bad and good

well i am sitting here feeling quite awful for what is happening in the South, and trying to figure out how much money i can spare to send to the relief effort. we were to go to New Orleans in just 10 days for laurice's wedding, and now that is out of the picture (happening down there, at least). it is all so very sad.

the good news is...people have been so good about helping me with this endeavor. you really just have to ask, people like to help. that's rule number one. everyone needs to visit erin at Sodafine in ft. greene, brooklyn, she just renovated her lovely shop and there are so many goodies there, i can't stand it! also she painted the walls a deep and unusual color called 'green tea' and it is awesome. i borrowed a paint roller off of her. thanks, erin!

next steps are trying to figure out the internet/credit card processor/phone situation. i really, really don't want a land line from verizon. i have earthlink cable modem plus vonage VoIP at home and we bypass verizon entirely. but, earthlink doesn't serve commercial addresses. so that leaves roadrunner who is supposed to return my call and hasn't yet. great. now i am looking at dsl. i can get 'naked dsl' which uses the physical phone line without needing phone service, speakeasy offers this. i should be able to put vonage on top of that. but then - i need to ensure that i can do credit card processing reliably without a land line. fun fun fun. if anyone has ideas about this, i'd love to hear them.

and here is some exciting, non-store related news: someone in the UK is putting together a book and wants to include my jewelry! wow! the theme is 'circles and dots' so now i have to see what applies. i will be in a book with tom dixon and paul smith, that is crazy.

banking

so this is a little rant against citibank, who i use for my jewelry design biz and also the personal account. i rather wish i didn't, and it's not too late to switch, but it's a hassle. they have a really crazy online banking setup, it won't work on safari, and the online biz banking won't work on a mac at all. which is like useless for me. i am also having "security" issues and can't do a money transfer. aaah! i can't do anything. i hate it.

anyhoo. i did find an awesome (so far) bank for the new store account, and that is HSBC. they have free business checking, people. they don't have an account minimum, and they throw in a box of free checks, too. i heart! i'm gonna try them out.

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what else? i got the key to the shop today. very exciting! it needs a good coat of white paint, i forget how scuffy everything looks when people move out and take their shelves away. still haven't figured out a paint color for the contrast. i might not do it at this point, but since most of the back wall is taken up by curtains, i might buy really nice colored curtains for the dressing room etc, and that will be the pop of color.

i also ordered a bunch of fixtures. so much money! i just don't have time to go the route of collecting used fixtures, and this will look all nice and coordinated. and if/when i don't have the store anymore, it can go in my living room :)

i have also been busy ordering inventory. my first batch of goods came in..so cute! i will only say that they are made in Japan and are felted wool and i call them "squids" though of course that is not their name or function. i also have been getting really into the clothing (dangerous) and am ordering fun tops for girls and guys, mostly from california so that the lines are fresh and new to Brooklyn shoppers.

and i registered raredevice.net but don't even have a logo, how sad! i'm working on it though. it is both a blessing and a curse to have done graphic design/web design in the past because i don't feel like i should farm any of this stuff out...though i would save hours of work if i did. oh well.

running around

today i learned that even though an office may close at 5, the principals might leave at, oh, 4:30 and not tell you when you ask, "what are your hours?" the principal in question being the insurance agent. dreck. i have to go take the bus down there again tomorrow. i know i should have gone earlier but dammit anyway.

we've got the latest spoon album on the stereo and i'm emailing orders to people. i'm trying not to do too much wholesale but for some things, i have to, and consignment is a sticky situation as well. i did write up a consignment agreement that i'm pretty happy with, and one that i hope makes the vendors feel comfortable, too. i find that it's very valuable to have been a vendor and now to be a retailer - everyone complains, and everyone's right!

what else...i have a ton of excel spreadsheets with notes, scribbles really, about what kinds of things i want to carry, how many lines i can have (space and money being limiting factors) and the price brackets they fall into. i also have a scary spreadsheet of actual startup expenses. the number at the bottom is getting bigger and bigger, and i haven't even gotten keys to the damn store yet.

well.

inventory is being ordered. i am quite excited. so far i have ordered from people in California, New Jersey and Japan! ooh gotta hate the exchange rate. i'm going to get some super textiles designed by a gal in Scotland too.

i think i'm going to name the store Rare Device and be done with it. i still like Nook but it's a bit cute. not that i won't have cute things but i want to appeal to guys to come in too, i'm going to have some design books and magazines and go in that direction and not in a girl shop direction, just because i think guys are underserved in the area, while there are a trillion girl boutiques. also there are many, many one word, one syllable stores these days, and i want to be a little mysterious. so!

we are scouring pottery barn for suitable floating shelving and such. the IKEA type seem pretty flimsy...but i will be getting greeting card ledges and things like that from them. also, p-barn has great shadowbox picture frames, they are hinged in the front and are lined in a linen fabric and will look really slick with jewelry pinned inside. i have seen some folks use these at shows, and they look great.

i have got a bunch of minor repairs to do here. the nice thing about having some tools at the shop is that i can customize lengths etc for people. i am still debating how much jewelry work i want to bring there (since when the shop closes for the night, i want to go HOME and not stay and do more work).

what else...got an insurance quote, it was not bad at all. of course that's cuz my shop is so tiny. so far the expenses seem reasonable...i mean paying 3 months rent upfront hurts a LOT but the landlord is a very "no problem!" kind of guy. i hope i don't have to test that at any time. i just have to pay electricity on the shop, they take care of water and heat and trash, which is great. if i leave early there is no fee. all in all quite reasonable for NY.

time to get the DBA, and then the bank account. the rates for business accounts seem really high, i swear my fee in California was about 7.50 a month, and out here it's 16.

thanks to everyone writing in with their ideas!

the deed is done..

..and the deposit check is paid. it's mine!

immediately after signing the lease and taking some deep breaths, i went across the street to get an insurance quote. the store wants a million dollar liability coverage, in case someone smashes their head in my shop. the insurance guy, very old school and has been there for 30 years, was telling me that the brownstones across the way (this is at 7th and union st) used to sell for $50K - thirty years ago - but the cost to rebuild would be $70K, so the homeowner back then could never get enough coverage! and now they sell for over a million apiece. i do love brooklynites, everyone has a story for you.

derek is doing his little autocad drawings. we were going to do the basic birch plywood look, but every shop on the street has birch plywood. it's so damn easy. so, we found some units in that dark wenge color. this is not hip anymore but that means the units are on sale, and i won't look like everyone else. the problem is finding a paint color that complements such a dark wood. i was all set to do a burnt orange but now i'm thinking of some weird silvery teal color, if such a thing exists.

ok time to walk the poor dog and actually make some jewelry.

indecision

this weekend was spent largely fretting about what to name the shop and also starting to think about layout. the store is only 9 feet wide so this will be more complicated than just buying whatever and putting it inside. it's good to be married to an architecture grad student who has been doing a lot of autoCAD recently, i now have neat little diagrams of different ways to configure the shop.

more name ideas:
bantam (smallish, feisty)
zidi (a kind of fig, just a nice short word)
manzanita (another nice word, reflects my west-coast-ness)
firecracker (kind of asian)
landmark (this one is sort of a joke as it was the name of the paint color in my last house, the paint color everybody loved)
and
rare device (from kubla khan, i'm glad the english degree was good for something!)

i am having quite a bit of fun working on the inventory list. i guess i have to start (ulp) ordering and shelling out the money. ouch. also i will draft a consignment agreement tonight, dontcha love forms.

NYC seems to want more sales tax payments from me too, what timing...

based on some advice by the lovely Faythe from Flying Fish/Paper Boat (thanks Chic Cosas for the idea!) i will be setting up yet another bank account, etc. i am stubborn as a mule and don't want to do it but it will make sense at taxtime i'm sure.

also tonight i have to print a round of the wedding invite job, and eat dinner, and it's already past 8pm. yikes!

naming the baby

i am having some difficulty coming up with a name for the shop. i want it to be warm but modern and inviting but not cutesy.
contenders: gem, nook, nonesuch, gild, jackdaw (a nod to Magpie in Cambridge). my brain has frozen. ideas?

giant yet incomplete to-do list

i am considering subscribing to Backpack (backpackit.com) to handle stuff like to-do lists but i think piles of paper and lots of Excel spreadsheets are going to have to suffice for now.

here are things i have to do in very short order.

sign lease
figure out business structure
pick a name!
file paperwork
bank account
get an accountant
get computer (iBook?) for the shop
get quickbooks or similar
set up utilities
get inventory
pick a paint color
buy fixtures
design and build (or send out) fixtures
think about signage
write up a consignment agreement
design a logo
buy domain name and put logo on it
design and print biz cards and stickers
order tissue paper, bags etc
advertising?

oh and continue to crank out jewelry for stores for the holidays. yikes!

hire part-time help if i can afford it
pet the dog and eat ice cream and try not to explode

what am i doing?

here is the story of one independent designer (me) going big-time - that is to say, opening up a real, live storefront in the part of Park Slope, Brooklyn known as "the fringe".

so what's happened so far? the property manager and his trusty assistant (who told me today about how she grows her hair out past 12" so that she can cut it and donate it to kids with cancer) have a deposit and will be drawing up a lease for me to review and sign on Monday. so soon! i have to get them quite a big fat check by then too. lease begins on september 1, and then i hustle to get it all set up ASAP to catch the holiday sales.

now i have to actually do some work, ie jewelry orders and wedding invitations. must finish as much as possible before september!