I somehow caught a stomach bug over the weekend that didn’t go away until this afternoon, and I was bed-ridden for the majority of the day. I guess this is the first “sick day” I’ve taken in a year. My illness left me achy and lethargic, but I’m feeling much better now.

 The local samplemaker is finished with my purse organizer, but I’m a little frustrated that my patternmaker (who is also getting paid to be a sample production consultant) has not been more proactive with moving this along faster. The sample has been ready since last Wed, and I’ve sent email and left voicemail messages asking if we should go see it together. I might just pick it up tomorrow, work with the sample maker directly, and then get someone else to fix and finish the patterns. If the consultant ends up being a big fat loser, I may call her out to warn others not to use her. I’m telling ya, this industry is full of flaky people. Ugh.

My husband has a business trip in NYC next week, and I decided to tag along using Alaska Airlines miles (yay credit card with mileage rewards!). I found out that the New York International Gift Fair (NYIGF for all your acronym freaks) is taking place next week, so luckily I’ll be able to check that out. I hear this is show that’s popular among boutiques so it will be good to see how this show compares to the accessories shows. 

OK, time to get some rest so I can do real work tomorrow. If this is blog entry is riddled with errors or punctuation mistakes, too bad. Goodnight!

My web designer and I met this morning to discuss the architecture and design of my website. I’m really excited about my website development because this is the first time I’m working on a website launch that isn’t for a large corporation. We’ve come up with a rough design concept that could turn out to be really interesting and unique if it’s executed properly. My designer is coming up with a short-list of photographers that would be a good fit and would be able to fit my budget. This is the first time in a while that I’ve felt like my business is moving forward. Hoorah!

I recently read an article about Google Voice, and after doing some more research I decided that I’d use Google Voice for my business. Unfortunately Google Voice is by invitation-only, but luckily I was able to secure an invite. Overall, I found Google Voice very easy to set-up. There were only 2 problems I encountered when I signed up:

1) There were no (206) area code phone numbers available! I had to get a (425) Bellevue number. Boooo. No, it’s not the end of the world, but it was disappointing that my own area code wasn’t available.

2) The available numbers were not easy to remember. I skipped about 150 phone number options because they were way too hard to memorize. That said, when I actually found a memorable number, I snatched it up right away.

Of course, once I set up my account I HAD to call my Google number a few times. The calls were forwarded to my cell phone, so it was pretty neat to get a text alerts and transcribed voicemails via SMS message. I can’t wait to get a REAL voicemail from someone other than myself. I’m pretty sure other people would say something other than “Hey, it’s me again. You are awesome. Bye!”

Weekend time! See you next week.

I received a FedEx envelope from my nylon supplier that was addressed to “Ms. Jones Market LLC”. All of the paperwork inside addressed me by this name, and it was pretty funny. Also enclosed in the envelope was a packing slip that said my 500 yards of fabric would be sent to me in five 100-yard rolls. I am soooo happy that I don’t have to haul anything to the fabric cutter!

I spent the day doing essential tasks like filling out purchase orders and writing hangtag copy. Unfortunately, due to my dormant procrastination skills, I still haven’t worked on the website copy, which is bad because my meeting with my web designer is at 10am tomorrow. Looks like I’ll be up early!

OK, time to socialize with some humans. See you later!

Thanks to my husband’s suggestion, I went around town asking different fabric store managers if they could help me split my 500-yard-fabric roll. One store manager said she couldn’t help me cut my nylon because I didn’t buy the fabric from the store, and she didn’t want to be liable for any damages. After going to 3 stores in different parts of Seattle and Bellevue, Seattle Fabrics on Aurora told me that there would be a nominal cutting fee, but they could help me split the enormous fabric roll into smaller ones. Hallelujah! Thank you Seattle Fabrics! Now when I get the shipment mid-August, I’ll actually have a game plan.

In the late afternoon I got a package slip from UPS letting me know they had delivered 3 packages today. These “packages” turned out to be 3 huge rolls of recycled polyester, which UPS guy inconveniently left near the leasing office entryway. These fabrics will be used for my laptop sleeves and purse organizers, and unfortunately the shipment info had to be entered in before I had finally selected a local manufacturer. As such I used my home office as the shipping destination. Doh. 

I had to borrow a handtruck and move each one of the rolls into my storage unit. Did I mention they were about 80 pounds each? And taller and wider than either one of my parents? It took a while, but I finally found a way to move the fabric without any assistance: by bear-hugging the fabric roll and slowly dragging it down the hall in pathetic little spurts. If hauling around fabric ends up being something I end up doing often, then I may need to adequately prep my body for this. I’ll probably start by lifting and dragging my friends around. I hope my friends who are reading this blog are ok with that.

Next time I get a fabric delivery I may hire one of those Hispanic day laborers who hang out near the 99-viaduct on-ramp to help me out. Seriously. De verdad. Or maybe I’ll hire a few guys just to practice lifting them. That would be awesome.

Maybe it’s because I didn’t like accounting in graduate school, or maybe it’s because I hate data entry, but I seem to have a strong aversion to Quickbooks. I decided to update my finances today because I had neglected to monitor my cash outflow for several weeks. After entering 2 months worth of data, I noticed I had a discrepancy of $4.00. I spent 30 more minutes obsessively trying to figure out where I had made a mistake. At first I thought maybe I had accidentally bought girl scout cookies or something. Well, it turns out that there were actually two entries that I had mistyped. Doh. I’m pretty sure that once my business launches and I have to keep track of revenue, bookkeeping will be one of the first things I’ll outsource. 

I also worked on my brand positioning today, so that my graphic designer would have an easier time with the website design. It has been hard to distill everything about my brand into just a few words and sentences. I’m still working on the positioning wording, but so far I think I have enough to help my graphic designer get started on the website development. I’ll also need to work on web copy this week. Yikes!

Busy busy busy. Hasta manana.

After seven long weeks of working part-time and commuting to Redmond, it was nice to finally be able to focus 100% of my time on my business. I was worried that so much administrative stuff had backed up that I’d be drowning in paperwork, but somehow I plowed through it all this morning. It looks like I didn’t miss any bill payments! (I was seriously worried.) 

In the afternoon I approved the “color match” for my webbing (the shoulder strap material) and I finally placed that order.  I was also able to get confirmation from the recycled nylon folks that the enormous shipment of 500 yds of fabric would be delivered on 8/14. I am really dreading that day.

I have a ton of things to do this week, but I welcome this kind of work now. I am more psyched than ever to get the production started, and I think my little consulting stint at Microsoft helped me see what my life would have been like if I had stayed there.  This experience was kind of like a lame adaptation of the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life,” but without any good-looking people.

See you tomorrow!