New Year. New Decade.

My how time goes by. My last post seems ages ago. I guess in blogging time it really was ages ago. 3 weeks? Well, our "warehouse sale" was a success first a first time event. We were able to clear out some of our discontinued items and I even sold some of my "human" jewelry as well. (I now also am addicted to a new hobby of jewelry which is turning in to a business). The rest of the month was a mad dash to Christmas with all of the internet orders.Something is wrong with our postal system though.

We have had at least a dozen packages lost in to thin air. We package ID tag orders in over-sized envelopes and ship as Parcel. We have been doing so for a year now and no incidents. In the last 2 weeks? A dozen lost packages. A dozen lost orders. A dozen angry customers! It is out of our hands and we made new tags and shipped but customers without Christmas gifts are not happy. I went to our local Post Office with copies of online receipts. Not sure what they can do but hopefully reimburse me the value of invoices. I understand the holiday rush but to loose that many packages of ours in 2 weeks? Oh well. These are small nuisances. It is behind me now. A new year is here. Oh my, a new decade is here.

Business has been picking up and I believe this will be a great year. I have imagined quite a few lofty goals for this business, my new jewelry business and personally. All is good. All will be good. Happy New Year.

Open to the Public

Well, for the first time ever we are having a "Holiday Warehouse Sale", Open to the Public this Wed. We will host this in our warehouse space. We have posted flyers in our Georgetown neighborhood and of course used mass emails and Facebook to get the word out.  We will have a sale on close-out items and offer wholesale prices to the regular public for one day only. I have no idea how many people will show up!

Perhaps this can be an annual event. It is a nice excuse to bring out the Christmas decorations for the office! I will let you know how it goes. Better yet, you should come!

Stay tuned.

Christmas Pet Accessories

Let's admit it. We love to spoil our pets. So why should the holidays be any different? There will be stockings and gifts with Fido or Kittie's name on it under the tree. Our pets will get treats, toys and accessories.

We also have some adorable Holiday/Christmas pet id tags that will liven up their collars. Santas, Snowmen and snowflakes. So cute! Personalize the back with address and phone number.

How about Christmas collars that have holiday colors of red and metallics?

As of this morning, (I barley had the patience to wait until after Thanksgiving) my Pal Kozmo is sporting his metallic, Christmas collar and holiday pet id tag.

New Dog Collar Designs

They are here! Our new exclusive designs in dog collars and harnesses. Took some time to have ribbons made and shipped here. Our sewers in Seattle are working hard to get collars, etc sewn to get out to the stores.

As you can see this pattern of skulls have matching pet id tags. The stores have loved our new designs. Let's hope this is a prosperous fall season!

Website Building

I am not sure how many of you out there run your own website but I do know that it is a lot of work! We now have 2 websites, one for retail sales www.petelegance.com and one for our wholesale customers, www.petelegancewholesale.com . Both have different hosts. The first I built on my own through www.store.yahoo.com. Yahoo has an easy template to follow that includes a shopping cart. My only complaint is that the cart can not do multiple items and prices at once. For instance, I have a dog collar in 3 sizes, each a different price. It won't let me have one listing for that. I have to list each size and price separately. Pain! And looks cluttered. The "wholesale" site is through Network Solutions.

Network Solutions is able to do these shopping cart features. A very sophisticated site and still pretty easy to fill in the blanks. My complaint of this host is that their templates are quite boring. I do not have skills to design and build my own so I have to stick with what they offer if I want to stay on budget. But I will say that I feel proud I was able to even build these! It takes many hours of data input and photos and some design. Now I just need more hours of the day to keep updating them!

Manufacturing

I am having a tough time convincing our sewing contractors to make our eco dog toys. See, the sewers want to sew. The toys have no sewing involved. There is fabric and cutting and tying. That is it. So I am trying to convince them in this slow market it is a great project! "Ha", they tell me. Too fine of detailed cutting so they can't use there bulk cutting tools. Have to do each one individually. Which of course for me means more expensive labor costs. So do I go out and search again for another contractor?

It is SOOOO difficult to find quality companies. The 2 contractors I use have great quality work. But they sew, not tie. "Sigh". I am giving each contractor some samples to make and I will find out if they want to pursue it or not. Gee, I hope so.

Business is booming. Really?

So this week seems to be my observation week of the economy. I was in my neighborhood pet boutique this morning where I buy Kozmo's food and they carry my product. I asked how business was in general. He said that this year is flat. Not up, not down. He felt that was good. I also spoke with another boutique owner not too far from him and she is struggling. So how is it that NPR had a story saying the pet industry is booming?

Well I took a closer look at these 2 store's situations. One is in a new development surrounded by condos and a fancy grocery store and hotel. But it is not an area that locals would come and walk around. It is a destination spot for groceries. If you are a hotel customer you will walk around and shop but that is it. The other store is also in a new neighborhood development. Has lots of great little shops around and new apartments. Both are considered in chic urban neighborhoods. Well where all of the customers? The boutiques are as they should be. High end, adorable products to spoil your pet any way you want. But maybe that is the problem right now? The market is different. People are still spoiling their pets but maybe not with items quite so expensive. So who is selling well?

I think the boutiques that are small chains with a broader range of product lines are doing well. I also feel you may need to cater to the "other pets"; birds, small animals, etc. Or perhaps you need to be in a higher income neighborhood? A touristy neighborhood? Someone is spending the money to get the statistics to where they are.

Well, I just bought my $65 bag of dog food this morning. Of course, Kozmo only gets the best. Perhaps those like me are keeping this thing alive!