bad habit

when i'm frustrated, i go on etsy and buy something. it's bad! i used to wait and hit a store and buy a lipstick or something, but now i get little artist books or handmade prints. derek just rolls his eyes when i bring these things home.

...this is a lead-in to say - i bought 2 things the other night from etsy! the occasion? launching the new site on the new webhost (which is giving me worst-case-scenario problems) and panicking that there is a slowdown at the store and that i will be in italy, on vacation, for 10 days. it sounds good but that is pretty much 10 days w/o contact with the shop. laura is wonderful and it will all be fine but oh my. worries. also we have to find a dog-sitter. and oh, i really ought to submit my tax stuff to the accountant before we leave. and set up quickbooks with the new bookkeeper. etc.

you would think leaving town would be a good thing but...i am really good at putting the work down, you know what i mean?

but when i return, i'll start promoting Lisa Congdon's show, and it will be warmer, and we should have spring clothing shipments in, and folks will want to buy bags, and it will be alright.

Terrifying

Yikes. So, I just moved my website from one host to another. Also, I moved to a new shopping cart, so every page URL is now different. And every link to a page on the web will be broken! This is almost a reason to never do anything so stupid. In the long run it will be okay but people will have to relink a lot of stuff. Any product page on Stylehive, or from a blog...yikes, I'll say it again.

I just hope February/March is a good time to pull this off! Time will tell, as will my stats page and web orders...

the books

today i met with a bookkeeper. oy, it's long overdue. i never thought i'd get to that point, but i have a feeling i've been at that point for months and months! we discussed things and step one seems to be - upgrade your quickbooks. and a corollary is - upgrade your laptop so it can run quickbooks. time to retire the lovely 2001 powerbook, i guess. it's lasted a very long time.

right now, everything is in excel, or in my head. this is worrisome. i have quickbooks and only use it (poorly) to track consignment inventory and payments. the bookkeeper's goal is to get EVERYTHING into quickbooks. i don't have a POS system but daily sales totals can be imported. this should give me a really great, up to date snapshot of how the store is doing. i have been flying by the seat of my pants for so long, it's a bit terrifying to see how up (or down) i am cashwise, but as the store grows, it seems necessary.

in other news, the rena tom jewelry site is all gone. time to sell off those assets and leave the designing to you young whippersnappers. i have sooo many supplies, for jewelry, and for printing too, just taking up space.

the store is freezing right now. can't wait to see the electric bill.