SHOP GIRLS {week 32.10}… LISTS, volunteering & other rambling thoughts about last weekend.
This summer has blown by ~ like it always does ~ and especially the last few weeks when I’ve become completely overwhelmed with projects and tasks. As a girl with a entrepreneurial spirit it’s easy to YES to new projects with the hope of great opportunity. As a girl with a thin wallet, it’s hard to take on so much without the ability to hire much help. Whenever I begin to feel inundated I find that the best way to re-focus is with a LIST. I come by this honestly as my Mom is a tenacious list maker; and, even in the last days before losing his battle to colon cancer, my sweet Daddy was making lists of things we needed to do when he was gone.
{image courtesy of Library of Congress}
I actually start off every day with a LIST of things to do and it is always waaaay more than I can accomplish. As the day progresses I cross off the things I’ve completed and re-prioritize. By the end of the day I’ve usually gotten a fair amount of work done and have made a new list for the next morning. It’s a system that works for me. The lists help me to #1 ~ FOCUS ON WHAT IS IMPORTANT, #2 ~ STAY ON TASK , and #3 ~ PRIORITIZE BASED ON MY GOALS
Last week I was feeling even more swamped than normal when I took on inventory in the store the same week as the Weston 10 Mile Trail Antique, Art & Garden Show. I’m not sure what I was thinking other than the fact that there is always some excuse notdo inventory, and, as I admitted last week, I’ve been procrastinating for, well… let’s just say a while now. Regarding the 10 Mile Trail, by the end of the week I got to the point that I was saying to myself “WHY, exactly, are you doing this???” My husband tuned in with the same question and a valid point, “if you’re not benefiting financially from this then you should quit.”
So I got to thinking, why AM I doing this??
The Weston 10 Mile Trail Antique event is in its third year and still in the tweaking stage. We haven’t figured out the perfect formula yet so each year has been a real learning curve and somewhat stressful. The idea is to have a weekend that adds a blip of excitement to HOT August, an event that will involve businesses all over our little town {even the ones not on Main Street}, and also to encourage shopping and keeping the economy moving. The event involves four different locations of antique & art vendors over a 10 mile trail. My job in the four-member committee is marketing, graphics & the website. Others are in charge of vendors, locations, press releases, accounting… the LIST goes on and on.
In answer to the question WHY AM I doing this?? Well, I have a great LIST of reasons that are helping me FOCUS on what is important about volunteering for the 10 Mile Trail, and also the Lyons Club Antique Show that happens in Weston every April. It doens’t matter what you’re volunteering for ~ church, city council, school board, neighborhood watch, food drive, or your local antique show ~ we all have more than one motive for volunteering. Knowing WHY you’re doing it, making a LIST of what you want to achieve, will keep the goal in your eye and also make the time worth the effort.
1. It’s not about the event… it’s about everything that will happen after the event.
Let me be straight up, there were TONS of people in Weston this weekend, and TONS of people in my store. A lot of people had a killer weekend in sales. I did not. BUT after 20 years in retail I know for a fact that one little weekend doesn’t matter when it comes to sales. It’s about loving on every single person that walks through the door, making them feel welcome and knowing that you’ve done your best to make them want to come back very, very soon. Any one of the people that were in the store this weekend could come back this week and spend a load. Retail is like a long love affair, usually on the first meeting you feel a strong desire, but rarely go all the way. There were a lot of people I met this weekend that I think will be back into the Cactus Creek Store, hopefully next time we’ll go all the way…
2. If this community is successful then my business and my family will be successful.
It’s very easy to look at your own numbers, and calculate your own needs, when making a decision. It’s much harder to embrace the big picture and how your actions affect your community of retailers, and therefore your community of neighbors. In a small town like Weston the success of one business will often affect the success of every other business on the block. For example, St. Patrick’s Day in Weston is a HUGE deal. We have the nationally known O’Malley’s Irish Pub plus an outstanding retail store called The Celtic Ranch that specializes in gifts, clothes and treasures from Ireland. Because those two businesses have such a great turn out for St. Patty’s Day, the other retailers in town also benefit from the boom in traffic. The idea behind the 10 Mile Trail was to bring TONS of people to town. We did that and the math is pretty simple…
lots of people = more sales = more tax dollars in the schools = my children’s education = BRING ON THE GREEN BEER
3. Never. Stop. Learning.
Who knows, maybe someday we’ll want to have a Cactus Creek Vintage & Hand Made Marketplace??? Three years ago I wouldn’t have known the first thing about the ins & outs of hosting an antique show. Learning from experience is much easier, and holds significantly less risk, than trial by fire. So the Cactus Creek Vintage & Hand Made Marketplace ~ who’s in??
4. Time with GROWN UPS
As mommy to a posse of boys, plus being a shop owner, time is scarce. To give myself a chance to spend time with other GROWN UPS, especially the business owners in town who are some of my dearest friends, is a BIG treat. While we work on the shows we inevitably start talking and brainstorming about our own shops, and how to improve their success. It’s amazing how much can be accomplished in one hour of GROWN UP TIME, over an omelet, some caffeine, and a conversation without boundaries.
5. Because it’s fun.
Here’s the thing about owning a store, at least for me, I work an eighty hour week, every single week. My paycheck is piddly at best. But I do all of this for several reasons ~ because it gives me time to be with my boys, even if I’m on the computer or working with a customer, at least they’re at my side. I also do it because I love working with customers. Even the briefest interaction ~ I really believe that God wants me to be here for this. And also because 70 hours out of every 80 that I spend growing Cactus Creek are truly FUN and happy. I get to shop, chit chat, decorate and write rambling essays like this one. What’s not fun about that?? And how many other people can say that about their jobs??
DO YOU MAKE LISTS??
DO YOU VOLUNTEER FOR ANYTHING??
DO YOU VOLUNTEER FOR ANYTHING THAT AFFECTS YOUR BUSINESS {Chamber of Commerce, Development council, what else???}
WHY DO YOU VOLUNTEER??
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