Fun with Fox 31 News' Good Day and Dan Daru

I have to tell you - when the news truck shows up at 5:30 in the morning to do a live remote from the store, there is a part of me that says, "this is crazy early", but the bigger part says, "we are being recognized as a unique store in not just the Denver area, but the region as well".  So when Fox 31 News said do you want us to do a report from your store before the holiday kickoff, we said YES YES from Quacker Gift Shop.

Our cameraman, Robert showed up at 5am and Jenna, a Fox intern was not far behind.  We learned that there are teasers throughout the morning and 'hits' or stories every hour.  There were technical glitches that happened, but everyone worked really hard to work them out as quickly as possible.

Our neighbor, George from Breakfast Queen 2 stopped by with breakfast (thanks so much) and the phones have been busy with people wanting to know more about our little duck shop.

We learned that when the reporter talks to the anchor on the desk and you don't know what is being said, it's kind of weird, but you keep singing anyways, haha.  More than anything though, we learned, that as our business grows, we are engaged in a journey that harnesses all the help that can be mustered to share our story - a tale of something unique, fun and always a smile

If you didn't see the spots, take a look at the videos below - we had a bunch of fun!

 

 

 

Everday comes to the Quacker Gift Shop

Everyone loves a daily dish and Chris Parente and Natalie Tysdal from KWGN's Everyday Show stopped in at the Quacker Gift Shop recently.  The segment aired today and we couldn't be more proud of the great job Everyday did with our duckie kingdom.  If you didn't get a chance to see it, check the story out below! Quack quack!

 

Join me-Drink More Water-Start 11-15

 

Steve and I are preparing for 30 days of drinking more water. Our method...two half gallon water jugs that we filled up at home before we come to work. 

Please join us, for 30 days to a new healthy habit.

Please join me for a 30 day drink more water challenge. Like ducks, and yes rubber ducks, people need more water to have fun and live long health lives. I know you’ve heard 30 days to habit, yes it’s true, change a daily behavior for 30 days and you will be amazed at the results.   

Let do this together.  

Nov 15^th (Monday) to Dec 15^th

64oz a day (only half a gallon)

Create a new health habit for the New Year 

Aristotle taught, "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."

Cute Factor

We get so excited when we get new merchandise,
and couldn't wait to get these Santa hamsters out of the box.
Stop by see us at our Broadway store or visit us on line at
quackergiftshop.com

We filmed The Everday Show today.

We filmed for the The Everyday Show, we'll let you when it airs.

Should be Monday or Tuesday, can't wait!

It will be posted on Quacker Gift Shop

When JJ comes to town

Our JJ came to see us over the weekend and watch his little brother play the last football game of the season. Thank you JJ for taking time off work to spend time with us. 

We love You!

One of our flock has made the news

Quacker Gift Shop loves to be in the news, but its more fun when our family is in the limelight.
Congratulations Amanda, what an honor!
Check out what she is doing for the CU-Boulder honor society chapter
http://www.dailycamera.com/ci_16432172?source=email

Meet Maggie The Shop Dog

                                                              

Some pictures are just too cute to pass up.

Maggie loves our customers , stop by and say hi, she lives for attention. 

Thanks David for assisting with the picture.

You (rubber duckie) light up my life

Crazy hairs

I can't tell you how great it is to watch people smile. In the store, right at the register, we have basket of crazy hair ducks,at our shows we have a rack full of these funny ducks. No matter where they are, these squeezable crazy haired ducks light up and quickly become a favorite of all ages.
                                             Remember: A smile, like laughter, is contagious! 

Rubber Duck(ing)

I have a great job, I get to spend my day looking for new rubber ducks for Quacker Gift Shop to share with all of its wonderful rubber duck collectors. Today,instead of finding a new ducks, I found something new to do with all those ducks we love to collect, its called rubber ducking. According to the pragmatic programmer if you "place a rubber duck on your monitor and describe your problem to it. There's something magical about stating your problems a loud that makes the solution more clear." There is even theory behind this rubber duck(ing) action its called ThinkingOutLoud and Self Talk. Just one more reason to love rubber ducks!

Gotta love rubber ducks

Once again, ACCION and IDEA Marketing have put the spotlight on Quacker Gift Shop.
But there's more...I got my pictures taken too!

The White House, the SBA and Rubber Ducks!

(Leslie Hoffman VP of Lending for ACCION, Marie C. Johns Deputy Administrator of the SBA and me!)

What an honor for me and the Quacker Gift Shop. I got to spend the day with an amazing group of women entrepreneurs. The white house and the SBA invited 150 women business owners for a day of collective thought on how the SBA could help build and strengthen women owned businesses in Colorado.

A Day of Fame for Quacker

A big THANKS to ACCION for including Quacker Gift Shop on the Tom Martino Show

Positive Poem Duck

We spend a lot of time looking for new rubber ducks and we always get excited when BUD duck designs a great new duck. I am a real fan of the Positive Poem Duck, its colorful, great message all on a fabulous rubber duck. How could you go wrong?

Delish Body Work-On The Road Again

It's that time of year again. Holiday festival featuring Delish Body Works.
Gateway High School, Aurora Colorado

Friday Night Lights

If we aren't Quackin' we are cheering for the Columbine Rebels. Yes...they are 7 -0! Looks like they want a state championship.

Go David #61!

Busy weekend with more great news to come!

Quacker Gift Shop has a busy weekend. Quack is traveling to Monrose for the Pumpkin Patch Festival and Delish Body Works will be at  the Holiday Festival at Gateway High School. But the fun does stop there! Next week Quacker Gift Shop will featured on the Martino show, Everyday Colorado and (I can't believe it, but...) the SBA via The White House has invited me to moderate sessions for the  Denver Summit for Women Entrepreneurs. It's going to be a great Quacker week! Stay turn for pictures and details of our exciting PR week. 

Rubber Ducky Song

We often get ask if we know the ducky song? And the answer is "of course" our customer love it! Sometimes they sing, sometimes we sing it. What a great smile!

A Day With ACCION

What A GREAT DAY WITH ACCION!

Quacker Gift Shop spent the day with micro-financier ACCION. What a great organization.
A big "thank you" for including us! Our business couldn't have grown without you.

Change and the Art of Perserverance

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once said, “Perseverance is a great element of success. If you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody.” At the Quacker Gift Shop, we started with a simple idea - to bring smiles to everyone we meet. What has happened has been nothing short of incredible - our business has taken flight on the Internet, at our retail store and coming in July, to a wholesale operation that will highlight our own products as well as other lines carefully selected for their whimsy, quality and dedication to the customer.

A recent post to the blog commented that it seemed the corporate offices and warehouse were empty. That's only partially true. As in any endeavor, change is a constant. As Longfellow points out, a single know rarely opens the door. When we opened the warehouse, it had a small showroom designed to allow our festival and show customers a place to see our little ducks when a show was not available. To our surprise, the same customers who came to the shows wanted to buy from the warehouse. We didn't have enough space, and that's why in August of 2009 we opened our first retail store in historic Englewood, CO. This year we were honored by Westword Magazine with a Best of Denver, 2010 award. In January we created LS2M Krown Distributing, a wholesale firm designed to distribute ducks on a wholesale level. This too has taken off, and less than a year from the date of our store opening we will be opening our showroom at the Denver Merchandise Mart. because of our continued expansion, the need for offices with our warehouse or unnecessary, as out time will be spent with our customers directly. We still warehouse, but the location doesn't require offices. LS2M Krown will allow us to reach more retail stores across the country. Our Bath Products under the Delish BodyWorks name is going national, and the ever increasing demand for duckies grows as well. We will be labeling under the name Quacker Creations and selling to other gift stores across the country. We currently have retailers for our products in

South Carolina, Arizona, Oklahoma, and Colorado in many mountain towns and the front range.


Getting back to Longfellow; as a business owner or entrepreneur it is so important to remember that perseverance is not just making it through the day by day. You have to be willing to knock on those doors, letting some close and looking for more to open. Keep on smiling and watch for our newest ventures to take flight!

Great weekend for rubber ducks at the Chocolate Fest

This is Quacker Gift Shop's new 2010 show setup,

It was prefect and business was great!

What could be more fun than wine and chocolate? Rubber Ducks!
The Quacker Gift Shop had a great weekend at the 6th Annual Denver Chocolate Fest this weekend. Rubber ducks were everywhere.

Bet you did know Oompa Loompa's liked rubber ducks!

Weekend with Disney

Brunswick bowling likes rubber ducks

The Denver Mint

Quacker Gift Shop at Radio Disney

The Colorado Avalanche mascot came by to say "Hi"

I have a new idea!

Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.

  ~John Steinbeck

I have a new idea!

As a small business owner, new ideas happen all the time and it is easier to embrace it than fight it.  If you are thinking “easier said than done” you are correct! The following is a way to management all those  great money making ideas.

1) Monthly themes – choose one big idea – redo your website, write out your marketing ideas, create a new customer process – and make it the theme for that month – you can even plan out the next 6 months this way and you’ll stand a better chance of actually getting these done. This is a great idea when it comes to having too many irons in the fire. The problem is that when we try to do it all at once, we go into overwhelm and don’t get anything done. Make it simple, take the long view, and watch what happens.

2) Weekly reviews – When it comes right down to it, once you’re clear on your new idea it becomes a set of projects. When you start to look at the “big idea” as the habit of focusing on a group of projects, you can begin to break those projects down into action steps or tasks. Your weekly project review should include everyone in your organization and pose the simple question – “what needs be done next” to each project on your plate.

3) Daily goals – While you may have many things on your daily calendar, make it a habit to schedule one project time slot with yourself or someone working on a project each day. This is the only way to keep the focus where it belongs – on constant advancement and improvement.

We love duck humor

February has been a little crazy at Quacker Git Shop, school is in full swing, and Quacker bouquet (our rubber duck bouquets) have been very popular. I am finding the that a good ole' fashion laugh can't hurt a thing! In fact, it may Quack you up.

Why did the duck cross the road?
Answers from well-known folks brought to you by Roger Bullis and Celebriducks.com:


PLATO: For the greater good.

ARISTOTLE: It is the nature of ducks to cross roads.

KARL MARX: It was a historical inevitability.

TIMOTHY LEARY: Because that's the only trip the establishment would let it take.

CAPTAIN JAMES T. KIRK: To boldly go where no duck has gone before.

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR: I envision a world where all ducks will be free to cross roads without having their motives called into question.

MOSES: And God came down from the Heavens, and He said unto the duck: Thou shalt cross the road. And the duck crossed the road, and there was much rejoicing.

FOX MULDER: You saw it cross the road with your own eyes. How many more ducks have to cross the road before you believe it?

RICHARD M. NIXON: The duck did not cross the road. I repeat, the duck did NOT cross the road.

MACHIAVELLI: The point is that the duck crossed the road. Who cares why? The end of crossing the road justifies whatever motive there was.

JERRY SEINFELD: Why does anyone cross a road? I mean, why doesn't anyone ever think to ask, What the heck was this duck doing walking around all over the place, anyway?

FREUD: The fact that you are at all concerned that the duck crossed the road reveals your underlying sexual insecurity.

BILL GATES: I have just released the new Duck 2000, which will not only cross the road, but will lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your checkbook. It is not compatible, however, with Duck 1997. Or Macintosh.

OLIVER STONE: The question is not, Why did the duck cross the road? Rather, it is, Who was crossing the road at the same time, whom we overlooked in our haste to observe the duck crossing? And what about the grassy knoll?

DARWIN: Ducks, over great periods of time, have been naturally selected in such a way that they are now genetically predisposed to cross roads.

EINSTEIN: Whether the duck crossed the road or the road moved beneath the duck depends upon your frame of reference.

Found on:
http://www.drakeinnerprizes.com/TheDuckster/jokesquotes.html

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?