Peace on Earth

Peace on Earth

Thursday, August 26, 2010

They're Giving me the Business

Did you ever go for a walk with a bunch of your friends? You're all talking and laughing, and you notice your shoe is untied? So you kneel down to tie your shoe and when you get up they've all gone on and you catch up and the conversation has shifted to something else, and even though it was only a second, you feel you've been left behind in more than one way? This is my life.
While I'm concentrating on one area, diligently creating Christmas cards for my online business, I find there's things going on in the real world! I have one really good friend who keeps advising me to take my cards to local stores. I don't want to do this because it's scary. My ex-girlfriend used to do exactly that. She went up and down the coast trying to sell cards & prints of name artists back before I knew her. She said it was miserable. She was turned down constantly & spent all her time going from town to town schlepping tubes of posters into stores that have no desire to expand their inventory.
My friend calls, and I'm trying to tell him I don't want to do what he wants me to do while he's trying to tell me I'll be good at it. He says people like me, and they will buy my cards based on this alone. I'm trying to be polite, because this guy is a good friend and he's only trying to help, but if I can just explain to him that I want to do this my way... Well, as soon as I tell him this, he says the reason he's pressing is because he knows a place that needs exactly the cards I'm selling. In fact I know the place. I've been there. I know the people. They know me. Well, that's different. That's not so scary. Besides the guy that was providing them with cards disappeared and they actually need someone to buy cards from.
So I go down there as soon as I hang up. I have to get to church in an hour and a half but I think I can make it. I get there and the guy behind the counter does know me. He knows my cards from facebook. I spend the next two days printing cards just to have something for the guy to hold in his hands and show his boss. I leave the samples, and some business cards. I spend the next two days creating new cards & going to new age gift stores to scout the competition. The guy calls and says they want my cards. I'm in business! So, while I was concentrating on one aspect of possibilities, I nearly miss out on what was going on around me. More will be revealed. wow.

3 comments:

  1. Congratulations, Rodney! I wish you many, many more shops to sell your cards from!

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  2. Well done, Rod! I'm sure this is just the beginning....!

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  3. Thanks you guys! You're so sweet and supportive!
    Judy, I must apologize to you as an English teacher. There are so many problems with present and past tense speaking modes in that post that I get confused every time I try to approach it. I decided to let it stand as a kind of conversational vernacular, but I am aware that it would fail in any classroom it got anywhere near to!

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