Thursday, July 31, 2008

Inflation Rant

I was just reading this http://www.squidoo.com/OffshoreOilDrilling and it got me to thinking...


The gas prices are gone crazy, but it isn't the gas prices themselves that are the big problem. The price of gas has caused everything else to skyrocket.

I mean something really has to be done. Last December I was paying $7.89 for 50lbs of corn for my chickens, and last week I paid $16.39 for 50lbs. Last summer milk was under $3 a gallon. This summer I stopped buying milk after it went over $5.50 a gallon. Last sumer oranges were 10 for a dollar, this summer they are $1.25 per orange! Pomergrants were .99c last year, they are $3.99 this year. Why? Because of the trucking shortage. Truckers can't afford gas to ship food to the stores, stores are raising prices because their shelves are not being restocked.

Did you know that in December it cost me $30 a month to buy catfood, and now just 6 months later it cost me $90 per month for the same amount of catfood! That's triple the about in less than 6 months!

It was on the news last night that the food prices have gone up so much that people can no longer afford to pay their daily bills. They said there are home for closers at a rate of 8,000 per day, as a result, and they expect that number to rise over the next 2 months.... that's more for closers per day than we saw in the 1920's, which says to me that if something isn't done, and done soon, we are going to be hit with a second great depression and it'll make the last one look like a pleasant daydream.

I do question however, the fact that Texas and Alaska are already drilling enough oil for the country and yet we are not using it, because we are sending it overseas. Seems to me like it'd save a lot of money and bring gas prices back down under $2 a gallon.

Another thing, Canada produces just as much oil as Iraq... why don't we buy it from Canada?

Another thing... did you know that 78% of the money we pay for gas prices if tax? It is not the actual oil price that is cause the gas prices to go up as much as it is the sky rocketing taxes that the gov is adding on top of the base price of oil. There should be a cap on how much taxes they can charge for gas. I am so sick of the government lately.

The gov needs to start using the oil from our own country instead of buying overseas, AND they need to cut the gas tax.







Work From Home, Is It Possible?
The Goldeneagle
How to Start a Publishing Company
Self-Publish vs Vanity Press vs Traditional Publisher


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All donations to Star Log go either to The Rabbit Hole Fund and/or The Pidgie Fund. The Rabbit Hole Fund is raising money to start a small retail clothen shop, while The Pidgie Fund buys food for pets in Southern Maine.







Monday, July 21, 2008

Customer Service

Does anybody care about it any more??

Business folks like you and me care, sadly most sellers on eBay are not business folks, but rather someone selling stuff they found in their attic, because it's easier to sell it on eBay rather than host a yard-sale.

I do not sell on eBay, buyer only, but off eBay I am in costumer service as well: 7 years as a door to door salesman, and than since than in doors as a sale associate. Retail sales repping is "my thing". I love doing it. I was a door-to-door sales rep for 7 years, loved it to pieces, quit due to family emergency, but I may take it up again, because I loved that job so much. Since than I got another job temping as a sale associate for a department store. Like my first job, my second one involved pitching sales and getting costumers to buy. All in all I've got 10 years experience pitching sales and I love doing it. My job is to find out what customers want and keep costumers happy, because that is the job I enjoy doing the most of all.

I pride myself in my ability to keep costumers happy... though my manager does not like the fact that that sometimes means I send them to another store! o.0 I love what I do, sadly, as you pointed out, costumer service is for the most part a thing of the past. The other girls I work with are all fresh out of high school or college and they are working retail "until something better comes along"... these girls come and go a dime a dozen and worst of all, they could not care less about the costumers.

They rarely smile, they do not engage the costumer in conversation, they never fold the cloths before putting them in the bag, they never wrap fancy prom gowns in tissue paper and pack them in boxes, they never leave the cash register to help a costumer try on a dress in the fitting room, and twice I've seen girls actually tell costumers to leave because they did not like the costumer!!! (a cross dresser, each time... which the store has a no discrimination policy and it says right in it that we can not discriminate against trans gendered folks... hey, we sell fancy dress items, the cross dressers are going to shop here! the sales girls need to get used to it or get a new job!)

In my experience it is the young people that are the trouble... they do not care about the costumer, they hate their job, they take out their hatred for their job on the costumer, they feel like they are in a rut, costumer service suffers because they refuse to respect their job and take it seriously. They act like spoiled brat punks instead of professional business men and women.

On eBay, the lacking in business professionalism is worse, because the seller can sell underwear in their underwear and it's that casual aspect of eBay selling that causes sellers to not think they are business professionals. Sad but true.

Work From Home, Is It Possible?
The Goldeneagle
How to Start a Publishing Company
Self-Publish vs Vanity Press vs Traditional Publisher


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All donations to Star Log go either to The Rabbit Hole Fund and/or The Pidgie Fund. The Rabbit Hole Fund is raising money to start a small retail clothen shop, while The Pidgie Fund buys food for pets in Southern Maine.







Saturday, June 7, 2008

More Info On My Business Plans

I was just posting a comment on some one else's blog and it got so long that I'm copying it to here:


I have been mulling a similar idea of my own... I even had a blog I started just for randomly posting my "start my business" ideas on, so I could see them on screen and sort out what I did and did not want to do. I think I made like 5 posts on that blog and than never went back! LOL! I need to go back and throw some more ideas around.

Well, I got my own "business" to the point where I had written up a basic business plan, not very detailed though, I need to rewrite it. And I have a portfolio of my designs that I want to do. Plus I have the business name all set up and a logo. But that's as far as I got.

What stopped me? Well, money for one. I had originally planned on opening a shop and selling direct to the public, but that was going to require a minimum of $200,000 because rent for a store is so high and they required a 3 year payment up front! So I temp. changed my idea from a store selling costumes and patterns to just selling patterns online, at least until I had enough money to do the store thing.

My next problem, was I had no idea how to get my patterns printed up so I could sell them! I checked with local print shops, but none of them did this sort of thing, and I couldn't find any online either. So I was sunk for a while and have not yet found a way to do this. :(

Well, lets see what I can answer of your questions:

My proposal:
- Patterns would be in english and french.


great!

- They could be printed as booklets, because the papers never want to go back in the envelopes anyway.


ugh! fighting with paper vs envelope is such a nightmare! I like the booklet idea

- The steps would have to be clearly explained and illustrated.


always good... I often find illustrations easier to understand than the instructions, so the more illustrations the better, I say

What I still don't know:
- Should they be basic designs to be modified by the user, or artsy personal designs?


maybe you could have a line for each? one line of simple "create your own style" patterns, and a second line with the designer originals created by you?

when I'm using a pattern I never stick with the pattern no matter how simple or hoe fancy it may be, cause I like to add my own personal touches to everything.

- Should I focus on styles that are not usually represented by major pattern brands (gothic, lolita, punk, etc.)?


YES! YES! YES! OMG! It is sooooo hard to find patterns for these styles. It's the lack of patterns for these style that resulted in me making my own patterns in the first place! With the "business" I was planning my goal was to design patterns for Gothic, Lolita, and CosPlay because those are the patterns I end up designing because no one sells them.

- Should I include a few costumes as well? Historical or fantasy (or else)?


It can't hurt. The more the merrier I say. For me, my focus would be largely costume and fantasy, because I planned the patterns I wanted to sell to be aimed mostly for CosPlayers and LARPers and SCAdians, all of whom are into the whom fantasy costume thing, so those were the target audience I was aiming for.

And most important: do I have any chance of selling any? I'm aware that I do not have any example of my apparel work on the net, but do you think the concept could work?


I think it would work (otherwise I wouldn't be planning to do the same thing! LOL!) I think there are enough folks out there who can't find goth type patterns who would love to buy them once you had them listed for sale.





Work From Home, Is It Possible?
The Goldeneagle
How to Start a Publishing Company
Self-Publish vs Vanity Press vs Traditional Publisher


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All donations to Star Log go to The Rabbit Hole Fund. The Pidgie Fund buys food for pets in Southern Maine.







Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Should You Sell Your Zazzle and CafePress products on Squidoo?

I'm an artist. I do watercolors, acrylics, pastles, crayons, colored pencil, felt-tip marker, and pen & ink drawings and paintings. Most of my art is of my pets both past and present: dogs, cats, roosters, birds, pony, fish, etc.

In addition to art I also do photography: my pets and my flower garden, and the beach mostly.

I've been doing this for over 25 years, so I have a huge collection of art and photos now, and it has always been my goal to sell my own art, but I also wanted to keep the originals. CafePress and Zazzle allow me to do that.

I've been on CafePress and Zazzle since 2004, and Prinfection about 8 months, and Squidoo 10 months. I have over 150 "free" shop on CafePress and one "premium" shop, plus 3 Zazzle galleries, for a grand total of more than 5,000 products for sale.

This ( http://www.squidoo.com/coppercockeral ) was my very first lens here on Squidoo. Since than I have created more than 200 other lenses and of those more than 30 of them totally devoted to my shops; here are examples of a couple of them:

http://www.squidoo.com/PediatricsTie
http://www.squidoo.com/Custom-Designed-Postage-Stamps
http://www.squidoo.com/Copper-Cockeral-Cards-and-Gifts-Our-Cats-and-Kittens-Line
http://www.squidoo.com/Copper-Cockeral-Cards-and-Gifts-Our-Rooster-Line


You can use them to get ideas for setting up some Squidoo Lenses about your own products.


In addition to lenses totally devoted to my shops, I also add modules selling my products, onto lenses that are of a related topic: say the topic is dogs, I add products featureing my dog paintings, for example).

Before Squidoo, I was earning between $20 - $70 per year from each CafePress and Zazzle. After I started creating Squidoo lenses featuring my products, my sales jumped, and now I'm earning $20 - $150 per month from each place. :) :) :)

So far I haven't sold a single item off Printfection though. :(


Squidoo has really boosted my CafePress and Zazzle sales, and I'd recomend anyone who has either a CafePress or Zazzle shop, to get on Squidoo and start making lenses about your products, because it really does work!

I have so much fun putting my art on CafePress and Zazzle and than putting those items on Squidoo, that when MonkeyBrain came out the first debate I started was this: http://www.squidoo.com/zazzlevscafepress

I love Zazzle and CafePress and Squidoo. I guess I don't have to tell you that they are my 3 fave sites and I spend more time on them than anyplace else on the Internet!




What's your take on this? I'd love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!




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Copper Cockeral
Publishing Your NaNo Novel?
Do You and I Read the Same Books?
*I Love Phookas!*
Copper Cockeral Cards & Gifts
Custom Designed Postage Stamps
Gifts for Peacock Lovers
Framed Art for Childrens Rooms
Best Gifts for Cat Lovers
Best Gifts for Dog Lovers
Best Sci-Fi Video Showcase
Zazzle vs CafePress


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Blingo


Work From Home, Is It Possible?
The Goldeneagle
How to Start a Publishing Company
Self-Publish vs Vanity Press vs Traditional Publisher


Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape

All donations to Star Log go either to The Rabbit Hole Fund and/or The Pidgie Fund. The Rabbit Hole Fund is raising money to start a small retail clothen shop, while The Pidgie Fund buys food for pets in Southern Maine.







Friday, January 4, 2008

Stamps

I've taken to designing US postage stamps. Here's a few of them:

http://www.squidoo.com/Custom-Designed-Postage-Stamps

Blackbird Oct 2004 stamp

Singing Rooster on Black, The Pidgie Fund stamp.The Bemen Town Musicians-staring-Spot,Utopia,Junio stamp.Pastle Rooster by Wendy C. Allen, I Love Roosters! stamp.Cool Cool Rooster by Wendy C. Allen stamp.Cool Cool Rooster by Wendy C. Allen stamp.

Country Rooster jewel tone by Wendy C Allen stamp.Country Rooster art by Wendy C. Allen stamp.Froze the Barred Old English Bantam Rooster stamp.Love my roosters stamp.Cooper Cockeral by EelKat icon stamp.Art Deco Rooster in Color by Wendy C. Allen stamp.Art Deco Rooster in Color by Wendy C. Allen stamp.Pastle Rooster by Wendy C. Allen stamp.Pastle Rooster by Wendy C. Allen stamp.Chup-Chup, Buddy's pet rooster stamp.The Rooster Gang stamp.

Buddy the Cocker Spaniel stamp

Junior, The Pidgie Fund stamp.Buddy on black, I love Cocker Spaniels! stamp.

Buddy the Cocker Spaniel stamp.

Bela Black Cat by Wendy C. Allen stamp

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Party Cat by Wendy C. Allen stamp.Utopia Resting stamp.

Pink Chesie Cat by Wendy C. Allen stamp.Utopia and Goldmine cutout, THE PIDGIE FUND stamp.Rosy Tabby by .Orange Cat by .Band Postage stamp.herbie, The Pidgie Fund, Saving The World One P... stamp.kitten with yellow eyes pink nose, The Pidgie Fund stamp.Green Glow Cheshie by Wendy C. Allen, Green Glo... stamp.Kitten on Bible stamp.Band Postage stamp.Band Postage stamp.

Band Postage stamp

Goldfish turned Beta stamp

Fish Tank stamp.

goldfifh block colored stamp.goldfifh block orange stamp.goldfifh block stamp.goldfifh block colored yellow stamp.

Goldfish stamp.Goldfish stamp.Little Whale Fish on black stamp

Pidgie the Pigeon of The Pidgie Fund stamp

Looking at parrot, The Pidgie Fund stamp.Blue Jay in Maine White Pine by Wendy C. Allen stamp.Cock o the Rock by Wendy C. Allen stamp.happy bird tiled stamp.Buddys Owl stamp.

Happy Bird by Wendy C. Allen stamp.

Sunset Loon by Wendy C. Allen stamp.Baby Cardinal stamp.Band Postage stamp.Band Postage stamp.Band Postage stamp.

Three Flamingos stamp

Flamingo Sunset stamp.Pink Flamingo stamp.Flamingo Love resize blue stamp. Flamingo Love resize blue stamp. Flamingo Love stamp. Flamingo Love stamp. Flamingo Love resize blue stamp. Flamingo Love resize blue stamp. Flamingo Love stamp.

Wading Flamingos stamp.Flamingo Island art by Wendy C. Allen stamp.


Stylized Peacock by Wendy C. Allen stamp

Eyes of India by Wendy C. Allen stamp.

Black Beauty Butterfly by Wendy C. Allen stamp

Pink Moth white stamp.Purple Moth white2 stamp.Band Postage stamp.

Ladybug by Wendy C. Allen 2005 stamp

Big green Bug stamp.

Band Postage stamp.

Astilbe stamp

Band Postage stamp.Pickwick Crocus stamp.White Crocus stamp.Ostrich Ferns stamp.Hosta stamp.Black Eye Susans stamp.Ross Forest Old Orchard Beach Maine stamp.Birdbath Postage stamp.Band Postage stamp.Band Postage stamp.Band Postage stamp.Band Postage stamp.

Band Postage stamp.

Dancing Among the Stars stamp

grey pink dancing aliens blue by Wendy C Allen stamp.

pistolstar stamp.Band Postage stamp.

Cupid Candy stamp

Love by Wendy C. Allen stamp.

heart of gold, Wendy C. Allen 2007 stamp.Band Postage stamp.Band Postage stamp.Band Postage stamp.Band Postage stamp.

Band Postage stamp

Band Postage stamp.Band Postage stamp.

halloween card 3 bright stamp

halloween card 2 bright stamp. halloween card 6 blue stamp. Halloween Witch on black stamp. Halloween Witch stamp. Halloween Witch stamp. Halloween Witch stamp.

Band Postage stamp.

thanksgiving turkey dressing stamp

HO! HO! HO!, MERRY CHRISTMAS! stamp

Band Postage stamp.

Gothic Skull & Hearts by Wendy C Allen stamp

original design skull postage stamp stamp.

reds painted skull postage stamp stamp.black-red painted skull postage stamp stamp.Band Postage stamp.

coppermetalwave, Coppermetalwave by Wendy C. Allen stamp

water wave xavier yellow stamp.

ying yang swirls on postage stamp stamp

Sunset Palm by Wendy C. Allen stamp.Let's Rock stamp.

Smiling Sun Postage stamp.Band Postage stamp.

Old Orchard Beach, Maine, USA stamp

Band Postage stamp

Band Postage stamp

Band Postage stamp.Band Postage stamp.Band Postage stamp.

Band Postage stamp

Band Postage stamp

Untitled Postage stamp

Fantasy Bird by Wendy C. Allen stamp

SHIVER by Wendy C. Allen stamp




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All donations to Star Log go either to The Rabbit Hole Fund and/or The Pidgie Fund. The Rabbit Hole Fund is raising money to start a small retail clothen shop, while The Pidgie Fund buys food for pets in Southern Maine.







Are You An Angel? Angel Investors Wanted!

Wendy C. Allen a.k.a. EelKat is currently seeking "angel investors" to help fund the start up of a retail store in Portland Maine, in fact that is the whole purpose for the building of this site. Over the next few weeks, I well be adding details on the business plans, long term goals, short term goals, job oppertunity overviews, my personal history, and other such items required for creating a successful business strategy. Information on this project can be found throughout this site, with new information added each week. Keep checking back for full details.

My goal is to raise enough money to get my business started; that means I need to raise enough money to pay for store rent ($36,000 per year x a 3 year lease) plus cost of inventory and utilaties (about $50,000). Overall I need to raise aproximetly $200,000 +/-.

You can help in various ways: Donations via PayPal. Purchaseing my products via CafePress and Zazzle. Clicking the Google Ads on this site. Or visiting my Squidoo sites and clicking the Google Ads there and/or buying the affiliate products on my Squidoo lenses. Every little bit helps. Just think: If 200,000 people each gave just $1 that would equal my goal! Can you spare one dollar? (Or more?) If so please be an angle and help invest in getting my shop open.