Moving Right Along. . .

Now that I'm officially retired from working on events, I got to sit in the cabin for two days while Rob and Sergio set up a big event in Garden Valley.  I don't think Rob really believed that I wouldn't help out but Sergio knows what he's doing and I didn't even feel guilty.  Not even a little bit.  I napped, I snacked, I snuggled Lulu and flipped through all of the 800 channels that Direct TV offers.
I also admired the wildlife. . .

I did end up going to the event and even helped take it down but only because Sergio had to drive back to Boise afterwards. . .

All things considered, it was relatively painless....

End of an Era...

It's over. Documents are signed, contributions are dispersed. Bills are paid. Time to put on my big girl panties and move on. But not today. Today I'm going to cry. Tomorrow is a new day and there are many, many things to be thankful for. Tomorrow.

Three To Go. . .

So. . . the countdown has begun.  Today when we were setting up the stage, I realized that after this weekend there are only three more stage set ups for me.  Three more.  I will not miss it.  It's hard work.  It's time consuming.  I'm getting too old for this.  I have to wonder how I even decided that this would be my life.  I guess it doesn't matter.  It's been my life but not anymore.  Not after three more stage set ups. . .

 Much needed fresh coat of paint. . .

The Nampa Festival of the Arts has always been one of my favorites.  It will be laid back and easy.  In theory. . .

Ignorance is Bliss?

No picture today except possibly a word picture of a conversation that I was a part of this afternoon.

First, a little background:
Over the last year we have slowly developed our little retail space. A "music store" I guess. We've sold pro music gear for years but didn't have a store front where people could actually come in and see the product before they bought it. We stock speakers, amplifiers, microphones and accessories, cables and so much more. Everything we bring in, we pay for. We don't have a line of credit or a rich investor at our disposal; we just bring stuff in, pay for it and hope that someone comes in and buys it.

Slowly but surely our retail sales are picking up. Just this week, we sold a mixer, a feedback eliminator, two rack mountable CD players and a hardware bag. Doesn't seem like much but it builds hope that we are growing and might eventually be able to make an easier living than working our behinds off setting up stages all summer.

But this is where that conversation comes in that I mentioned earlier. I'm always trying to cultivate people connections. I talk to people that we work with on events, get in touch with them on Facebook and then let social networking do the rest. I've made many new friends this way as well as kept in closer touch with old friends. Anyway.... At some point in the past year, I made "friends" with someone on Facebook who has since become a "customer". Mostly that means he has come into the store a few times and we recognize each other at events and say hello.

He came into the store today to buy a custom cable that Kurt built for him and we had a very interesting conversation (finally getting to my point!)

Turns out he owned a popular mom-and-pop music store in downtown Boise that recently went out of business. There have been several stores that have followed suit during this bad economy but it was interesting hearing the history of pro retail music stores from someone who lived it.

He opened his store in the early 80's. Before the Internet. Before on-line shopping. Before free freight with no sales tax. Before big box stores. Back when a healthy profit margin was actually attainable. When online sales became all the rage, he knew it would not bode well for the local economy. He began to hear people complain about paying sales tax. When you order from out of state, no sales tax. He made a great point that eventually not putting that sales tax back into the local economy will come back around and cost more in the long run. I believe that has been a factor in what we are experiencing today. The other problem online sales caused him was that online retailers could buy very large quantities of an item, for example guitar strings, and then sell them for just slightly higher than the local stores could buy them for.

The online competition along with a poor economy finally forced him to close his doors. You could tell he enjoyed what he did and that he had poured time, energy and money into his business for over 25 years. And now he has nothing to show for it.

He wasn't telling us these things to discourage us and I believe he's very hopeful that we will succeed but it really shed light on many of the road blocks we face as we forge ahead with pro audio sales. If people would understand the importance of shopping local, myself included, maybe we would be more willing to pay a bit more so that we can all benefit in the long run.

It was a good conversation even if it was a bit sobering...

Archives...

My photo for today will have no meaning for anyone but me. It's too time consuming to explain the significance but when I look back on this post, I will know exactly what I mean!

I am a filer. I file papers. In fact, I love to file papers. Love may be too strong of a word but I definitely enjoy the order that comes with having a place for things and being able to locate it fairly quickly.

This is the part that I can't really explain but I'll give it a quick effort. I have a filing cabinet that we bought at the auction several years ago and I think it's absolutely perfect. It has two long drawers and it holds 4 years worth of business receipts. When we started Committed Events with Kurt in 2009, I had to keep files for two businesses so I started color coding- pink for Committed Events and purple for Committed Caseworks. (i can already tell that if you've made it this far, your eyes have glazed over.)

ANYWAY... Today I finally got around to getting my files set up for 2013 and realized that I would have to remove the 2009 files to make room for the 2013 files. No significance whatsoever to anyone else. But to me it was kind of a milestone. 2009 is going in the archives. We've been in business long enough to ARCHIVE!

I've had 8 years worth of Committed CASEWORKS files archived but this is a first for my Committed Events files. It was a moment for me and, like I said before, I think I'm the only one who understands it. And that's O.K.

Update. . .

No doubt, it's been a rough summer.  But now, it's over.  Festival season has officially ended. 

September usually kicks my butt anyway, due to the fact that I'm juggling back-to-school stuff while we are wrapping up the last of our busy season, but this time, my butt was already kicked. 

I hate to complain or feel sorry for myself because so many people are going through things that are far worse so I'll just focus on the good things.

 

First of all, Gloria has settled in to Sawtooth Middle School in a BIG way.  She has taken ownership of who she is and what she wants out of life at this moment.  It started with the aquamarine hair- a bold decision to make the night before starting at a huge, new school.  She nailed it.  Then she decided she wanted to be a cheerleader.  Even though she didn't know anyone on the cheer leading squad.  She had her first game on Wednesday and she gave it her all.  And nailed it.  She's in choir and drama along with the rest of her classes.  She's mastered her locker and the 3 minute allowance between classes.  She's tackled the bus and homework and made a slew of friends.  I don't mean to brag, I'm just so proud of the way she has handled herself with this new experience.  So far she is balancing school, family, quizzing, gymnastics, youth group, cheer leading, homework and her social life with style and grace.  I wish I would have had half of her confidence when I was her age. . .

As long as I'm bragging, I'll say that Zach is managing his sophomore year exactly the same way he faced his freshman year- study, study, study.  He's so focused.  He manages his time well, he meets all of his deadlines and he puts a huge amount of effort into doing the best that he can in every class.  In spite of a busy class schedule, he has devoted a large amount of his time to church.  He's working with Scott and Katie on children's sermons and recently finished the membership process.  He spent a week at Yearly Meeting this year and I think it encouraged him to continue working on leadership skills.  He definitely has convictions about things but is willing to learn and discuss and change and teach.  Sometimes it makes my mind spin and I have to ask him to give me a break from the intense discussions he likes so much.  I love to hear him process ideas, though, especially when he comes to realizations that alter what he once thought was set in stone.  His core values stay the same, but he's much more willing to think outside the box.  I'm very proud of who he is and who he is becoming.

And. . . the business.  While the economy has hurt us over the last couple of years, we are gradually changing our focus and I see some good things happening.  I think it's a HUGE thing that Bronco Sports sought us out to provide their radio stage.  Even if we don't see immediate results, I think that ultimately it will impact us in a big way.  We put a lot of thought into what it should look like and were very happy with the final result. 

We have two home games behind us and the powers-that-be seem to be happy as well.

We've also become BBB certified and have a fancy new phone system.  We have several projects in the works that should keep us busy for a couple of months and our retail sales seem to be gaining momentum.  Not HUGE momentum, but it's a good start.  I'm trying to think positive and not see the light at the end of the tunnel as an oncoming train.

And last, but not least, I've enjoyed spending time with these kiddos.

 Life is short and I want to make time for the people in it.  I'm learning and right now it takes a conscious effort to put work aside and enjoy the things that matter. 


So, there's my update.  And I'll keep trying to look on the bright side. . .

The Remodel. . . Part 4. . .

The back end of the building was the most time consuming of all to remodel due to the fact that there were many walls, false ceilings and even one room with a hardwood floor.  It's difficult to describe and impossible to take one picture that shows what the back end looked like before we began the destruction.  I won't even try to match it up with these before pictures but if you were standing in the room where Rob and Kurt build cables, to your left would be the back door onto the dock and to your right would be a short hallway.  At the end of the hallway, to the left, there was a small-ish room and straight ahead was the bathroom.  Turn left again, before the bathroom, and it's another hallway. If you were to go through the bathroom (not recommended) there would be another good-sized room with a door leading outside.  And finally, there was a fairly good sized room at the very back that was completely enclosed and even had a sliding glass door and hardwood floors. 

Before the remodel, we used all of these rooms to store our gear between shows.  Everything about the backroom was dark and crowded and made it difficult to get to what we needed when we needed it.  Of course, it got much worse when we started to tear it all down but it actually went pretty quickly and the end results were amazing.  I'll just let the pictures (and one video!) tell the story:

Ahhhh. . . Light!!!!

It's still a work in progress- the bathroom is still un-usable and we need shelving but I know that it will make a huge difference in how we operate.  A place for everything and everything in it's place!!  Right??  That's the plan!!!  And it's finally coming together!!!!!