Category: Business/Career

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A Gift From Spain

Look what came in the mail for me !  woohoo!  a gift from my ex-boss wife – Manuela.  Yup! I did some translation work for their daughter who was in Shanghai working and needed some immigration papers done quickly.  So when they emailed me the documents, I had done the translation work for her so that she can get it notarized and all but I had refused any money from them.  So today, this came from Fedex and I was really touched because you and I know that a Hermes is not cheap but I don’t know when I will have a chance to wear it because unlike many years ago, I needed to attend company’s functions and cocktails, now I mostly go help out at the store or work on my online work and look after Chloe.  Maybe, when I go on vacation eh – haha!  when PB finds time to bring us for a short break, I tell you that man is a real workaholic!  *sigh* !  oh well!  Thank you, Mr Hernandez and Manuela!

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Drummer Girl

For those of you who knows that we do carry some musical instruments at our store now, you will also noticed that Chloe loves the drum set so much that she wants to learn how to play the drum besides playing the piano.  After much persuasion, we’ve decided that she can take up playing the drum as well.  But first we have to buy drum cases for electronic drums at musician’s friend  , so that she can carry her kid’s drum set to and fro to her teacher’s house.  You see, she prefers to practice using her own drum set, which is perfectly understandable for her age, so the drum cases would come in handy not only for Chloe but for those who have kids and taking lessons or those musicians who wants to transport their drums to wherever they are playing their drums.  It’s a win-win situation for us, now we will have drum cases to offer our own customers as well.

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Growing Money

Of late I haven’t been saving a lot of money because I had been helping a friend for over a year now.  And I really don’t mind helping my friend but one have to think of the lil’ brat’s future too right?  so the spouse said to me the other day – so I’ve decided that I should do right by the kid again and grow some money for her.  So I hear you asking – how can one grow money?  you can by saving a little here and there and not eating out so much and buying things that you don’t need or going on vacation when you don’t need to. This is how I do it – by buying a little gold at a time – when I have some money to spare –  so how to buy gold  i hear you asking?  You can do what I do – buy them online and save them up and every ounce of gold that you buy or even gold coins is a bit of saving for your kids.

How else can you save money?  you can squirrel them away into a savings account – or you can buy shares but of course those are a lot riskier and I wouldn’t want to lose any money because I’m a sore loser.  So I prefer to buy gold or silver because for centuries my great – grandparents had been doing that.  Saving up is a very satisfying thing let me tell you and securing your children’s future is a must for all parents.  Don’t need to wait till they are older – do it right now – like we do since Chloe was born.

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Bed Hunting

I went bed hunting with my girlfriend today because her ex- mother-in-law wanted to get back the bed frame that she is currently using.  Yes, even though she knows that it is her son’s fault that she is losing everything, this ex-MIL wants to get as much things outta her as possible – yet, she still thinks that her ex- MIL and her ex-in laws are good people.  *slap forehead*.

Anyhow, we didn’t find the right bed for her nor frame, so in the end we decided to save money, she can buy the headboard and she can use our double bed that we have spare in our basement for now. I love my g/f like a sister and if I can I wanna help as much as possible.  But she really do need to be stronger and take a stand for herself but how do you teach someone to be a B.I.T.C.H.

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TV In The Kitchen

We all loved out TV shows especially the little brat and in order to make everyone sit down at the same time to have their supper, I’ve decided to go browse around for  standandmounts tv stands.  I also want to put in the kitchen/dining room – a LED TV, that way everyone would love to come have supper at my place.  At the moment, we just bring all our food to the basement and sit on the couch and watch tv, therefore, enough is enough, everyone needs to eat together at least one meal a day.

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Quarterly HST Remittance

 It’s that time of the year again where we have to remit our quarterly HST to the government and the last quarter the HST that we’ve collected is closed to $6500.  How do we know?  with a  reporting engine  that we use at the store for calculating sales and the intakes of the store, it shows us exactly where and what products are selling good and where our remittance should be.  When you own your own business, you have to find reliable software to help with the running of the business.  Fiances are kept closely watched because of this software and we get to know exactly how our sales and our receivables are at.  We don’t like giving more or less to the government, therefore investing in a good reporting software was the best thing we could have done for the store.  Sure there are more improvement to be made in the store and for the store but we feel that this is one of the most important because when we do need to finance our other business venture, this software will help us with the bank as well.

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Planning For A New Business

PB and I had our brains picked about a month ago and came up with a new business idea for downtown.  We figured if any kind of store would do well – in downtown – it would have to be a dollar store.  After much brainstorming and looking at our finances, we figured nothing venture nothing gain – so yes, we will be opening a dollar store in downtown.  But first to look for some  Gondola Shelves because we need to get something that are cheap and sturdy as well as reliable and allows us to stack as many things as possible in small spaces.  We need shelf displayer, hooks, racks and many other things to set up shop, so wish us good luck for next year – we are hoping to get the dollar store up and running by early next year.

This is all very exciting for us because it’s a totally new business to us but I know we can make it work and it would only means that I will have more responsibilities but this time I have help from family and closed friends. I’m pretty happy about it – now if we can get funding instead of having to use our own money – that would be perfect.

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Entrepreneurship 101

Folks always think that our business became successful overnight but little do they know all the trials and errors we’ve gone thru’ before we are where we are today.  But even today, we don’t splurge and spend frivolously on ourselves nor the store. Of course, we get what we need but if we can save on anything we would.  When it comes to buying stuff or doing things for both home and the store, PB is the one that is good with the money.  We do all our  business cards with an  online business card printing place and still do now and if there is one advice we can give to anyone is to start small and save wherever and whenever you can.  Don’t need to use big companies for your printings or anything unless absolutely necessary. I know of many young entrepreneurs who would buy the most expensive stationary or print the most expensive business cards from big company only to end up in debt or closing its shop in less than 6 months.  Our business card is plain and simple and it serves it purpose and we are still doing alright with it.

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A Wood Stove Finally!

Yes, we finally got the wood stove in and will be installed within a few days.  We have been trying to get someone to install the wood stove since summer when the basement was done – but Home Hardware don’t seems to want us business – since they didn’t really managed to send someone to come install it.  We finally went to Pleasant Supply instead. and they came thru’ for us and we will be getting the stove installed soon.  And ppl complained that they can’t find work in this town – now that’s bullshit!

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Buying For Christmas

We started early this year buying for Christmas and I remembered about the craft show at the hotel in town this year.  In fact, we went there to view and buy the 2 days the vendors were there.  Unfortunately, the favorite vendor that I was set to buy and spend money with and on – didn’t show up this year.  That was really a bummer!  I wanted to get the Grinch but Chloe was scared of it – so in the end I got a penguin.  They were all priced reasonably and I really loved to support our local vendors if possible.

This year’s Christmas – I decided that I would buy whatever I want – afterall, you only lived for so long – why not make yourself happy right?  I’m just glad that we don’t have to worry about money anymore – Thank God!  and in fact, we are able to help others with what we have – and I intend on doing it often – help others.