It is incredible that September arrived and is fast running out ! Time seems to be running circles around me and I did not accomplish much of what I wanted to this year or this summer. In a perfect world it would be because I've been fooling around, however that is not the case (as usual) but working my tail off doing one thing or another than what I consider important work or what I wished to accomplish. Ever since the 12th I've been run off my feet with perhaps the biggest fiasco of my life. I think I heard someone say, "Have fun" and it was all down hill from that point.
The weekend before last was my third round of an ongoing garage/moving sale started on the first weekend of this month. Escalating a garage sale to every weekend since the beginning of the month was not my intention at all but my persistence got some notice if nothing else. Regardless of what I called it- Moving Sale, Yard Sale, Estate Sale or Garage sale- every bit of what I put in it has to go- one way or another. Originally I wanted to do the sale on July fourth ! Why didn't it happen then? Well, for one thing, I cannot seem to light a fire under anybody to volunteer to help me out for anything except for my 80+ year old Dad who managed to mow the lawn one time this summer. I couldn't get my nephew to put four nails in a wall so I could put up shelving in one of my two bathrooms!
As a result of the longest running sale in the history of garage sales, I have turned my house almost upside down. There's five days of my life I'll never get back. I got a lot of stragglers who bought mostly stuff that's been sitting in the garage for decades! One item was my first bike which I restored about fifteen years ago and I had no intention of selling it but this old guy said he wanted to give one of his grandchildren a bike for Christmas and basically he wouldn't take "no" for an answer. Another was my mother's original sign for her salon which Denver's zoning said was too large for an R2 zone and was replaced with two more signs which were much smaller but also more unique. The logo for the 'keeper' is still on display on my card:
The items I must sell are actually a type of niche market even in the beauty industry. Her stylist chair was also a shampoo chair which was always seated by her shampoo area with several mirrors angled for a complete, one-woman salon station. Throughout the years that I have been a professional manicurist/ nail tech I have periodically worked on the other side of the salon at a desk which I had built to my specifications more than 24 years ago when I started my first storefront nail salon. As a result, I placed many items from her portion of the salon into the sale and when I look at the set-up I can see some person coming along which has a dream of owning his or her own salon. It's all here for someone with a dream and a passion to make women happy and more beautiful. The nicest part is that I can offer it to the right person at a mere fraction of what it would cost in most supply houses which offer such equipment for sale. Not all of them do. The stylist/shampoo chair alone can cost more than a thousand dollars !
In the meantime, my dilemma is whether I will convert the salon exclusively to nails or just close it up and go work somewhere else. Converting the salon would be mostly a simple matter. If I put in a pedicure spa to replace the shampoo bowl that will be the largest expense for the conversion. With the amount of space increased I could add nail techs to the salon but I'm starting to wane on the idea. There would certainly be more business in a high end nail salon. It's a real problem but one that is going to have to come to a real solution soon. Most of the time I feel like I am waiting for someone else to make a move.
I believe I am looking forward to the future because it can only get better and I am ready for a real change. How about you ? See you in October, then...
No comments:
Post a Comment