Post by greatsavebygerber on May 27, 2007 19:08:04 GMT -5
Hi! Since it seems I've nearly dropped off the face of the planet lately (the Internet? What is that?? ), I knew I needed to take some time to update some of my all-time favorite people on our recent goings-on.
First: On Jan. 30, 2006, David was laid off from his job as the Director of Corporate Communications. In some piece of weird reasoning, the brand-new CEO of Farmers Insurance Group thought he'd impress his stockholders by pulling off what he apparently considered a brilliant cost-cutting move: taking an axe to the entire Corporate Communications department , thus getting rid of everyone in it for no real reason whatsoever. That means that the magazine David published, Friendly Exchange, was laid to rest in late '05, shortly before he himself got his pink slip ... after a stay of more than 15 years. (If you think he was treated badly, consider this: One of his best friends in the department, a 63-year-old manager who'd spent 28 years at Farmers and was about to retire in two years, was given her pink slip, as well as a reduced pension plan. What a considerate human being, that CEO! Grrr .... )
Anyway, that closed door moved us toward one that was wide open: our opening our own businessA few months after David's layoff, he and I made a handshake agreement to start the second Vin de Pays wine shop (www.vindepayswines.com), with our store site in northeastern Orange County, Calif. (FYI, the address is 5103 Richfield Road, Yorba Linda, CA 92886.) After taking the first steps of our venture -- finding a suitable site within our budget, within north Orange County, obtaining our conditional-use permit from the Yorba Linda Planning Commission, and weathering 10 months of waiting (yes!) for a permanent liquor license from the state's Alcoholic Beverage Control department -- we FINALLY opened our doors on April 2, 2007. Business has grown nicely in the store's eight weeks of existence; our May receipts (with three more business days left in the month) have already tripled those of the entire month of April.
Speaking of the store: Things have been beyond wild for us lately! Since last Sunday, I've packed in what's felt like about five years of high-energy, intense living ... and, by default, that means I've had about zero minutes to write non-business-related items, or to do non-business-related things.
Late Monday afternoon, David and I hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony for our store, sponsored by the Yorba Linda Chamber of Commerce. So you can get a good idea of what this event is all about, check it out at www.yorbalindachamber.org/index.php?pr=Ribbon_Cuttings. (Copy and paste that link if it's not working for you.) Anyway, it was a fabulous shindig, what with about 40 Chamber members, City Hall folks, and a state Congress member in attendance! During the three-hour event, David and I chatted up our store; I talked with a ton of guests about our wines, while he poured four of 'em. We weren't in need of dinner, as the fare provided by a local catering firm (teriyaki beef and chicken skewers, grape tomato/caprese/basil skewers, black bean/goat cheese empanadas, and a delicious veggie platter) more than took care of our hunger. Suffice to say, we ran on so much adrenaline that we crashed ASAP into our beds 10 seconds after we came home!
Then came Thursday ... the Spring '07 super-tasting at the Costa Mesa Hilton, sponsored by Wine Warehouse, our largest wine supplier (www.winewarehouse.com/). Since we needed to pack our bags so we could stay overnight there -- a solid idea, considering we'd sample (wink, wink) at least 25 wines nonstop for four hours -- we had the shop closed all that day. To say that the event's vibe was wild is an understatement: By 5 p.m., at least 1,000 folks crammed themselves into the Hilton's normally huge ballroom, making the room itself almost as hot as a night in a tropical rainforest (can you say body heat?). Throw "adult beverages" into the mix, and you've basically got New Year's Eve on steroids!
(The excitement didn't help my stomach any. If you'd like to know how I felt later, ask.)
Finally, we had our first official wine-tasting event yesterday: "Eight Wines Under Eight Dollars," from 2 until about 7:15 p.m.. To say that it went well ... let's say it this way: We pulled in more than $1,000 that day alone; there's no doubt that the wine samples exposed our customers to snap up previously unfamiliar stuff -- an Argentinean Malbec, an Italian Chianti, and a Portuguese Duoro, among others -- that they'd previously overlooked.
Yes, all of the mental, emotional, physical, and financial sweat we'd invested since last April in the store has been completely worth it. Once we've begun to reach the point where we're starting to make a profit, I'll begin pulling a salary.
I'm about to take a nap. I'm bushed!
(And, yes, it's lovely that the Ducks and the Sens are about to meet in the Finals. Too bad that neither David nor I are planning to make it to either game at Honda Ponda; that wouldn't have been the case if individual top-row seats in Nosebleedville didn't have a $195 minimum price tag. Cheers to the success of both clubs.)
And, yes, I'll repeat myself (sorry!): Last October, I completed the 26.2-mile course of the Long Beach Marathon last October. I'm still running three days a week and working out another three, even though I don't have as much "down time" these days because we're working full time at the store. The half-marathon event of this year's LB Marathon looks like a definite -- scaling back some things this year is a given, naturally -- but that obviously doesn't mean I'm going into couch-potato mode! On the contrary: Since I'm turning 46 this September, I need to stay in shape more then ever ... menopause is coming up quick.
Take care,
Jan
P. S. Here's how our store is looking these days! This is our storefront ...
... what customers see the second they step into the store ...
... as well as another "first impression."
Lastly, here's a view from the middle of the shop itself. Even though we have only 1,000 square feet of retail space, we're planning to get many more wines in stock!
First: On Jan. 30, 2006, David was laid off from his job as the Director of Corporate Communications. In some piece of weird reasoning, the brand-new CEO of Farmers Insurance Group thought he'd impress his stockholders by pulling off what he apparently considered a brilliant cost-cutting move: taking an axe to the entire Corporate Communications department , thus getting rid of everyone in it for no real reason whatsoever. That means that the magazine David published, Friendly Exchange, was laid to rest in late '05, shortly before he himself got his pink slip ... after a stay of more than 15 years. (If you think he was treated badly, consider this: One of his best friends in the department, a 63-year-old manager who'd spent 28 years at Farmers and was about to retire in two years, was given her pink slip, as well as a reduced pension plan. What a considerate human being, that CEO! Grrr .... )
Anyway, that closed door moved us toward one that was wide open: our opening our own businessA few months after David's layoff, he and I made a handshake agreement to start the second Vin de Pays wine shop (www.vindepayswines.com), with our store site in northeastern Orange County, Calif. (FYI, the address is 5103 Richfield Road, Yorba Linda, CA 92886.) After taking the first steps of our venture -- finding a suitable site within our budget, within north Orange County, obtaining our conditional-use permit from the Yorba Linda Planning Commission, and weathering 10 months of waiting (yes!) for a permanent liquor license from the state's Alcoholic Beverage Control department -- we FINALLY opened our doors on April 2, 2007. Business has grown nicely in the store's eight weeks of existence; our May receipts (with three more business days left in the month) have already tripled those of the entire month of April.
Speaking of the store: Things have been beyond wild for us lately! Since last Sunday, I've packed in what's felt like about five years of high-energy, intense living ... and, by default, that means I've had about zero minutes to write non-business-related items, or to do non-business-related things.
Late Monday afternoon, David and I hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony for our store, sponsored by the Yorba Linda Chamber of Commerce. So you can get a good idea of what this event is all about, check it out at www.yorbalindachamber.org/index.php?pr=Ribbon_Cuttings. (Copy and paste that link if it's not working for you.) Anyway, it was a fabulous shindig, what with about 40 Chamber members, City Hall folks, and a state Congress member in attendance! During the three-hour event, David and I chatted up our store; I talked with a ton of guests about our wines, while he poured four of 'em. We weren't in need of dinner, as the fare provided by a local catering firm (teriyaki beef and chicken skewers, grape tomato/caprese/basil skewers, black bean/goat cheese empanadas, and a delicious veggie platter) more than took care of our hunger. Suffice to say, we ran on so much adrenaline that we crashed ASAP into our beds 10 seconds after we came home!
Then came Thursday ... the Spring '07 super-tasting at the Costa Mesa Hilton, sponsored by Wine Warehouse, our largest wine supplier (www.winewarehouse.com/). Since we needed to pack our bags so we could stay overnight there -- a solid idea, considering we'd sample (wink, wink) at least 25 wines nonstop for four hours -- we had the shop closed all that day. To say that the event's vibe was wild is an understatement: By 5 p.m., at least 1,000 folks crammed themselves into the Hilton's normally huge ballroom, making the room itself almost as hot as a night in a tropical rainforest (can you say body heat?). Throw "adult beverages" into the mix, and you've basically got New Year's Eve on steroids!
(The excitement didn't help my stomach any. If you'd like to know how I felt later, ask.)
Finally, we had our first official wine-tasting event yesterday: "Eight Wines Under Eight Dollars," from 2 until about 7:15 p.m.. To say that it went well ... let's say it this way: We pulled in more than $1,000 that day alone; there's no doubt that the wine samples exposed our customers to snap up previously unfamiliar stuff -- an Argentinean Malbec, an Italian Chianti, and a Portuguese Duoro, among others -- that they'd previously overlooked.
Yes, all of the mental, emotional, physical, and financial sweat we'd invested since last April in the store has been completely worth it. Once we've begun to reach the point where we're starting to make a profit, I'll begin pulling a salary.
I'm about to take a nap. I'm bushed!
(And, yes, it's lovely that the Ducks and the Sens are about to meet in the Finals. Too bad that neither David nor I are planning to make it to either game at Honda Ponda; that wouldn't have been the case if individual top-row seats in Nosebleedville didn't have a $195 minimum price tag. Cheers to the success of both clubs.)
And, yes, I'll repeat myself (sorry!): Last October, I completed the 26.2-mile course of the Long Beach Marathon last October. I'm still running three days a week and working out another three, even though I don't have as much "down time" these days because we're working full time at the store. The half-marathon event of this year's LB Marathon looks like a definite -- scaling back some things this year is a given, naturally -- but that obviously doesn't mean I'm going into couch-potato mode! On the contrary: Since I'm turning 46 this September, I need to stay in shape more then ever ... menopause is coming up quick.
Take care,
Jan
P. S. Here's how our store is looking these days! This is our storefront ...
... what customers see the second they step into the store ...
... as well as another "first impression."
Lastly, here's a view from the middle of the shop itself. Even though we have only 1,000 square feet of retail space, we're planning to get many more wines in stock!
:rallyrag: Jan, that sounds terrific. Glad to hear it is going better than you hoped at your lovely business. I love great wine and if I ever swing a trip to the Ponda, would love to swing by your store. It looks great from the pics. And such a shame you won't get the chance to cheer Teemu and the boys onto their First Cup win, but I know you will be there in spirit and so I will just need to cheer them on loud enough for us both. Too bad, I'm here in Indiana and not at the Ponda but I will still be cheering loudly. Good Luck,Jan, sounds like you are well on your way!!!!!
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