girls night with some of my really close friends. We gathered everyone despite the down pour of rain that hit Denver.

One of my best friends has Graves disease, an auto immune disease that affects her metabolism. She is so not a big drinker, compared to most people I know.
Long story short, she had about 3 drinks over the course of 4 hours and her body freaked. It was like she was slipped something, which we suspected until we got the blood tests back.

We got her home by piling her into a cab, got her into her house. A firetruck, an ambulance, two police cars later, we get her to the ER. It was so scary, she was moaning and didn't know where she was or what had happened.

what we learned is that, because of her metabolism issues, her body rapidly processed the alcohol in such a state her put her blood at .2, which is very high, comparable to a stupor drunk night in college. My poor friend who never has more than three drinks over the course of a night was shocked to have alcohol poisoning and an "altered mental state" due to her illness.

so scary. after an 4 1/2 hour ER visit and an iv later, she was much more alert and could come home. Makes you think of what alcohol really can do to your body.

Comments on my Blog

Please everyone who reads my blog-
Please, please make comments back to me, i would love to hear your feedback. Several people have mentioned that they have read my blog lately and I would love to know it!

I feel that I am writing into cyberspace, but it is great to know that it actually gets read once in awhile :)

I am back after a long vacation and ready to get back to writing

Quickbooks

I really cant complain this morning. I went for a long walk with my friend Elyse who owns Strut shoes. We got a lot of business and work related talk covered. It is great to have a friend who goes through the same things I do.
Today I got some new dresses in the store. So cute! And I will spend the morning trying on new clothes like I am a customer, seeing the fit, what customers might be the best fit for it and then steam my new dresses.

Today I am going to town on quickbooks, which I must say is the most tedious most important thing you need to do as a biz owner. I made the big mistake of not starting off entering all my financial info right away. BIG MISTAKE. If you are thinking of opening your own biz, go out and buy quickbooks today, and I mean today and start entering all your expenditures for your biz.

Now, I have unending hours of data entry and catch up. must do it

2 year anniversary

Yippeeee! I am happy store owner this week. I have much to celebrate including my 2 yr anniversary party this weekend.
We have gotten so much good press this past week:
5280 magazine top of the town- best women's affordable clothing-readers choice!
westword- cats pajamas section will feature me
303 magazine- photoshoot in june issue- amazing pictures

after two very hard years of work and fun, I finally feel established and ready to take the next leap with swank. I feel that I have a legitimate store and people are taking notice.

we are currently on a big pr blitz, with press releases, mentions in the denver post and westword.

I am a bit shy with self promotion but need to get over it. I understand the need for it, but I am a behind the scenes kind of girl in a way. Not many people believe that, but that is where I feel the most comfortable. unless you throw a glass of bubbly my way.

I am really excited and looking forward to our party, it will include a DJ, a big sale, alcohol provided by mondo vino and lots of hot chickees in swank clothes. If I were a guy, I might be thinkin the best place to be on sat night would be at swank's party. Lots of girls dressed up and ready to go out! We are also filming a documentary about swank and about the party. come to be on film

see my next blog for info on what the party was like and pictures

its just business

Sitting here in the store on a sunday. I have the door closed because I am not feeling very social and the big ole plane flys that come in from the alley are an unwelcome presence in the store. I have had a terrible weekend in sales and I am having a day of wondering why I am doing this and should I still be doing this. A friend just closed her store and she put up signs and with in a few weeks she has sold all her merchandise. Now if only people could have supported her a bit more she might still be here.

I understand that gas is high right now and people are cutting back.  I feel that pain also. It affects my business in ways you might not think about.

All plane tickets are the highest I have seen them, this makes me cut back on buying trips, and when I do go, I have to pay double what I normally do. This cuts down on profits.

Shipping and freight on all my merchandise is higher due to gas prices

There are obviously other ways that retail is affected by what is going on in our economy.

I don't want to start a Bush rant because I don't like getting political in public. But enough is enough. We can afford to have an expensive war that was started on false pretenses on foreign soil but cant take care of our education and poverty needs right here in the US. It really is scary the condition of our country.
ok, just my little two cents on our government.

Just a word to peeps out there, please support your local and small businesses. Don't always go to the malls. I know it is convenient and maybe less expensive but if you want charming areas in our cities with locally owned boutiques and and restaurants, we need your help to keep our doors open. We care about our communities that we live and work in. Don't always go to the chain restaurants, they are often boring and don't offer what our amazing local restaurants have in ambiance and quality.

thoughts after a night out

Today is Sunday, the day that sometimes I don't try as hard at my store. Sadly, Sundays are usually very slow and I am feeling the hangover pain especially badly this morning.
Christi one of my bestest of bestest friends and I decided that we needed a night of drinking champagne. It always starts off so innocently. One bottle while we are getting ready then off to downtown in a cab. We both hadn't been out in a while so we were a bit overdue.

Started at Corrider 44 which is a great champagne bar on larimer. Some of my clients were going to be at Cru across the street so we decided to join them for a drink. Little did we know that we were crashing a private party. They had rented the restaurant in celebration of my client selling her company to a company in Charlotte, NC, Titan Technology.

We began drinking more amazing champagne and it just went downhill from there. Do you ever worry the next day about what you said to people that you know on a social level but not as a friend? I am the type of person who does have a filter but when you add champagne it goes right out the window.
Some people have no filter even without adding alcohol, and I don't really want to be one of those people.

It was a great party to crash, lots of fun and interesting people.  One of my other customers was there wearing a shirt from Swank. That is still thrilling to me to see people out and about wearing swank clothes. It is also sometime a bit weird because I feel like they borrowed something from my closet. Swank is my big closet and I do love seeing it around Denver.

Soooo... after a philly cheesteak with chilli cheesefries for breakfast, I am at work. The waitress almost fell over when I ordered but she said everyone was eyeing it and thought it was an excellent choice for breakfast.

this weekend sucks for the store, it Blows actually. no one is around this weekend and it is dead but what can you do to get more people in here? that is the question.

going to la market next weekend and to see my sis Shelby. I think that will help with filling in merchandise around here. Plus it is going to la and my sis just bought a house and I cant wait to hang on her deck. It looks like a 5 star hotel on her deck.

ok, maybe enough of my rambling for now.

Purple Martini

We just wrapped up three fashion shows at the area Purple Martinis.
It was very fun and Wil and Rob the owners of PM were great to work with and will have much success with their venues.
Kama, Tamara and Emily the three marketing directors did a great job of promoting the events while working with Jung from Metroboom and myself coordinating the shows.
The models  did a great job on the runway and it was fun to do shows in new locations like boulder and dtc.
lots of work goes into the shows
casting calls for models
figuring out 22 outfits
fitting over 30 girls for outfits
packing up all the clothing from the store in a big ole bag to transport it all
setting up and organizing
tracking all inventory that is out at the nightclub
working with salons for hair and makeup info
staying out very late and unwinding after the show is over at 11:00

thanks to the salons for great hair and makeup
jonric international salon
antoine du chez in dtc
fix salon in boulder
mac in boulder for makeup

We had a wrap up party at Swank this week to thank everyone involved. thanks to all to came and for all your hard work. I enjoyed meeting all of you and look forward to working with you again.

training for a 1/2 marathon

Ok, i have made the leap into training for a 1/2 marathon next month. I started training about 3 weeks ago. I am addicted to running now. I obsess about when I can fit it in and where I will do my running.
I have made it up to about almost 8 miles, and sat mornings are the long run days.
Tomorrow is up at 6 am to meet to run at 6:30. It has been snowy and cold on the last few Saturdays, so it was treadmill city last week for about 70 minutes. fun fun
This preparation has given me so much confidence about the ability to run longer and longer distances. Before this, I literally had not run over 4 miles and that was against my will.
The race is may 20th and i must admit it feels more wimpy to do the 1/2 only but i must say that doing a full marathon is not something on my to do list.
With all this running comes the license to eat whatever I want and lots of chocolate and champagne. I still enjoy my drinkies but am able to get up the next morning and pull out a 5 mile run. yippee
more on the joys of training.
some issues so far
inability to sit down with out moaning about aching body parts
hip out of whack
foot cramps randomly through the day
a nagging feeling of food cravings all day
the obsession over my next run

all good stuff

Going out

I have been going to a lot of events for the store lately and I must say that I am tired. After wrapping up three back to back fashion shows, and another one this Sunday at DC10, I am ready for a short break.
Jung from Metroboom and Heidi from Disrespectacle's were great to work with during the fashion shows. We did casting calls for the models and it was always very entertaining to say the least.
Last night, I was resigned to stay home, cold snowy night, fire in the fireplace and me one inch from my jams. but no, I was putting on my skull sweater and hiking up my boots and getting ready to head out to meet up with Liz and Jung. Who couldn't make it after all. So my trooper friends Lesli and Steve and I went to 975, which is a great place, for drinks and some mac and cheese.
Then it is on to DC10 for a planned event, with the lure of free champagne, to hang out. Not as much fun as expected with friends bailing out at the last minute, but good to go. Gave out a few cards for the store to women. Need to get much better about promoting my biz when out at events. I am so not shy but don't want to push my store on people. But, it has come to the point, that I need to work on that area.
Stayed out until midnight, which is an early night for me these days. Today, luckily was not a hungover day, at least not too bad. A big veggie melt sandwich at Sam's did the trick. I must be hungry again.
I am resolved to stay in more, market Swank more when out, and try to have more balance in my life. Marketing and networking is very important but much harder when you have a family and want to spend time with them also. Most of my events are at night and involve me wanting to stay out and join the party once it begins. It is work and there is usually vodka involved but it is still work-ha my kind of work. For now I am going to concentrate on balance