General update

Things have been hectic lately. Mike is interviewing for new jobs, and I'm trying to get things together for the store.

We just found out about fifteen minutes ago that he didn't get a job he interviewed for a few days ago. It would have been an amazing opportunity for him, but I can't say I'm too surprised he didn't get it. Not because of him or his abilities. But because of his age. He is only 26, and this was for a Director position at a large corporation. Not only that, but it is a new position they are creating so he interviewed with 7 different people and they all had to say yes for him to get the job. Everyone he interviewed with was older than him. I think he would have been perfect for the job, but his age gets in his way a lot of the time. People have a hard time taking him seriously when they know how old he is. He also kind of has a baby face, which doesn't help. It is just so frustrating because he is over qualified most jobs in his field.

As far as my store is concerned, I've decided to close the physical location of Kayla's Blessing. We are keeping the website open, and expanding it. I'll explain later more about that.

The store front will be closing about February. We'll see how the closing sale goes. If we sell out of everything we want to early, we'll close earlier. If not, we might stay open a little longer. Our lease is up at the end of March, and I don't want to be rushing to get out of here two weeks before. Next week starts the sale. Everything is going on sale, and will remain on sale until it's gone. There are some things I'm taking home, and not putting on sale. Some things that are on the website and what not. But really, there is going to be a crap load of stuff going on sale. And we'll keep reducing the prices until everything is gone.

In a sense, this makes me sad. I worked so hard to plan, build, design and maintain the store. It has been my life for so long, and it's hard to move away from that. But there are too many reasons to move to a web only store.

1. The economy sucks. Our sales have dropped as people have become increasingly more afraid of what is going to happen. We don't sell necessities, so we are one of the first places to suffer. The first big change in sales I noticed was right after the new Chicago sales tax went into effect July 1st. It went from 9.25% to 10.25%. People freaked and bought less because they were spending more. And since then it has only gotten worse. Businesses are closing left and right. I believe this is the right choice for us because it enables us to still operate, just with a different focus. For the past 3 1/2 years, the physical store has been our focus, and now our website will be.


2. This stupid chronic pain issue makes it hard for me to stand for long periods of time. And when I'm in a lot of pain it's hard to smile and be cheerful with customers. Also, stress triggers pain immediately, and working what amount to two full time jobs (maintaining the physical store, and the online store) is bad news. Additionally, two of the medications I'm on for this issue make me super duper sleepy. I actually have to nap or I pass out early, and I can't get as much work done as I used to.

3. We'd really like to have babies (yes, multiple) and it's impossible when we both HAVE to work so much.

4. We'd like to buy a house, and it is impossible to get a mortgage with we both own our own businesses. Trust me, we've tried. We were told that even if one of us held a part time position somewhere else we'd be in a much better place. So I'm going to look for something part time.

5. It allows us to participate in high profit trips to other cities. We have been invited to several communities in other states, to bring our more popular products that are hard to find in small communities and set up in a synagogue or school. It's great because they do the advertising for you, they make all the arrangements. You just show up and sell your stuff. And then afterward you give a small percentage as a donation to the school, or synagogue that put you up. We've never been able to do these before because we just don't have the manpower to keep the store open, AND do something like that. But now we can. And we are talking big bucks. In just a few hours we can clean up. The plan is to schedule several trips at the beginning of certain seasons, and do a bunch of traveling all at one time, as opposed to traveling all year round.

I'm excited by the new opportunities we are going to be exposed to as a result of this change.

Earlier I had mentioned expanding the website. I mean a few things by this.
1. We are going to build a new website. Right now we are using Wordpress to run the website. It is essentially an expanded template. By building one of our own, we will be able to do more, we won't be restricted by the boundaries set by the template. The face may stay the same, but I think I want to freshen it up a bit.

2. We are actually going to build two websites. I've been doing a lot of thinking, and a lot of research, and I've decided to also start a "vegetarian" clothing & accessories website. What this means, is items that are not made with any animal byproducts. I'm staying away from "Vegan" clothes because those essentially have to be all organic cotton, and 100% natural fibers, where vegetarian clothes can include man-made fibers. I want to still stay in the same general price range, and that would be impossible if I went the vegan route.

For the most part, the two sites will carry the same merchandise. But making this separation exposes me to a much larger market, and makes it much easier to advertise (it's not easy to advertise [cost-effectively] modest clothes on the web.) This is the fastest growing trend in America, and I fully intend on capitalizing on it. Just like I saw a need for cute, AFFORDABLE, modest clothes when I opened KBI, I see the same need in this market.
This also allows me to buy a larger range of clothes, which I'm excited about. Obviously the clothes on the veg site won't be all modest, and I'm excited about dealing with a different type of clothing.


So all in all, I'm excited. I know this is the right thing to do, and at the right time. The overhead in the store is nuts. Our rent is high and gets raised every year. Employees are a huge cost. Bills are too high. It costs way too much to heat and cool this gosh darn place. Internet, phone... Plus all the "little" thing that add up to a huge cost. Office supplies. Toilet paper, garbage bags... It can get nuts. Like I said businesses are closing all over the place. I'm glad we found a way to shift the focus of the business, and still stay in operation.

I am sad though, that I won't have as many crazy customer stories.