In retrospect, I find myself wondering; what happens to a person's mind once they submit to military training. Don't get me wrong - I totally respect what soldiers do to protect us, but quite frankly, full disclosure: I'm not now, or ever was built for that type of service. I'm too much of a free-thinker (let's not forget willful and stubborn), and will not submit to that type of life. Soldiers are trained to do what they are told. Period. You will NOT tell me when to get up and when to sleep, much less put a gun in my hand, then say "Kill him". In all of my 20 plus years of living and surviving on the streets, I was always conscious of not doing anything that would put me in a situation where I would be arrested and have to spend time in prison, simply because of that fact. I march to my own beat, period. Perhaps that's a character defect, but I digress.
I thought that going into this with Tia was a sure-fire thing, merely because of her military experience. I guess I expected her to be a bit more focused. I'd often ask her about her time in the military, and was in awe of her bravery and marveled at the stories she would tell. But like everybody else, she's human, right? But you know what? FUCK THAT! So let's get back to where I left off.
After closing out the first day at the mall, we were driving back to her house when she hit me with a bombshell. She told me that she was worried about the slow sales day, and she had to unload all of her inventory, post-haste. She was planning to send out an email blast to local vendors announcing that she was willing to unload what she had. She didn't think she could afford the $1500 a month contract she'd signed with the mall. What. The. Fuck.
I told her to first of all, calm down, and stop basing the future on the first day of sales, it was a Monday, after all. Had she done any local promotional events? No. Had she posted anything on local bulletin boards? No. And what the fuck was all of this about a spam email blast? Are we in fucking 2002? Nobody's going to respond to spam email. Now she wants to go into wholesales? I explained to her that she'd opened a business and signed a contract. Now she had to FIGHT for it and most importantly, play it SMART. FOCUS. Breathe. Perhaps she should think about applying for a small business loan in order to cover her bottom line. She thought that would be preposterous. The email blast would work. I couldn't believe my ears. Was she that dense? Evidently, she was not aware of the many grants and programs available for women and minorities starting a business. In a nutshell, she was fucking clueless. I told her to pull back and think. Secondly, the kiosk was set up exactly as it was at expo. I told her this was wrong. They paid tickets for the expo, therefore, you have a captive audience, so to speak. They were there to purchase jewelry. This was a retail mall. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE. Rethink your display strategically. The kiosk should look crisp, clean and elegant. Items should be placed in a way to maximize their sales potential. It's not a show booth. She fought me on this, and I flat out told her that this was insane.
NO MORE TEARS
We went back and forth on this throughout our hour drive, and by the time we arrived at her house, she was near tears. I couldn't believe that she couldn't digest even the simplest or most reasonable solutions. I became a bit rough on her, but I had to kept shit real. Welcome to the wide world of sports, the going into business edition. Your contract owner doesn't want to fucking hear it. And her simple ass was in the military (I did NOT say this verbally, but just so you know where my head was)? The fuck! Buck up and get your hustle on, I told her. Desperation has a distinct smell, and once the customer and your competition gets a whiff, you're fucked. I advised her to go the the mall's management office and inquire about cross-promotion opportunities, as well as look into other opportunities and events in the surrounding community in order to gain exposure. ADVERTISE. Eat some goddamn Top Ramen and spend whatever you have. Even the smallest businesses rarely succeed without some sort sort of advertising budget or plan. And if you're broke, then BARTER. Get creative! USE THE INTERNET AS A TOOL. We had the blog, so let's push it to the next level. No, success won't happen overnight, but it was a start. I thought she had agreed as to what my role was, which was to advise her in these types of situations. At this time, I felt more like her business partner as opposed to just being "creative director". I basically told her to start pulling ideas out of her ass, if she had to. This was about survival. But deep down I knew that if she had not already thought of at least one of these things, my efforts would prove to be futile. I softened a bit once we pulled into her driveway. Once I realized how upset she was, I took her hand, and told her that I would ride or die with this business. I believed in her talents and I knew that this could work somehow. She still had me at her disposal, and I would still work for nothing because I thought it would payoff and we would be successful - if we played it smart. But something had changed that night. I read her eyes. This was the beginning of the end.
Next: NOW HOW DID WE GET HERE?
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