God's Goodness

I want to take some time to give God the glory for blessing my business the way that He has! I was at Navarre's First United Methodist Church yesterday and sold well above my expectations! It was my third highest craft show of the past year. When I think back over the last six weeks, I wonder how I managed to get up by 6:00 a.m. on each Saturday morning and head out the door to a show and still have the energy to make candles two to three nights a week, stay faithful to church, work full time at school, and not be a total grouch. All I can say is it is because of God's goodness and faithfulness to me! I also have to take time to throw some flowers Lee's way. I could not do this without him supporting me 100% and being there with me during the shows. He jokes and says he is shipping, delivery, and inventory control. He has nothing to do with making the candles or doing the bookkeeping for the business, but I could not do this on my own. We have our little system, and we've learned what works best, and it just gets better and better. We have a good time together, even in the crazy times when there are three to four customers at the table at once trying to hand us money and candles. Because of my background in accounting and type A personality, we have numbered all of our candles, and they are on a spreadsheet. We print this for each show, and as we sell them, we take the sticker off (inventory number) and track each customer's sales. When it slows down, Lee highlights the candles on the list that have sold. This keeps us straight because we always know what is available or not, and if we need to sell the candle that is on the table. This can get a little crazy because of the rushes. One weekend I felt terrible because one lady wanted a certain scent but wanted to buy three candles and kept trying to decide. While she was deciding, another lady came up and picked up one that she wanted, and it was the only one we had left in that scent & size. Yesterday, a lady wanted to know if I had a smaller candle in the Christmas Cheer, and the same thing happened. According to the inventory list, we had one left and looked all over the table for it. Another customer was standing there with the candle in her hand while trying to help us find the candle the lady wanted.....ooops... Oh well, we have a good time and am thankful that on most weekends we do sell out of certain scents. I enjoy meeting new people too and explaining the benefits of using soy candles, but I do admit I feel like just tape recording myself, so I can hit play when customers come up toward the end of the day.

I was hoping to take a week off, but since my sales were really good I have to work this coming week again. Please don't think I'm complaining, I am very excited! Lee & I are taking our much needed vacation to Gatlinburg, TN next Friday through Tuesday (21st-25th). I can't wait!

My next show is Hometown Christmas in DeFuniak Springs right after Thanksgiving. I'm looking forward to it and hope that I get some repeat customers that bought candles from me last year. Sales in the stores have picked up also, so I have to keep up with those too. Thats all the news for now.



Deanna