Welcome to our journey…. the last few weeks have been a blur.
Let me start from the beginning. About 3 years ago, my partner and I took a stained glass class as an introduction to a stress relieving hobby. The class was every Saturday for six weeks. While the stained glass process was relaxing, we were soon drawn to the ‘dark side’ of glass. That is to say……….fusing!
Fusing is the melting of glass to other glass or into shapes such as bowls, soap dishes, candle holders etc. This became very addicting. We soon found ourselves with a large 220 volt kiln sitting in our garage. We called an electrician, and $750 later, we had a working kiln (in our garage). Oh, I forgot to mention………we live in Arizona. Freaking hot Arizona. Where no living thing can survive in the garage during 100 degree weather (except whatever that smelly thing growing in your garbage can is).
So, here we are working in our garage for hours at at time making fascinating creations in 100 + degrees. We were thrilled… for about 2 months. Then we could sweat no more!
Did we stop? Of course not! We went to Home Depot and bought this little evap cooler thing. We hooked it up to the hose, closed the garage door and….and…..yes! Cool air! But, only if you stood right in front of it. Problem is……there was two of us and only one cooler.
Fast forward………….Christmas time. We decided we were going to each make a unique ornament to give to family and friends. I made this adorable little angel using two triangles and a circle for the head. Diane (my partner) made a Christmas tree with multi-colored dots representing Christmas lights. They were a big hit. From those humble beginnings we created our famous ‘Christmas Ornament Club’. Every year we make two unique ornaments and send them to the people who received them the prior year.
People seemed to like our ornaments…….no, not just my mom. So, we ventured into making small bowls, dishes, and plates. Again, everyone liked them! “I would totally buy this!” my daughter-in-law exclaimed. REALLY?
Fast forward again……….. Now we have been making things for 3 years. Our most requested gift item is a business card holder and matching desk tray. We like making them and people like receiving them. However, for a birthday gift, we made a candle holder for a friends 48th birthday party. Party guests loved it!
As it turned out, one of the couples was in the process of opening a store in Scottsdale, Arizona. They were selling ‘chakra’ items such as soaps, candles and crystals. What a coincidence, we make candles holders and soap dishes. After two beers, Diane made her pitch. “You know, we make candle holders and soap dishes”. “We would love to show you some of our stuff”.
Game on! We spent the next week making 17 pieces fitting the parameters of: use chakra colors and keep the retail price around $20. A quick visit to Borders and we were able to read up on pricing, entrepreneurship and making a living selling crafts.
Well, we are NOT looking to make a living……..as we both have 40 hr a week day jobs. With retirement just 7 short years away. I love the sound of that. Retirement. C’mon, say it with me….Retirement. At this point in life, it’s like looking forward to a cruise or something. It’s a wonderland just waiting for you to enjoy.
Long story short, we take the pieces to the Scottsdale store, they look, they love, they buy it all!
OMG! They bought it all! The amazing part was….we had a plan. We were going to go in, show them the stuff…discuss consignment vs selling… take an order for each piece they wanted…..make them and return with an invoice.
You see, I had this wonderful matrix of numbers we would use for each item. The item number would tell us the size, color, shape and cost of each piece. What happened!? We had a plan!
The problem is, I went to the bathroom………….when I came out……Diane was showing all the pieces, taking orders, shaking hands and we walked out of there empty handed. What I mean is………..she sold them all the pieces that we made! That wasn’t the plan. We didn’t take pictures, sign them or even identify them using my matrix. How are we going to know which ones they want duplicates of? How will we know what the piece is to look like? We don’t have pictures, measurements or the matrix!
Rookie mistake! We walked out to the car…..kinda of stunned. We made our first sale! We better get a license, an EIN number………business cards, merchandise tags with our logo, and a logo, a bank account and business credit card (insert swirling head here).
There is sooooo much to do when you start up a business.
Yesterday, we registered with a few companies that sell glass wholesale. We made our first purchase as a business.
Breathe in, breathe out………………….
Next time, I will tell you about our adventure at the bank. Apparently, you cant just open a business checking account…………
