Sittin' on the sofa, Eating Bon-Bons... Yep.... that describes us!

Sitting on the sofa, petting our kitties and eating bonbons.. Yep, that’s what some people imagine that we do simply because our retail store is only open three times each week. Yes, you might know Quilted Twins as an amazing blog, or a fabulous website that operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, but lots of people walk into the store each week and assume that we’re simply lazy because we’re only open three times per week. During those 3 times, it’s not even all day.

Pettin’ our kitties, sitting on the sofa and eating bon-bons.. just a figment of someone’s imagination!

Harumph. Not so. Quite the opposite, in fact.

By only being open to the public during such short periods of time, we’re able to staff adequate help so that we can take care of the customers that walk in the door in a timely manner. (And we can keep our prices ridiculously low!)

Mainly, however, we simply would not have enough time to do the things that we have to do.

During those off-times, we don’t sit around, lie on the sofa, pet our kitties and eat bon-bons.

In fact, I thought I’d talk about and show you some of the things that we do during our “store is closed” times.

1)      Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings are our biggest on-line order filling times. If you place an order on the internet, and need it fast, the best thing to do is to order in the wee hours of one of those 3 mornings. We get in, and first thing we do is print orders. We may never get back to it that day, because we might already be swamped. But, we will print when we come in and usually we go until those are done. When the orders are finished, I take them to the back door of the post office and leave it like this:

Here’s a good day’s mail heading to Tampa soon to be processed.

2)      Once the kiddos leave, then I will sometimes work on making packs. This sometimes means locating fabrics that all work together. Sometimes it just means spreading them out on the table and cutting them, folding them and bagging them. Boy, those 4 things just rolled off my tongue like as though it were the simplest thing in the world. However, this does take time. A lot of time, in fact. Frankly, most of the time, I have from 5 to 10 packs “in the works” just as you have quilts “in the works.” Not that I get bored of them, but I must stop and work on orders, answer the phone, and so forth.

Making packs takes up a good deal of time when not open.

3)      Fabrics must be photographed. Sometimes I do that. Sometimes others do that, but it is always done on “down time.”

4)      Fabrics must be put up on the site. This means it must be quiet. We need to “get it right.” When we do that we must mark the fabric bolts correctly (with Sharpies), determine what color group they are, figure out their name, designer, and what category we must put them in.

5)      Then, when we have added 8 or 9 fabrics, we put them in tubs. When we have tubs full, I photograph the tub as a unit to use for publicity reasons.

6)      We must put the photographed and cataloged fabrics on the shelves in their proper places. So, if it’s a Green—125, it must go on the shelf beside Green—124. It’s hard to shelve fabrics when customers are there, but if we don’t get it done before they get here, then we do try to do it before the store gets super busy.

7)      I must order fabrics. This means delving into the world of emails and sales reps. Sales reps can take from 2 to 8 hours to meet with. They must be met on off times. I’ve never been able to deal with a sales rep and talk to a customer yet. If I can, now, I attempt to deal with their offerings through emails. It’s about 100x faster, and just as fulfilling for me. In fact, for me it’s much better all the way around. There’s less pressure, and I can think about it, and then hit “send.” When the rep is standing there, I feel guilty for not buying, and end up paying too much and buying more than I want.

8)      We unload pallets of fabrics and open boxes from suppliers. We label them, and add them to the website if they already exist. If they are not already on the site, then scroll up to #3 and we start there and work our way down. Taking fabrics out of boxes and off pallets does not make those disappear. So, after that is done, we must break down boxes, move pallets, and make them all go away by loading onto vehicles and recycling. This must all be done during down time (when not walking around customers.)

9)      When not working with fabrics, I’m working with the store. Someone must clean the bathrooms, wash out the sinks, clean the toilets and empty the trash. We do that.

10)  Someone must take the trash out to the dumpster. We do that.

11)  We print up order forms and put away tape guns, mail tubs and other mail order paraphernalia, when prepping for the store to be open.

12)  We must vacuum regularly. It’s one of those thankless tasks that I find myself doing, even though I’d rather be doing almost anything else. Circular tasks drive me nuts, and there’s almost nothing more circular than vacuuming a floor.

13)  We have to do record keeping for taxes and for our own information. We count money. Go to the bank, make deposits and write checks. All of this is done during “down time.” I also “write paychecks” and “do payroll.” I pay the sales tax after figuring that each month to the State of Florida. All of this must be done when NOT working with the public. It’s some of those behind the scenes things that I do.

14)  I have to order flat rate mailers, plastic bags, buy plastic trays as well as Sharpies and pens. Some I can do online and it gets delivered quickly and easily. Other things I must run to the store to buy. All the time, I must be aware of whether we’re about to run out of labels that go on the packs, or address labels that go on the outside of the package that gets mailed. “Will we be needing more sooner? Or “later?” I must always be cognizant of which fabrics must be re-ordered and do that. Because we do not have an unlimited amount of money, I can’t just buy 100,000 labels and be done with it for next 3 years.

These wonderful plastic trays have become a valuable part of our store. We put filled orders in them. We put walk-in customers’ orders in them so they can carry their order to the register. We put panels in them. We love, love them!

15)  Then, I have to call customers if their fabric orders get messed up in some way (seams in the wrong spots, we misplace or oversell a fabric, or we simply can’t find one.)

16)  I issue refunds and make labels for the online orders.

17)  I call the customers who place special orders when their fabrics come in.

18)  We print up thank you notes and cut them with a guillotine cutter for inserting into the orders.

19)  We post to Facebook and answer FB messages.

20) I make up the signage for the store.

21)  And, lastly, (but not least) of course, I write emails. Email after email after email after email…. I’m like one constant email.. But, it’s a ton of fun and I get to share our beautiful fabrics with you.. Oh, yes, we DREAM of sewing and stitching and making beautiful things, but none of us has even time to seriously plan anything. Why? Well, start back at the top and read the list again! That’s why, my dears! But we love it.. at least most of it!

So, you get the picture, right? There’s really no bonbons and sitting on the sofa petting my cat. That’s just a mirage.. .All a mirage…. But it’s a fun one…and sometimes we laugh while we’re running tape across a box… and mutter, “Yes, we’re just sitting around, eating bonbons.” Then someone pipes up? “What’s a bonbon?”

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Be sure to check out what we have for you in the store!

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