Our Wake Up Call

year over year change in retail sales, source: census bureau

Looking back is always easy. It’s looking ahead that is tricky when you are a small business that relies on the consumer. But looking back for me is important in assessing what was working and what wasn’t working. 2007 when we purchased our fine hand-crafted glass shop the economy was still strong, though those watching the indicators saw the dominoes shaking in place. Mike and I knew very little about retail and jumped in head first with excitement. We ordered too much and we planned too little. We simply loved selling beautiful art glass, interacting with people and were caught in a high of owning our own business together. Even the beginning of 2008 lulled us down the same path of stocking the shelves, adding artists and not asking what if?

It really took the October 2008 stock market crash to wake us up. That was a good thing actually for us when I look back now. At the time it was devastating. Our comfortable bubble burst. Our savings took the hits of the shattering stock market. Consumers abruptly zippered their wallets and tightened their belts. If we had maintained the same modus operandi at Crescent Moon we surely would not have survived the recessionary period in 2009 and 2010.

Looking back, I can clearly see our weaknesses:

1. Overstocking product – tying up cash
2. Didn’t pay attention to cash flow as closely as we should have
3. No business plan or setting our goals
4. Taking the economy for granted
5. No marketing plan – operating on a hit or miss plan
6. Didn’t understand our client clearly

But we were having fun! Thankfully we both have solid business backgrounds that we could draw from when we finally opened our eyes in the retail reality world.

Looking back, I can clearly see our strengths:

1. Educating ourselves on art glass and techniques of the trade
2. Building solid customer service practices
3. Drawing on our backgrounds in Marketing (me) and Operations (Mike)
4. Attending every free seminar that came our way
5. Willingness to work hard
6. Solid partnership with each other

November 2008 we woke up and put our thinking caps on.

New small business journal started January 10, 2011 - check the archive

A New Year A New Blog

BLOG: Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. taken from Wikipedia 2011.

So I decided Crescent Moon’s blog should become the diary of the small local business, its survival, success, trials and tribulations. Why not, it’s a subject that I’m becoming quite the knowledgeable thinker on. Thinking is a lot of what I do these days to plan for productive days and profitable ways to keep our little glass shop thriving.

I will need to be purposeful with this blog, to help other small businesses by providing informational links and again by offering my thoughts on the challenges of day to day operations and decisions for a Mom & Pop. This could prove to be the best tool I use for myself to work through some tough months ahead.

So… It’s A New Year It’s A New Blog…come along and join me on this online journal.

The Journey Continues

We never know where life’s journey will take us…we’ve all heard that more than one time in our life.

I’ve written before how our journey in the new century left our conventional lifestyle behind and for reasons of necessity we came south from our home state of New Jersey, (yes, another set of Yankees) with roots from Ellis Island, landed by boat in Southport, NC in November of 2005.  That lovely boat was Quiescent. 

There is something about cruising on the water that gets into your bloodstream by way of your heart.  And Quiescent was a part of our love story on the water from 2005-2009.  Maybe it’s because I was born a Pisces with fish as my celestial kinship.  Most likely it’s because I have an adventuresome spirit and a husband that can be my captain and partner in the adventure.  Mind you, boating and living aboard a boat is about as adventuresome as I get.  Not interested in scaling mountains or jumping out of planes.  That is anothers journey, not mine.

Living on Quiescent was truly a journey.  It started with downsizing a house with 6 rooms of furniture and selling or giving ¾ of our possessions away to overcoming my fear of navigating the water as first mate, reading charts, tying off lines in our first “lock”, facing down the first gigantic barge in the C&D canal, and taking the helm of 46ft of fiberglass with twin Cummins 210hp engines when the captain had to jump down to the engine room to fend off some issue or another.  It was personal.

By way of Quiescent we started another leg of our journey with purchasing Crescent Moon.  A chapter that continues, and shapes itself day to day with challenges, and new opportunities. We hauled Quiescent out of the water in 2009 to concentrate on this next chapter and bought a house.  We love our house and we are acquiring possessions once again.  It takes me longer to clean and Mike has a lawn to mow, but it fits for now.  But at night, in bed, I don’t feel the water beneath me gently soothing and slighting rocking me into a nights rest.  I can’t look out any of our windows and chance to see a heron perched to enjoy dinner, or simply enjoy the sound of lapping water against the hull.

So our journey is taking us back to Quiescent, if only for awhile and if only for short cruises.  Quiescent was re-launched this week and is tucked snugly in a beautiful slip at Sawmill Point Marina on the Cape Fear River slightly north of Crescent Moon.  (This is where you imagine hearing me sigh in contentment).  We will take her south a bit to the downtown docks on September 12-13^th and enjoy sitting on the aft deck, inviting friends aboard, meeting new people and capturing a magnificent Carolina sunset.  A short cruise, but I’m sure a sweet one.  The first of a few cruises before Quiescent becomes a part of another couple’s journey when she sells.

So if you are downtown on Sunday the 12^th…