Hi @annfurnivall —   

I TRY (but am not always successful) to spend a lot more time with family.   

That said, December is a very valuable month, perhaps the most important one of each year for marketing.  You can find out what people are searching for, what they are purchasing, and how many more folks shopped online as it relates to the previous year. The “demographics” of December can set the tone for the whole coming year.  Of course you don’t get those numbers until the end of the month so it actually helps me to spend more time with family.  

January is the time I decide (for real) what new direction to take for the year, after the December reports are in, analyzed and the blogging world has taken stock of what they think is important.  My “new direction” is often not what people would think it might be as my business is one of services and not products. 

It snowed here last night!  I’m so glad I am an early Christmas shopper!  I’ve been done with the shopping but still need to wrap a few presents.  Also am knitting some winter hats for family but have a whole five days left to finish those. I’m a quick knitter though so will have no problem finishing.

I’m in Kansas and last week it was short sleeved shirts during the daytime, the warmest winter in recent history.  Now, today, snow – how is the weather in Indiana?

Eileen 

@annfurnivall  

I finally got all mine wrapped last night – now on to knitting hats!   

I’d love to be you for one day so I could peruse antiques and goods just for FUN (not work).

I saw the items from Turkey – were the pots all you had shipped?

Eileen 

HI @annfurnivall   

I worked for an international company in two capacities – Engineering asst. and managing a warehousing mail-order company called “CPU Products” (an off-shoot of the surface mount industry) for some years. CPU Products were a competitor for “Black Box” (if you know who that is, they develop networking devices and cables, which is what we did at CPU also, plus more computer related products.)  

At any rate, I worked with a lady – Julie Wong – in China.  We worked solely by Fax and the occasional phone call.  It was a real hoot as she understood and spoke very broken English – I would fax her small drawings of new cable configurations with a quantity number and that she understood so long as we did not change the format of the faxes.  Anything other than cables and connectors we had to talk about.  THAT was a challenge as we were very hard pressed  to understand each other in our conversations if we strayed from the business at hand.  

We received all our goods by ocean voyage and then by trucking them to Kansas from California.  Believe it or not, we could pay all that transport and still beat competitors prices.  Cables and connectors cost pennies to produce and sometime the transport cost more than the goods themselves. Walter (the traveler who found our connections in China) always tried to make sure we were dealing not with sweat shops and such, but even at that, you never truly know -you know?  Working conditions there can be horrendous but to them, those jobs are good ones compared to some of the alternatives. 

Anyhowsen, I completely understand your problem with communications, I was certainly in the same boat at one time!

Eileen 

@rich-brooks good luck….  many  folks need  marketing help, thats for sure…i wish we  could all see it and follow  your   journey…

..we have had to  change with the times a lot…and  hated to  give up some parts when the market moved….  …flwxible is   good…

@atlantarobin…thanks  robin….my shipment  is kind of     scary…. and a bit late…a stormy sea  supposedly… i have so many  plans  rignt now i cant stand it….im  trying  for more wholesale this  year,  more  this  more that…im  making lists like mad….   our  year  has  been the  best ever…. so many  elusive  things[not  relevenat here ori would   be asking for sure!!!]…..and i  have so many ways to look at our numbers, months and  categories…….  and hardest of all trying to  get my  head into the  minds of our main  customers….   40 yr old  women…lol….the next hardest is  trying to  keep  the   tekk  parts  going   right….  like learning how to  find  files  .or  slightly unifying  all the parts….

you  sound like you have to make a main plan  where i  can   make   10 plans and  be happy if   8  turn out   right….  we are kind of  big and messy…

i think  business  will be up  this year…im  hearing so many good  reports   from  real estate to  vendors…and im in  a pretty depressed  area,,,indiana…. so  lets hope!!!