Learning to work smarter and not just harder.

"Sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."
Lewis Carroll - Alice in Wonderland

As we walked the lake today I couldn't help but think about the week that had just passed.  After all, Sunday is the one day we stay away from the store and focus on the household, studies and self.  Reflection has been one of the greatest measures of our week as Jennifer remarked on in her blog 'Monday Morning Notes'. When I am away from the shop, I can look at the week with a fair, but critical eye.

I worked hard this week. We always work hard.  Our wholesale division, LS2M Krown Distributing,  placed products in several accounts; we added books including Eric Carle's Ten Little Ducks and nostalgic candy to the store and our Valentine's online campaign has exceeded our targets.  That said, we still have not placed our clawfoot tub in the store because the restoration is not complete, and our new paint colors for the store are not finished.  At each Monday meeting, I set realistic goals for the week, yet something always gets added to an already long list of to dos.

Jennifer and I started the year by committing to work smarter not harder.  When you are so dedicated to success, how can you slow down the everyday hectic pace of cramming as much as possible into a 16-18 hour day?  I think the key is to keep setting what you believe to be realistic attainable goals, commit to them, and adjust the results on a regular basis.  I used to stick the uncompleted tasks into the next period and keep the next set of goals in tact.  What happened with this strategy was a list that grew to unattainable every time.

In every management and marketing class I've taken we talk about decision making using the SMART method by Peter Drucker in 1954.  It's really pretty simple:
1.  Specific
2.  Measurable
3.  Achievable
4.  Realistic
5.  Time Sensitive
Although the concept is simple, the implementation of it in today's world is a challenge.  I will keep writing about our progress in living SMART decision making.

I have become an expert at working hard.  Now I am learning to work smart.  I'll become an expert at this too.  It's on my list for next week.

Monskeys at Quacker Gift Shop

New fun collector's Monskey's
at Quacker Gift Shop

Creating Personal Freedom

It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.
-Napoleon Hill

I have thinking a lot about freedom lately. Our sixteen year old son just got his first car. He is excited about the prospect of going to the grocery store, driving himself to school, or just hanging out with friends. He is ready for his freedom.
I too have always desired freedom, its probably the main reason I have always sought after self employment, however coupled with my personal need for freedom I have also placed a high value on my education. A blog comment ask me "what would one do with a Ph.D. in Human Communications?" At first I was a little taken aback but it created an opportunity for me to rethink about freedom and why I made the decision to go back to school in the first place. In high student I wasn't a great student, in fact, I was bad student. As I began to understand the world around me, I knew I had no desire for a 9 to 9 corporate ladder career, I had bigger ideas, I wanted to own a business! Result: I have spent the past twenty years showing myself and the world that it could be done, I could create a life of personal freedom with a educated business mind. So now there are two questions that could be answered:
1. Why Quacker Gift Shop as a business? Will ask on another blog.
2. Why Human Communications? I'm going to answer this question in a non-academic fashion. Communication is power, how we communicate, with whom we communicate leads us in directions unknown at the present time. In nut a shell, effective communications is essential for a successful business practice, which in turn leads to life long opportunities, freedom to build a life on ones own terms. Not only are my studies valuable to me and my business, I truly what to help others build their business dreams and a future filled with personal freedoms (in a future blog I will share more about our (Steve and I) bed and breakfast retirement plans). Don't worry...we have lots of years and planning to go!

Monday Morning Notes

As I mentioned earlier this month, I am still a student, I am a Ph.D. candidate in the department of Human Communications (Ethics and Rhetoric) at the University of Denver. The balance between my studies and running Quacker Gift Shop can be overwhelming at times, other times I have to reflect on my long term goals as to why I took on graduate school while building a wholesale, retail and online business. In fact, some days I feel like I am upside down and left to wonder how I am going to get right side up. Last week , Dr. Phillip Tompkins was a guest lecturer in my class on Organizational Communication, he talked about the importance of “Monday Notes” and the impact this organizational method had on the NASA program in the 1960’s. As a student of Dr. von Braun, Dr. Tompkins shared how two questions ( What were your problems last week and what was your progress last week) shaped effective communication and management at NASA. Well…I thought, if it’s good enough for NASA, it’s good enough for Quacker Gift Shop!

One of my new year’s goals was to have Steve and I sit down every Monday morning, reflect on the week past and plan for the coming week. We wrote pages of notes, it become overwhelming and unproductive, I was ready to quit after the second week. Today we implemented the Dr. van Braun's and NASA's way of Monday notes.

1. What were problems?

2. What was your progress?

It was a success! We were able to focus and hopefully avoid future landmines (that cost us money) as well as highlight our areas of productivity that increase revenue.

This was a great way to start my week right side up!

Thanks L J the cat for showing off upside down face, your the best.

Couldn't pass up a duck bouquet pic

What to do with slow days

Over the past several months, we were on auto pilot, we sent more internet packages than ever before, our retail store celebrated its first Christmas season, and we successful completed an over booked festival schedule. January has a new focus. The store is decorated, the Valentines are up, and several of the winter projects have been completed. Even in the best of times January is a tough retail month so Steve and I am have been focused on several ways to grow our customer base (both online and retail) at Quacker Gift Shop.

1. We are focused marketing

We have commented to writing a blog three times a week, we are creating a quarterly newsletter, and creating a press kit that will serve our niche market RUBBER DUCKS!

2. We are using our extra time for good

When sales are slow, it's the perfect time to concentrate on all those little things that we don’t normally have time for. We are adding new products to Quacker Baby, developing LS2M Krown (our wholesale division), and preparing the store for the Quacker Reading Corner.

3. Get to better know our accounting program

How much is coming in? How much is going out? We are focused on what we can do to cut back and lower our monthly expenses. Figure out what you can afford to spend on advertising or supplies each month. Understanding our money and accounting is the half the battle. If we lay it all out, it will help us prioritize, plan and spend more wisely.

No one ever said any of this would be easy, but we did not go into business for ourselves because we thought it'd worry free, right?

It is a lot of work just to be found!

Today we went to the book store and spent hours learning how the 'experts' make blogging a good part of business acumen.  Many of the tools we already utilize, some were new ideas.  I think the biggest challenge is to keep up the balance of dailiness in the store and internet and wholesale business, along with building links and blogs and a cohesive strategy of PR and promotion.  One of the new ideas was to find more ways to register on directories and to list our b log with Technorati.  This code KJHJC7XT7FPF had to be listed to validate the identify of the Quacker team.  It sure is a lot of work, just to be found!