Update: 10/14/05: Our First Customer-Kind Of

Here is my latest entry to bring things up to date.

This past Wednesday (10/12/05), I baby sat for my youngest sister (Chrissy) and her husband (Joe). Appearently, Joe had tire problems on his souped up 2004 Mustang, and had to take it to get fixed or replaced. So when Joe came back to pick up the kids, he treated me out for some Mexican at this really nice restaurant her in Elgin (IL) called Azteca de Oro. He didn't have to do that, but it was nice all the same. He told me that he was looking to sell an upgrade body kit for his car. Appearently, the paint job didn't meet his expectations, and he had to get a new one. So now he has this extra kit, and he wants to sell it. As we had been working together on some other sites (giving my impressions), he said that he would like to sell it through my site, but mostly on Ebay. He said that all he wanted was a couple hundred dollars for it (retails new for almost $900), and I could keep the rest. I told him that what I would do is put it on my site for free, and list it on Ebay for whatever they charge. I would sell it for him on consignment, and charge him a flat % if and when it was sold.

And so the problem: I hadn't even created all of the necessary forms and applications that I need. This was my inputis. I have been working diligently the last four nites for this business, getting only about 16 hours of sleep, TOTAL!! Well, there will be plenty of time to sleep when I cross over, but for now, I need to get things pushed into high gear. I created the Advertising & Listing Application. I thought this would be fairly strait forward, and for the most part, it was. The problem I had was in creating the form entries. I had limited experience in the past with creating forms in MS Word...and that has been a long time. Additionally, I really never learned much other than how to place fields in their location. As I tend to be a perfectionist, I wanted the whole thing to be perfect before I sent it out: however, I realized that being that he is a realitive of mine, he probably wouldn't be to critical of my "1st draft". So I finished typing it out this afternoon, and sent it to him. Later this afternoon, I went back to continue refining the form, when I noticed that I had locked it, and he won't even be able to edit online (of course he could always print it out, fill it in and then fax it to me); but I want to make it as easy as posible for my customers (even family members).

It is now almost 1900, and I will finish making this entry, and then I have to create the Consignment Agreement. I have been doing my Due Dilligence with respect to Joe's car kit: researching the MSRP, as well as what other venders are selling it for. Additoinally, I will monitor ebay and other sites to see what this type of item is selling for, so I know how we should price it. I may actually do that first, prior to creating the Consignment Agreement.

Well, not much more to say at this time. Will write again when I have something to add.