Business Update

I decided with the recent layoff news, to really start focusing on my business and getting my footing with anything left I needed, business-wise, before June, when I don't really know what will happen once I am out of work.

 

I'm not sure if I can make a go of my business full time and have it bringing in substantial income by the time my employment ends, but I am definitely going to try my best and see what happens. I am excited for the future, and if the door that opens is achieving my dream and being able to work from home, doing what I love, then all the better. If not, then I will find employment elsewhere, but I am very excited on where my business can be and is headed in 2014.

So, I made some business purchases I have been putting off the past few months, including many more supplies, a new printer, a new advertising campaign and I recently redesigned my business cards due to an exciting opportunity that has come up!

I am scheduled to have my business cards handed out in the swag bags at the MTV Movie Awards in April. I am so excited over this, and while I couldn't send actual products due to the cost of my materials (14kt gold fill and sterling silver definitely isn't cheap!), I am able to send my newly designed business card to be included.

After signing up for this, I redesigned my business card yesterday to actually show my products and here is what I've come up with:

What do you think of the new design?

 

Uncertainty

It happened, I have been given my layoff notice at work.

I knew when I was promoted back in June that because of my new role, I would only be laid off if the entire building closed and well, that has happened.

Our entire operation is being closed. Almost 1400 people put of work from my city, as well as Montreal and Toronto. I feel for all my coworkers and their families, but for me, personally, I am taking this as a positive change.

I have learned a lot in my time there and have met many amazing people. I am optimistic and excited about what the future holds for me! I am going to remain employed until June, unless things change, and that gives me plenty of time to get things in order and move onto the next chapter of my life.

The only thing that bothers me is how my company is handling this "transition" as they call it. Our jobs are done and this location is closing but where are the jobs going? The Philippines and Bulgaria. We are only being kept on long enough to help them take over our tasks and train them. And some people weren't so lucky, they were walked out immediately after the announcement yesterday!

But, I will take what I have learned from there, my knowledge and experiences, and carry it onwards. The next few months will be challenging and it is a very hostile environment at work right now, but personally, I am just going to continue doing my job the best I can and think about the future in a few months. I have to look at this as a good thing, and you know what they say, when one door closes another one opens!

(By the way, you can probably guess from this post just who the company is that I work for, but I am not going to name any name's here.)

   

 

Life Lately

 

Life has been pretty hectic around these parts the last few days and I thought I would just take this opportunity to post a little life update.

 

First off, can we talk about the freezing cold weather in these parts in the last week? Winter is definitely coming sooner then I had hoped, and they are actually calling for snow flurries tomorrow.. eek. I want to move South the second I hear that, every single year!

As I mentioned in my last post, my poor cat, Crawaly, has been sick lately and not eating. Her blood work came back completely fine which is awesome, but confusing, because she still refuses to eat most times. She did eat tonight, so I am hoping that the medication the vet gave us for inflammation is working, but I'm still worried about my girl because she has lost quite a bit of weight and it's so frustrating when she won't eat.

 

At least her love of pens has made giving her medication easy peasy! I thought it was going to be quite the fight to get her to take a syringe full of medication, but it must not taste too bad because as soon as it gets close to her she tries to bite it, and once it's there it's done. I've had much experience giving medication to cats, and it has never been this easy! She is definitely a good patient.

As well, I found out about changes at work - good changes. I have been working on a department that I have no previous knowledge in, and while I love my job, I have been feeling a bit like a fish out of water some days. With this change, I will be working on departments that I have knowledge in so I'm happy. My days at work will, likely, go even smoother then normal.

We've also corrected our squirrel problem. If you missed my last mention of it, we had some squirrels inhabiting the roof of our front porch, which we discovered pretty quickly after moving in. My husband opened up that end of the porch and we realized just how much damaged had been done. Poor hubby had to completely rebuild the end of the porch after jacking it up but it looks a million times better and no squirrels can get in there now for the winter! Another thing crossed off my October goals list.

 

And.. I am starting to plan our Christmas gifts this year. I have made a point every year to start early and for some reason we are always still running around the week before Christmas trying to find a gift for someone. This year, it will be done by the end of November - I hope.

   

 

Work Promotion, Poop and a Photoshoot

Never thought that title would come about, haha!

As much time and heart that I put into Starletta Designs, it is unfortunately not my main source of income at the moment. I have been working at a major Canadian retailer for a year and a half now as a customer service representative.

I mainly handle email support, but I also deal with telephone support, order processing, help desk and business to business accounts. I have learned a lot here, and it has definitely helped me with my own business goals and ideas, as well. I have met some amazing people and my job is generally a fun place to work.. however, I always felt like I wasn't challenged. Like, it was too easy, sometimes boring.

That has now changed, as I can officially announce that I have been promoted to Knowledge Base Specialist!

This position allows me to work full time hours again, Monday to Friday, 9 to 5 but it is definitely more challenging! Oh, and a pay raise.. which I haven't had in years!

I started this position on Monday, and its been great so far! I miss the people I used to work with, as I had quite a few close people there, but the new group seems fantastic so far, too, and I look forward to getting to know them! This position is 8 1/2 hour shifts, which I am working on getting used to again.. My hours were cut back in February when I started doing 5 hour shifts. So, it's a bit of a change and my body just needs to readjust!

In other news, Barry and I went for our post-wedding photo shoot that I finally talked him into doing! Our wedding photos were truly amazing, but due to the weather we really didn't get as many outdoor opportunities as I would have liked! We had a wonderful time and have beautiful weather, which we were lucky as its been raining every other day this week.

But, when we went to leave the beach we were at we noticed something on our vehicles.. Let me start from the beginning... While we were walking out onto the beach we passed 3 guys in their mid 20s who were obviously drunk (and they had a young child with them, I would say he was about 6 or 7) on the boardwalk. As we passed, they were polite and said congratulations and how beautiful we looked. We continued on and shot photos on the beach for about 30 mins.

The beach was secluded, there was no one else there.

So, like I said, we walked back out and noticed something on our vehicles. These guys had trashed our vehicles! We were just in shock and couldn't believe someone would do something like this! Upon inspection our vehicle had sand thrown all over the windshield and poop (yes, I said poop) down the side. We were upset until we saw our photographer's vehicle - they had climbed on her hood and pooped on her windshield, "nicely" framed it with sticks, and peed on her drivers door handle! Honestly, the only thought I can muster up is, wtf? How can someone be so immature and idiotic? If it was actually our wedding night, I would think it was a bad omen.. But at least they did not do any actual damage to the vehicles!

Here are the 2 teasers our photographer has posted on Facebook so far:
by Erin Campbell Photography